Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today - ¡Moda Hoy!


Book Description

Accompanying a major exhibition at The Museum at FIT, Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today: ¡Moda Hoy! examines Latin American and Latinx fashion design from the past 20 years, asking “What is Latin American fashion design in the 21st century”? The book seeks to explore the sociohistorical influences and cultural dynamics that have propelled the development of the unique sartorial bricolage that is Latin American and Latinx fashion. Through a series of themes and topics favored by contemporary designers – including Indigenous heritage, art, sustainable design, politics, gender, elegance, and popular culture – it highlights established designers with a strong international presence, such as Isabel Toledo, Carolina Herrera, Rick Owens, Oscar de la Renta, Carla Fernández, and Gabriela Hearst. Accompanied by regional brands and emerging talents, and case studies that take an in-depth look into specific designers, and beautifully illustrated in full color throughout, Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today is essential reading for fashion enthusiasts who have an overlapping interest in Latin American studies, and all who appreciate the history and visual culture of fashion and Latin America.




Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today - ¡Moda Hoy!


Book Description

Accompanying a major exhibition at The Museum at FIT, Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today: ¡Moda Hoy! examines Latin American and Latinx fashion design from the past 20 years, asking “What is Latin American fashion design in the 21st century”? The book seeks to explore the sociohistorical influences and cultural dynamics that have propelled the development of the unique sartorial bricolage that is Latin American and Latinx fashion. Through a series of themes and topics favored by contemporary designers – including Indigenous heritage, art, sustainable design, politics, gender, elegance, and popular culture – it highlights established designers with a strong international presence, such as Isabel Toledo, Carolina Herrera, Rick Owens, Oscar de la Renta, Carla Fernández, and Gabriela Hearst. Accompanied by regional brands and emerging talents, and case studies that take an in-depth look into specific designers, and beautifully illustrated in full color throughout, Latin American and Latinx Fashion Design Today is essential reading for fashion enthusiasts who have an overlapping interest in Latin American studies, and all who appreciate the history and visual culture of fashion and Latin America.




Fashion in American Life


Book Description

An original contribution to fashion studies, Fashion in American Life challenges existing approaches to fashion in America by considering who 'makes' fashion-when, where, and how. Avoiding the usual emphasis on the 'history of fashion' which perpetuates the myth of fashion designers, and New York, as the originators of American fashion, this exploration of the everyday allows us to see American fashion as a form of agency, self-identification, creative engagement, and politics. Moving away from the well-trodden accounts of fashion designers and the dominance of New York, much of the fashion uncovered has been under-represented in previous accounts. Through contemporary and historical research, authors challenge the nature of both 'fashion' and 'America' by addressing the many complexities of a nation whose people have diverse histories and cultures, including stories and experiences that have been forgotten, marginalized and left out of the fashion 'canon'. Race, gender, ethnicity, and class are employed as critical lenses to shed new light on how fashion might be defined and addressed within America (as a country, but not as a series of United States), with case studies looking at First Nations, Latinx and African American dress. The intellectual framing of the volume, and the methods and case studies included, also present tactics that can be applied to other contexts, making this book about revisiting 'fashion' more widely, not just in America. Fashion in American Life makes a unique contribution to the literature of fashion studies, fashion history, cultural studies, and beyond.




Reinvention and Restlessness


Book Description

Nineties fashion--from grunge, to Clueless's Alaïa, to Margiela's new couture--is an essential reference point for contemporary style. This book, created in tandem with an exhibition at The Museum at FIT, documents the changing culture, attitudes, and creatives that ushered in our visual age. Minimalism. Deconstruction. The rejuvenation of established houses. These are just a few of the concepts that have come to define 1990s fashion. Others include an increased concern with environmentalism, developing technologies and the beginning of the fashion internet, freewheeling historical references, and a predilection for lifting significant styles from other cultures (the issues raised by this 'borrowing' are reviewed through a contemporary lens). In the twenty years since the decade ended, the fashion world has experienced several nineties revivals. Reinvention and Restlessness: Fashion in the 90s focuses specifically on designers who challenged the expected appearance or workings of high fashion, and who played an important role in laying the foundation for fashion of the twenty-first century, including: Tom Ford, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Martin Margiela, Stella McCartney, Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, and Viktor & Rolf. Additional chapters address changes to fashion editorials and campaigns (under talents like Steven Meisel, Corinne Day, Inez & Vinoodh, Mark Borthwick, and Nan Goldin), a new theatricality to runway presentations, and the emergence of fashion theory as a field.




