Overview

Fashion Writing and Criticism provides students with the tools to critique fashion with skill and style. Explaining the history and theory of criticism, this innovative text demonstrates how the tradition of criticism has developed and how this knowledge can be applied to fashion, enabling students to acquire the methods and proper vocabulary to be active critics themselves. Integrating history and theory, this innovative book explains the development of fashion writing, the theoretical basis on which it sits, and how it might be improved and applied. Through concise snapshot case studies, top international scholars McNeil and Miller analyse fashion excerpts in relation to philosophical ideas and situate them within historical contexts. Case studies include classic examples of fashion writing, such as Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar and Richard Martin on Karl Lagerfeld, as well as contemporary examples such as Suzy Menkes and the blogger Tavi. Accessibly written, Fashion Writing and Criticism enables readers to understand, assess and make value judgments about the fascinating and changeable field of fashion. It is an invaluable text for students and researchers alike, studying fashion, journalism, history and media studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Peter McNeil (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia) ,  Dr Sanda Miller (Southampton Solent University, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.245kg
ISBN:  

9780857854476

ISBN 10:   085785447
Pages:   168
Publication Date:   23 October 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of illustrations Part 1 What is Criticism? Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Aristotle and the origins of criticism Chapter 3 Talking in private: the Academies and the Salons Chapter 4 Understanding Taste: The Critic as Qualified Observer Chapter 5 Charles Baudelaire: the Beginning of Fashion Criticism; The Art Critic of the Salons Chapter 6 Oscar Wilde and the apostles of aestheticism Part 2 Reporting Fashion: Overview Snapshots Fashion and morality: Leo Tolstoy’s What is Art? Paul Poiret: ‘sultan of fashion’ – from tradition to innovation Diana Vreeland: ‘Why Don’t you?’ – the invention of the fashion editor Christian Dior: the ‘New Look’ and reporting by Carmel Snow Yves Saint Laurent – a 1970s analysis of ‘The couturier and his brand’ What is fashion irony? Mild sarcasm or feigning ignorance? Reporting on the Japanese revolution in Paris Richard Martin as essayist: Karl Lagerfeld reworks Chanel Being critical about ‘deconstruction’: theoretical approach or ‘le destroy’? What is a reviewer? – and how can we recognise one? What gives Suzy Menkes the status of professional critic? ACNE Paper: the beauty of print, the splendour of the page How to be a ‘critical’ blogger: Moving beyond the PR Release Conclusion: where do we go from here? Bibliography Index

Reviews

What a boost for the discipline! -- Dr Richard Read, Winthrop Professor in Art History, University of Western Australia This original volume is both timely and valuable. It provides essential background and introduction to fashion writing and criticism past and present while providing sound intellectual direction for its future. -- Hazel Clark, Parsons The New School for Design, USA Fashion Writing and Criticism provides an introduction to two crucial words - critic and fashion - that are part and parcel of the way we write and think about dress. The authors have explored these keywords with an admirable degree of clarity and in such a way as to be of benefit to fashion scholars and students alike. -- Michael Carter, University of Sydney The chronology and the evaluative discussions on the development of criticism and the snapshots on twentieth-century fashion reporting are valuable to the ways in which authors think about existing and future writing on fashion, particularly from a critical rather than purely descriptive perspective. Costume

This original volume is both timely and valuable in linking the history and theory of fashion writing with criticism. With its diachronic perspective, beginning with Aristotle, and its synchronic approach that considers fashion's place in the broad spectrum of criticism, it provides essential background and introduction to fashion writing and criticism past and present while providing sound intellectual direction for its future. -- Hazel Clark, Parsons the New School for Design, New York, USA What a boost for the discipline! -- Dr Richard Read, Winthrop Professor in Art History, University of Western Australia The overriding strength of Fashion Writing and Criticism is the way in which it provides the reader with an introduction to two crucial words - critic and fashion - that are part and parcel of the writing and thinking about dress and fashion. They have done this with an admirable degree of clarity and in such a way that will prove to be of benefit to fashion scholars in general. -- Michael Carter, The University of Sydney, Australia

Author Information

Peter McNeil is Professor of Design History at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Sanda Miller is Senior Research Fellow at Southamtpon Solent University, UK, and Associate Lecturer at Istituto Marangoni, London, UK.

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