Prêt-à-Porter, Paris and Women: A Cultural Study of French Readymade Fashion, 1945-68 (Fashion: Visual & Material Interconnections)

In the first critical history of French ready-made fashion, Alexis Romano examines an array of cultural sources, including surviving garments, fashion magazines, film, photography and interviews, to weave together previously disparate historical narratives. The resulting volume – Prêt-à-Porter: Paris and Women – situates the ready-made in wider cultural discourses of art, design, urbanism, technology and international policy. Through a close study of fashion magazines, including Vogue and Elle, Romano reveals how the French ready-made and the genre of fashion photography in France developed in tandem. Analyses of representations of space, women and prêt-à-porter in such magazines – alongside other cultural ephemera such as contemporary film, documentary photography and family photographs – demonstrate that popular conceptions of fashion and modernity shifted in the period 1945-68. By connecting national and personal histories, Prêt-à-Porter: Paris and Women reveals the importance of the ready-made to broader narratives of postwar reconstruction, national identity, gender and international dialogue. Cover Contents List of Plates List of Figures Acknowledgements A note on the text Introduction Prêt-à-porter and post-war modernization Female identities and representations 1 Accessing the everyday: Prêt-à-porter, Paris and women in magazines, 1945–65 Fashion and Paris Modernization and movement Subjectivity and filmic spreads 2 Branding prêt-à-porter in the Fourth Republic (1946–58): Modernization, cultural diplomacy and industry debates Confection, couture en gros, robe de série, vêtement féminin Productivity and prêt-à-porter Coordination and propaganda in the press Les Trois Hirondelles and the International Style 3 Displaying industrial modernity in 1950s’ Elle: Readymade dress, rational space and the image of women Elle’s structural depiction of time Women’s wellness and the problem of spaces Technology and myth 4 Negotiating the avant-garde in the 1960s: Stylisme, industry debates and restless images Stylisme Designers Brands Publicity Retailers Bureaux de style Restless images: Exploring art and industry projects OPjectscape Movement and moving images 5 ­Expanding the urban fabric in the 1960s: Redefined bodies, dress and city space Embodiment and fashion magazines Housing estates and Paris: Centre and periphery Unproductive women in hyper-reality Fragmented bodies and non-place in imagery Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index "In the first critical history of French ready-made fashion, Alexis Romano examines an array of cultural sources, including surviving garments, fashion magazines, film, photography and interviews, to weave together previously disparate historical narratives. The resulting volume -- Pr{cric}et-à-Porter: Paris and women -- situates the ready-made in wider cultural discourses of art, design, urbanism, technology and international policy. Through a close study of fashion magazines, including Vogue and Elle, Romano reveals how the French ready-made and the genre of fashion photography in France developed in tandem. Analyses of representations of space, women and prêt-à-porter in such magazines -- alongside other cultural ephemera such as contemporary film, documentary photography and family photographs -- demonstrate that popular conceptions of fashion and modernity shifted in the period 1945-68. By connecting national and personal histories, Prêt-à-Porter: Paris and Women reveals the importance of the ready-made to broader narratives of postwar reconstruction, national identity, gender and international dialogue."-- Provided by publisher "In the first critical history of French ready-made fashion, Alexis Romano examines an array of cultural sources, including surviving garments, fashion magazines, film, photography and interviews, to weave together previously disparate historical narratives. The resulting volume - Prêt-à-Porter: Paris and Women - situates the ready-made in wider cultural discourses of art, design, urbanism, technology and international policy.Through a close study of fashion magazines, including Vogue and Elle, Romano reveals how the French ready-made and the genre of fashion photography in France developed in tandem. Analyses of representations of space, women and prêt-à-porter in such magazines - alongside other cultural ephemera such as contemporary film, documentary photography and family photographs - demonstrate that popular conceptions of fashion and modernity shifted in the period 1945-68.By connecting national and personal histories, Prêt-à-Porter: Paris and Women reveals the importance of the ready-made to broader narratives of postwar reconstruction, national identity, gender and international dialogue"--Provided by publisher