num_pages: 248
description: An unprecedented in-depth exploration of the complex interrelationship between high fashion and queer history and cultureFrom Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen many of the greatest fashion designers of the past century have been gay. Fashion and style have played an important role within the LGBTQ community as well even as early as the 18th century. This provocative book looks at the history of fashion through a queer lens examining high fashion as a site of gay cultural production and exploring the aesthetic sensibilities and unconventional dress of LGBTQ people especially since the 1950s to demonstrate the centrality of gay culture to the creation of modern fashion. Contributions by some of the worlds most acclaimed scholars of gay history and fashion  including Christopher Breward Shaun Cole Vicki Karaminas Jonathan D. Katz Peter McNeil and Elizabeth Wilson  investigate topics such as the context in which key designers lives and works form part of a broader gay history; the archeology of queer attire back to the homosexual underworld of 18th-century Europe; and the influence of LGBTQ subcultural styles from the trouser suits worn by Marlene Dietrich (which inspired Yves Saint Laurents Le Smoking) to the iconography of leather. Sumptuous illustrations include both fashion photography and archival imagery.Published in association with The Fashion Institute of Technology New York
language: English
title: A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk
publisher: Yale University Press