(My personal favorite one-period-interprets-another is the early 1920s doing American colonial 1770s, complete with the dropped early-20s waist. I actively collect examples of this.)
I saw a perfectly hideous example of a "renaissance" dress, as interpreted by a 1950's costumer,and don't forget Julie Christie's hair in "Dr. Zhivago". Sharon -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carolyn Kayta Barrows Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 2:54 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] illustrator vs fashion historian >But isn't a fashion historian a modern construct, and >by definition one who looks at the past and not the >present? You've got your definition about right, but no, "fashion historian" is not a modern construct. There have been fashion historians since at least the mid-1800s, if we include the folks like Violet-le-Duc and Köhler who produced those Victorian costume books we now laugh at as inaccurate Victorian re-drawings. Heck - Vecellio was something of a fashion historian in the late-1500s-early-1600s, in his own way, and Dover has reprinted the book of his on which I'm basing that opinion. These are the giants on whose shoulders folks like Janet Arnold stood. >And isn't your critiscism/clarification of >Kate Greenway BTW, I don't criticize Kate Greenaway's work for what it isn't, rather I love it for what it is. > equally applicable to the people who >design stuff for Hot Topic and other "alternative" >fashion? Basically, i'm confused as to why you would >point out the difference We use her work to document something which is, from a 2006 perspective, historical, but she didn't set out to "do" historical when she was working, and neither do the designers from Hot Topic. Both were/are designing to their contemporary markets. And yes, some of her stuff shows people in historically based costumery. That makes them historical examples of how a person of her period interpreted these other periods. But that doesn't make her a costume historian, only an illustrator putting historical clothes on some of her models. And she might well have gone to the books of costume historians of her day to get her examples. (My personal favorite one-period-interprets-another is the early 1920s doing American colonial 1770s, complete with the dropped early-20s waist. I actively collect examples of this.) >-- surely there aren't fashion >historians out there, slavishly trying to document >2005! Ah, but there are. That's why folks like the V&A and Metropolitan Museum haven't stopped collecting currently fashionable garments. They're storing these things now for the historians many years in the future who will thank them for having done so. Consider, we would have more historical garments now if people in the past had specifically done this for us. Most people don't realize that what they're wearing right now, like as they're reading this e-mail, will be considered historical 100 years from now. And that some theatre costumer or historical researcher then would kill for a photo or actual example of it. Scarey, huh? >Of course, it is great to know that Kate >Greenway represents the tastes of a minor group :-) ...those aforementioned Aesthetics, some of whom dressed very much like what her illustrations show. >(if I were more awake, I'd try to form this into some >better question/argument about what IS a good source, >if not a commercial illustrator who depicts the style >of HER group at HER time!) If you mean is she a source for what her group was wearing, you're right, just like Vogue Magazine will continue to be a good source for whatever style it is they document every month. But Vogue doesn't set out to document history, it's just that back issues of it are used by historians who do. CarolynKayta Barrows dollmaker, fibre artist, textillian www.FunStuft.com ///\\\\\ ////-@@\\\ (((( 7 ))) )(( <> ))( * ) ( * /----\ /---\ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
