Riello, Giorgio. (2011) The object of fashion : methodological approaches to the history of fashion. Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, Vol.3 . ISSN 2000-4214

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Abstract

This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and suggests the existence of three different approaches. The field of history of dress and costume has a long tradition going back to the nineteenth century. It adopts the methodologies of art history and considers artefacts as central to the analysis of different periods and themes. In the last few decades the emergence of fashion studies has been interpreted as a distancing from artefacts. It is here claimed that fashion studies brought theoretical rigour and embraced a deductive methodology of analysis in which artefacts still played an important function. The final part of this essay introduces the reader to what I call the material culture of fashion, a hybrid methodology borrowed from anthropology and archeology in which the object is central in the study of social, cultural and economic practices that are time specific. It shows in particular the challenges and paybacks of such an approach.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GT Manners and customs
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Fashion -- Historiography, Clothing and dress -- Historiography, Material culture
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Aesthetics and Culture
Publisher:	Co-Action Publishing
ISSN:	2000-4214
Date:	19 October 2011
Volume:	Vol.3
Identification Number:	10.3402/jac.v3i0.8865
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/49043

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