Time in Fashion : Industrial, Antilinear and Uchronic Temporalities

Few phenomena embody the notion of time as well as fashion. Fast-moving and rooted in the 'now', it's constantly creating its own past through the process of rapid style change. Uniquely poised between the past and the future, fashion's relationship with time is unorthodox. Rather than considering time in the conventional sense, this anthology explores three alternative ways to think about fashion and time: the first identifies the seasonal nature of fashion as an industry, and shows how this has impacted on workers and wearers alike. The second looks at fashion design as a ceaseless process of adaptation, reconstruction and recombination of motifs, in which nostalgia and revivals play their part. The third construes fashion s 'imaginary', with its capacity for fantasy and myth-making, as a form of alternate history that asks 'what if?' Within this framework, key classic texts are juxtaposed with lesser known ones, in an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, history, literature, media and fashion design, ranging from the 18th century to the present. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand one of the most complex yet inescapable aspects of fashion, its relationship to time, and will be a critical resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the humanities and all those interested in fashion in all its creative, commercial and cultural aspects. Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction Time in Fashion: An Introductory Essay • Caroline Evans and Alessandra Vaccari 1 Industrial Time The Murderous, Meaningless Caprices of Fashion • Karl Marx The Acceleration of Fashion Change in the Eighteenth Century • Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell The Temporal Architecture of Fashion: Its Seasons and Weeks • Aurélie Van de Peer Threadbare Dandy Fashion • Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly The Pace of Fashion • Georg Simmel My Best Work Is Done Only When I Am Under Pressure • Mary Quant We’re Stuck between the Old and the New Rhythm • Anja Aronowsky Cronberg and Christophe Lemaire New Fashion Media and the Acceleration of Fashion Time • Agnès Rocamora Standard Minute Value (SMV) for a T-Shirt • Ramij Howlader, Monirul Islam (Rajib), Tanjibul Hasan Sajib, Ripon Kumar Prasad Fashion, Fast and Slow • Kate Fletcher Subverting the Seasonal Construct • Samuel Patrick Th omas 2 Antilinear Time Jetztzeit and the Tiger’s Leap • Walter Benjamin Illusion Tulle and La Dernière Mode • Stéphane Mallarmé The Evaporation of Temporality • Ulrich Lehmann Fashion, Femininity and Modernity • Ilya Parkins The Residue That History Has Discharged • Siegfried Kracauer Colonial Time • Victoria L. Rovine The Historical Mode • Richard Martin and Harold Koda Cuttings and Pastings in the Archive • Alistair O’Neil Martin Margiela’s Carnivalized Time: Margiela’s Theatrical Costume Collection • Francesca Granata Quotations: The Past and Future of Fashion • Angelo Flaccavento Vintage Fashion and Memory • Heike Jenss 3 Uchronic Time Fashion, A Time Which Does Not Exist • Roland Barthes Sovereign Time • Patrizia Calefato The Art of the Perfect Moment • Barbara Vinken Fashion Is Now and Tomorrow • Karl Lagerfeld Made in Italy and Double Vintage • Simona Segre Reinach Final Adjudication on Two National Press Advertisements for Louis Vuitton • Advertising Standards Authority I Have Seen Her in the Mirror • Elsa Schiaparelli Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada: Impossible Conversations • Miuccia Prada Doppie Pagine • Anna Piaggi The Otherworldly • Greg French Fashion Fabulation: Serpica Naro at Milan Fashion Week 2005 • Ilaria Vanni Queer Time • Emma Katherine Atwood Miss Havisham • Charles Dickens The Simultaneous Dress • Paola Colaiacomo Bibliography Index Few phenomena embody the notion of time as well as fashion. Fast-moving and rooted in the 'now', it's constantly creating its own past through the process of rapid style change. Uniquely poised between the past and the future, fashion's relationship with time is unorthodox. Rather than considering time in the conventional sense, this anthology explores three alternative ways to think about fashion and time: the first identifies the seasonal nature of fashion as an industry, and shows how this has impacted on workers and wearers alike. The second looks at fashion design as a ceaseless process of adaptation, reconstruction and recombination of motifs, in which nostalgia and revivals play their part. The third construes fashion's 'imaginary', with its capacity for fantasy and myth-making, as a form of alternate history that asks 'what if?'0Within this framework, key classic texts are juxtaposed with lesser known ones, in an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, history, literature, media and fashion design, ranging from the 18th century to the present. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to understand one of the most complex yet inescapable aspects of fashion, its relationship to time, and will be a critical resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the humanities and all those interested in fashion in all its creative, commercial and cultural aspects "Few phenomena embody the notion of time as well as fashion. Fast-moving and rooted in the 'now', it's constantly creating its own past through the process of rapid style change. Uniquely poised between the past and the future, fashion's relationship with time is unorthodox. Rather than considering time in the conventional sense, this anthology explores three alternative ways to think about fashion and time: the first identifies the seasonal nature of fashion as an industry, and shows how this has impacted on workers and wearers alike. The second looks at fashion design as a ceaseless process of adaptation, reconstruction and recombination of motifs, in which nostalgia and revivals play their part. The third construes fashion's 'imaginary', with its capacity for fantasy and myth-making, as a form of alternate history that asks 'what if?' Within this framework, key classic texts are juxtaposed with lesser known ones, in an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, history, literature, media and fashion design, ranging from the 18th century to the present.." -- Provided by publisher "Few phenomena embody the notion of time as well as fashion. Fast-moving and rooted in the 'now', it's constantly creating its own past through the process of rapid style change. Uniquely poised between the past and the future, fashion's relationship with time is unorthodox. Rather than considering time in the conventional sense, this anthology explores three alternative ways to think about fashion and time: the first identifies the seasonal nature of fashion as an industry, and shows how this has impacted on workers and wearers alike. The second looks at fashion design as a ceaseless process of adaptation, reconstruction and recombination of motifs, in which nostalgia and revivals play their part. The third construes fashion's 'imaginary', with its capacity for fantasy and myth-making, as a form of alternate history that asks 'what if?' Within this framework, key classic texts are juxtaposed with lesser known ones, in an interdisciplinary approach that includes philosophy, history, literature, media and fashion design, ranging from the 18th century to the present." (Source éditeur)