Fashion and Materialism - Paperback

by Ulrich Lehmann (Author)

Ulrich Lehmann brings together methods and ideas from social sciences and material production to offer a new political reading of fashion in today's post-democracy. Accessing rare source material across a wide range of European languages and cultures, he offers insight into new working structures in the manufacture of garments and textiles. Case studies include the male suit in Alfred Hitchcock's film North by Northwest (1959), the revolutionary production methods in the work of Carol Christian Poell and the innovative textile manufacture of Bonotto in Molvena (north-East Italy)

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'Ulrich Lehmann's work to date has been invaluable in bringing together the history of ideas with the ever-shifting concept of "fashion". In Fashion and Materialism he offers a timely reflection on the manner in which the Marxist understanding of historical materialism is fundamental to fashion's meaning. In an era that several pundits have declaimed as one of post-fashion amorality, Lehmann's provocative polemic may well prove a fundamental and corrective text for shaping and interpreting a post-fashion future.' Christopher Breward, National Galleries of Scotland A cultural and historical philosophy of fashion Ulrich Lehmann investigates the meaning of fashion for economic and social life from the 1830s to the present day. He brings together methods and ideas from social sciences and material production to offer a new political reading of fashion in today's post-democracy. Accessing rare source material across a wide range of European languages and cultures, he offers insight into new working structures in the manufacture of garments and textiles. Case studies include the male suit in Alfred Hitchcock's film North by Northwest (1959), the revolutionary production methods in the work of Carol Christian Poell and the innovative textile manufacture of Bonotto in Molvena (north-East Italy). Lehmann's new understanding of design and production reveals materialism as a critical element in fashion's role in modern economies, societies and cultures. Ulrich Lehmann is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Design and Arts at The New School, New York. His last book on fashion was Tigersprung (2000). Cover image: Ulrich Lehmann Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0791-5 Barcode

Author Biography

Ulrich Lehmann is Research Professor and course leader for MA Fashion at the University for the Creative Arts at Rochester, Kent and Honorary Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He has contributed to a wide range of journals and edited collections on fashion and material culture. He is the author of Josiah McElheny: Object Lesson (White Cube, 2013) and Tigersprung: Fashion in Modernity (MIT Press, 2001).