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Books & Archaeology
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The Dress, A Cultural History From the Middle Ages to Today.
VIGARELLO Gorges.

The Dress, A Cultural History From the Middle Ages to Today.

Points
€14,90 €0,00
N° d'inventaire 25145
Format 13.5 x 19 cm
Détails 223 p., Publisher's hardcover.
Publication Paris, 2017
Etat Nine
ISBN 9782757892190
In this book, where a large space is given to iconography (paintings, engravings, photographs), Georges Vigarello strives to show how the evolution of dress is intimately linked to the social and cultural context of each era. Thus, from the Middle Ages to today, he traces this history made of ruptures and revolutions, to highlight how profiles and fashions suggest a cultural sensitivity, embrace a vision of the world, and embody the evolution of morals. Because the appearance of women often reflects what is expected of them, hence the challenge of a history of dresses. Divided into six major parts, the work first goes back to the 13th century with the first laced busts, then lingers in the 16th, but especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, during which the geometry of lines and silhouettes will only become more accentuated: the bust is corseted, the belt strangled and the lower body entirely drowned in folds. The woman is above all a "decorative" and this artifice is designed primarily for the pause, not for the activity. But the Enlightenment will criticize it, amplified by the French Revolution. The new "citizen" gains rights and freedom, and her clothing must reflect this. However, the first quarter of the 19th century, strives to restore for a time these past forms and dependencies: it is then the apogee of the crinoline, before it itself fades in favor of the sheath at the beginning of the 20th century, while the dress becomes more clinging, revealing more of the lower body. Then, the 20th century marked the slenderness: the line was redrawn and the break occurred across the entire silhouette. Shapes settled in, more undulating. The "garçonne" fashion of the 1930s decisively marked the affirmation of a mobile body. Similarly, through contemporary upheavals, an assumed freedom triumphed: the miniskirt, leggings, trousers, were all strong landmarks, from which the dress was revolutionized.

Georges Vigarello is a director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, a member of the University Institute of France, and a former President of the Scientific Council of the BnF. The titles of his works betray his concerns, the body with its norms and the practices intended to beautify it: History of Beauty, 2004; History of the Body, co-author, 2006; The Metamorphoses of Fat, 2010; The Silhouette, Birth of a Challenge, 2012; The Clean and the Dirty, 2013; History of Emotions, co-author, 2016.

In this book, where a large space is given to iconography (paintings, engravings, photographs), Georges Vigarello strives to show how the evolution of dress is intimately linked to the social and cultural context of each era. Thus, from the Middle Ages to today, he traces this history made of ruptures and revolutions, to highlight how profiles and fashions suggest a cultural sensitivity, embrace a vision of the world, and embody the evolution of morals. Because the appearance of women often reflects what is expected of them, hence the challenge of a history of dresses. Divided into six major parts, the work first goes back to the 13th century with the first laced busts, then lingers in the 16th, but especially in the 17th and 18th centuries, during which the geometry of lines and silhouettes will only become more accentuated: the bust is corseted, the belt strangled and the lower body entirely drowned in folds. The woman is above all a "decorative" and this artifice is designed primarily for the pause, not for the activity. But the Enlightenment will criticize it, amplified by the French Revolution. The new "citizen" gains rights and freedom, and her clothing must reflect this. However, the first quarter of the 19th century, strives to restore for a time these past forms and dependencies: it is then the apogee of the crinoline, before it itself fades in favor of the sheath at the beginning of the 20th century, while the dress becomes more clinging, revealing more of the lower body. Then, the 20th century marked the slenderness: the line was redrawn and the break occurred across the entire silhouette. Shapes settled in, more undulating. The "garçonne" fashion of the 1930s decisively marked the affirmation of a mobile body. Similarly, through contemporary upheavals, an assumed freedom triumphed: the miniskirt, leggings, trousers, were all strong landmarks, from which the dress was revolutionized.

Georges Vigarello is a director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, a member of the University Institute of France, and a former President of the Scientific Council of the BnF. The titles of his works betray his concerns, the body with its norms and the practices intended to beautify it: History of Beauty, 2004; History of the Body, co-author, 2006; The Metamorphoses of Fat, 2010; The Silhouette, Birth of a Challenge, 2012; The Clean and the Dirty, 2013; History of Emotions, co-author, 2016.