Overview

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. We think we know the trench coat, but where does it come from and where will it take us? From its origins in the trenches of WW1, this military outerwear came to project the inner-being of detectives, writers, reporters, rebels, artists and intellectuals. The coat outfitted imaginative leaps into the unknown. Trench Coat tells the story of seductive entanglements with technology, time, law, politics, trust and trespass. Readers follow the rise of a sartorial archetype through media, design, literature, cinema and fashion. Today, as a staple in stories of future life-worlds, the trench coat warns of disturbances to come. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

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9781501375163

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Reviews

Trench Coat maps the extraordinary lives of this seemingly simple garment, which emerged from early industrialized warfare to become the screen for a multitude of projected dreams, fears and desires across the 20th century to the present. Jane Tynan's material and cultural history charts the evolution of a coat that is practical yet cryptic, hyper-visible but concealing, possessed of vitality whilst also a form of camouflage. * Rachel Woodward, Professor of Human Geography, Newcastle University, UK *

Trench Coat maps the extraordinary lives of this seemingly simple garment, which emerged from early industrialized warfare to become the screen for a multitude of projected dreams, fears and desires across the 20th century to the present. Jane Tynan's material and cultural history charts the evolution of a coat that is practical yet cryptic, hyper-visible but concealing, possessed of vitality whilst also a form of camouflage. * Rachel Woodward, Professor of Human Geography, Newcastle University, UK * Jane Tynan's Trench Coat is a delight - richly informative and written in prose as stylish as the object it describes. Uncovering the 'dark and dangerous energy' behind this icon of modernity, Tynan vividly captures the trench coat's perennial appeal. * Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture, Lancaster University, UK, and author of Fashioning Gothic Bodies *

Author Information

Jane Tynan is Assistant Professor of Design History and Theory, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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