Yves Saint Laurent + Halston


Book Description

A dazzling examination of the two designers behind the most iconic and glamorous fashions of the 1970s This fascinating publication is the first to examine side by side the careers and work of two of the biggest names in 20th-century fashion, Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) and Halston (1932-1990). Their designs--chic, sexy, and glamorous--came to exemplify the 1970s, a singular and dynamic era in fashion history. Inspired by menswear, foreign cultures, and wide-ranging historical periods, and employing new fabrics, YSL and Halston together crafted a new and distinctly modern way of dressing. Moreover, although their output differed and they were based on different continents, the two designers shared many career parallels. A visual timeline of the designers' lives illustrates how their rises and falls, from the 1950s to their respective struggles in the 1980s, were surprisingly in sync. Engaging passages by Patricia Mears and Emma McClendon discuss the social, cultural, and economic factors that influenced both designers, and their subsequent impact on fashion--including the rise of the star designer as personality, the cult of celebrity, and the creation of the fashion conglomerate. The authors also address the importance of color, cutting-edge materials, innovative construction techniques, accessories, and perfume to both designers' aesthetics. Remarkable photographs of the designers and their garments round out this essential volume on two figures who made an indelible mark on fashion history. Published in association with the Fashion Institute of Technology Exhibition Schedule: The Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (02/05/15-04/18/15)




Fetish Style


Book Description

Fetish Style traces the history, forms and tendencies of sub-cultural fashions that are popular in both mainstream and alternative fashion cultures. Presenting the world of subcultural fetish clothing design in all of its richness and beauty, this book explores the idea of fetish as subversive and repressive as reflected in clothing choices in people of all ages and cultures. Linking the fetishistic aspects of contemporary culture with everyday clothing as dictated by fashion and merchandizing, Fetish Style presents a fascinating study of historical as well as 21st century subcultures. Case studies include the Japanese-influenced 'tribes' of the various Lolita formations, the Shotaru (male Lolita), the club scene, the Goths, the hip-hop fashions and other locally-formed fetishized practices. Fetish Style will be key reading for anyone interested in fetish fashion both past and present.




Dance & Fashion


Book Description

Dress and adornment have long played an important role in the visual allure of dance, and fashion designers have often been inspired by the way dancers look. This book features essays by 10 fashion experts who explore various aspects of the reciprocal relationship between dance and fashion, from the liberating effects of the tango to the influence of ballet on Japanese girl culture.




meXicana Fashions


Book Description

Collecting the perspectives of scholars who reflect on their own relationships to particular garments, analyze the politics of dress, and examine the role of consumerism and entrepreneurialism in the production of creating and selling a style, meXicana Fashions examines and searches for meaning in these visible, performative aspects of identity. Focusing primarily on Chicanas but also considering trends connected to other Latin American communities, the authors highlight specific constituencies that are defined by region (“Tejana style,” “L.A. style”), age group (“homie,” “chola”), and social class (marked by haute couture labels such as Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta). The essays acknowledge the complex layers of these styles, which are not mutually exclusive but instead reflect a range of intersections in occupation, origin, personality, sexuality, and fads. Other elements include urban indigenous fashion shows, the shifting quinceañera market, “walking altars” on the Days of the Dead, plus-size clothing, huipiles in the workplace, and dressing in drag. Together, these chapters illuminate the full array of messages woven into a vibrant social fabric.




Gothic


Book Description

"Popularly associated with black-clad teenagers and rock musicians, gothic fashion encompasses not only subcultural styles (from old-school goth to cyber-goth and beyond) but also high fashion by such designers as Alexander McQueen, John Galliano of Christian Dior, Rick Owens, Olivier Theyskens, and Yohji Yamamoto. Fashion photographers, such as Scan Ellis and Eugenio Recuenco, have also drawn on the visual vocabulary of the gothic to convey narratives of dark glamour. As the text and lavish illustrations in this book suggest, gothic fashion has deep cultural roots that give it an enduring potency." "Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)." -- BOOK JACKET.




Power Mode


Book Description

The power of mode and the role of fashion from the 18th century to the present. Power is part identity, part behavior, and part physicality. The way we outfit ourselves can play an outsized role in conveying power to others - whether it be the pink "pussy hats" at the 2017 Women's March or the Cleveland Cavaliers' coordinated Thom Browne suits during the 2018 NBA playoffs. However, power is not easily defined. It is political position and economic status, but it is also military strength, sexual authority, rebellion, and protest. Each form of power finds sartorial expression in a variety of ways, from gray flannel suits to latex fetish wear, and from gilded brocades to distressed jeans. Power Mode will explore the role fashion plays in establishing, reinforcing, and challenging power dynamics within society. Published as a companion to The Museum at FIT exhibition of the same title, which will be on view from December 2019 to May 2020, the book will offer a more in-depth discussion of the themes and objects explored in the exhibition. It will be organized thematically into five chapters--military, suits, status, rebellion, and sex--written by exhibition curator Emma McClendon. Each chapter will include both men's and women's clothing from the 18th century to the present and will investigate how certain designs and garments have come to be culturally associated with power, as well as how their meanings have evolved over time. The book will also examine how fashion designers have interpreted these stylistic archetypes--both to convey and to subvert power. In addition to the main chapters written by McClendon, Power Mode will include object-based essays from renowned fashion scholars Valerie Steele, Christopher Breward, Jennifer Craik, and Peter McNeil, as well as Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Robin Givahn. Each short study will provide a close reading of a single garment. This collection of essays will offer readers a variety of perspectives and analytical techniques that will help form a theoretical and practical framework for considering the power dynamics inherent in fashion objects. The book will also include an essay on the intersection of race, fashion, and power by Parsons professor Kimberly Jenkins.