In this week's blog, we get excited for the publication of the latest volume of Costume: The Journal of the Costume Society, by exploring some of the articles included in the Autumn edition. Society members will be receiving their physical copies, while access to all editions past and present are available for members to access digitally as usual.
Fashion and Satirical Prints in 1799: James Gillray and Elegance Democratique, by Ingrid Mida
James Gillray was an influential and popular British artist known for his satirical prints that mocked prominent figures of London society in the latter part of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Like other leading caricaturists of the time, Gillray used both visual and textual clues to parody the people, politics, and fashions of the period. Gillray’s 1799 satirical print Elegance Democratique is notable for the caption that cites Lord Chesterfield’s letters describing the relationship between a man’s mind, manners, and dress. The subtle visual clues related to dress in this print not only reveal Gillray’s knowledge of fashionable dress but also serve to confirm societal attitudes that linked masculinity to nationhood.
Ambiguity as a sign of Degeneration?: Japanese kimonos in art, fashion and criticism of fin de siècle Britain, By ARISA YAMAGUCHI
Several important studies of Japonisme in fashion have considered the design and cultural influence of Japanese kimonos on the art and fashionable world. However, there is much more to discuss when it comes to how the kimono trend as a phenomenon actually correlated with the beliefs, thoughts and spirit of the time. Using Max Nordau’s Degeneration as a critical starting point, this article intends to explore what the adoption and the representation of kimonos could mean concerning the Victorian idea of progress and degeneration of human bodies by analysing the radical use of kimonos in the artworks by a Decadent artist, Aubrey Beardsley and the adoption of kimono-related gowns among mainstream fashion. While the artistic representations of Japanese kimonos cover up the wearers’ bodies to stress ambiguity, ‘kimonos’ that were widely accepted by upper and upper-middle-class women were greatly modified to recreate the hourglass silhouette that most Victorians were accustomed to seeing. This article shows the power of kimonos to allow Victorian bodies to escape, transform and hide from the conventional norms of the period, which proposes an entirely new direction of studies of Japonisme in fashion.
Candombe’s Costume as a Key Element to Discover Uruguayan History, by María Eugenia Vidal.
Performances that become rituals, which are preserved through decades, even centuries, are formed by history. Every aspect that composes them speaks about the community represented, the intended audience and the surroundings. Costume is the most visible element a performer has to spread a message in the most democratic way possible. The capital city of a small South American country - Montevideo, Uruguay - presents an interesting carnival celebration first performed by enslaved Afro-Uruguayans, called Candombe. This celebration became a popular event that now represents a significant part of the country’s culture. This article aims to understand the origins of the costume for this particular ritual and why the design is preserved today in contemporary celebrations. The topics discussed are colonialism, memory, tradition and multiculturalism. In addition, the concept of agency in regards to the costume is addressed with concrete examples.
Getting the Sack: The Controversial Late-1950s Fashion, by David E. Lazaro
This article analyses the 1950s sack dress within the context of American and English fashion. The garment, featuring an undefined waistline and a shorter, more constricted hemline, was by all accounts as popular (and controversial) as the changes in women’s fashion in the years after World War II. While the sack’s zenith can be clocked to the fall of 1957 and spring of 1958, this article contextualizes this moment against the trajectory of less figure-defining fashions throughout the 1950s. The uproar against the style has become legendary, centred around expectations of how a woman (and her figure) was supposed to appear in clothes, and the attendant discipline suggested by and required for that appearance. To term the style a failure, which later reminisces have repeatedly done, glosses over both the sack’s popularity at the time, as well as its legacy as a harbinger for more youth-centred fashions in the 1960s. Through an understanding of the precedents, timeline, manifestations and press reactions to the garment, including a material culture analysis, this article contextualizes the sack’s moment in dress history and its contribution to twentieth-century fashion.
Costume Society members recieve a physical copy of Costume at every publication, and also have digital access to past and present editions. Find out more about becoming a member here.
