Twentieth-Century American Fashion

by Patricia Cunningham, Linda Welters, Joanne B. Eicher

Overview

Americans began the twentieth century standing in Europe's sartorial shadow, yet ended by outfitting the world in blue jeans, T-shirts and sneakers. How did this come about? What changes in American culture were reflected in fashion? What role did popular culture play? This important overview of American fashion in the twentieth century considers how Americans went from imitating British and French fashion to developing their own sense of style. It examines such influences on dress as class, jazz and hip hop, war, the space race, movies, television and sports. Further, the book shows how gender, psychology, advertising, public policy, shifting family values, the American design movement and expertise in mass production profoundly influenced an American style that has been exported across the globe. From New York City's Bohemians to Hollywood's stars, Twentieth-Century American Fashion reveals the continuing importance of clothing to American identity and individual experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845200732
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2005
Series:	Dress, Body, Culture , #6
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

Linda Welters is Professor in the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design, University of Rhode Island. She is also the Editor-in-chief of 'Dress, ' the journal of the Costume Society of America.

Patricia Cunningham is Associate Professor in the Department of Consumer and Textile Sciences, Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction—Linda Welters and Patricia A. Cunningham * Fashion in the Gilded Age: A Profile of Newport's King Family—Rebecca J. Kelly * Dress and Culture in Greenwich Village in the 1910s—Deborah Saville * The Influence of American Jazz on Fashion during the 1920s—Susan L. Hannel * The Americanization of Fashion: Sportswear, the Movies and the 1930s—Patricia Campbell Warner * Promoting American Designers, 1940-1944: Building Our Own House—Sandra Stansbery Buckland * The Onondaga Silk Company's American Artist Print Series of 1947—Amy Lund and Linda Welters * The Beat Generation: Subcultural Style—Linda Welters * Space Age Fashion—Suzanne Baldaia * Dressing for Success: the Re-Suiting of Corporate America in the 1970s—Patricia A. Cunningham * Television and Fashion in the 1980s—Patricia A. Cunningham, Heather Mangine, and Andrew Reilly * Flava in Ya Gear: Transgressive Politics and the Influence of Hip Hop on Twentieth Century Fashion—Robin Chandler and Nuri Chandler-Smith