Riello, Giorgio - Peter McNeil (Ed.) : The Fashion History Reader - Global Perspectives

History is uncomfortable with fashion and fashion frequently denies its own history. Why ? This path-breaking analysis presents the views of over seventy leading academics of many cultures and spans the twelfth to the twentieth centuries.
The Fashion History Reader is an innovative work that provides a broad introduction to the complex literature in the fields of fashion studies, and dress and fashion history. Twenty-three chapters and over forty shorter “snapshot” texts cover a wide range of topics and approaches within the history of fashion, ranging from object-based studies to theory-driven analyses. Themes also move in and across time, providing a chronology to enable student learning. A comprehensive introduction by the editors contextualises the debates for students, synthesising past history and bringing them up to date through a discussion of globalisation. Each section also includes a short, accessible introduction by the editors, placing each chapter within the wider, thematic treatment of fashion and its history. There are also higly detailed further reading sections which encourage students to enhance their learning independently.

Giorgio Riello is Associate professor in global history and culture at the University of Warwick, UK and Director of the Pasold Research Fund. Peter McNeill is Professor of Design History at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia and Professor of Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.