The mechanical smile
Subtitle: modernism and the first fashion shows in France and America 1900-1929
By: Caroline Evans
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 331
ISBN-13: 9780300189537
Subjects: Fashion shows; Modernism (Aesthetics); History
Description: In the early 20th century, the desire to see clothing in motion flourished on both sides of the Atlantic: models tangoed, slithered, swaggered, and undulated before customers in couture houses and department stores. The Mechanical Smile traces the history of the earliest fashion shows in France and the United States from their origins in the 1880s to 1929, situating them in the context of modernism and the rationalization of the body. Fashion shows came into being concurrently with film, and this book explores the connections between fashion and early cinema, which arguably functioned as what Walter Benjamin called "new velocities"--forces that altered the rhythms of modern life. Using significant new archival evidence, The Mechanical Smile shows how so-called "mannequin parades" employed the visual language of modernism to translate business and management methods into visual seduction. Caroline Evans, a leading fashion historian, argues for an expanded definition of modernism as both gestural and performative, drawing on literary and performance theory rather than relying on art and design history. The fashion show, Evans posits, is a singular nodal point where the disparate histories of commerce, modernism, gender, and the body converge.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Prehistory: nineteenth century fashion modelling; title: Paris 1900-1914: the rationalization of the body; title: 1900-1914: French fashion on the world stage; title: America 1900-1917: show business; title: 1914-1919: wartime Paris and the nationalization of the body; title: 1919-1929: fashion in motion; title: Architecture: factories of elegance; title: Audiences: the commerce of the look; title: Objects: industrial smiles; title: Prolepsis: future bodies; title: Movement: the mannequin walk; title: Flow: the mannequin pose; title: Postscript: balancing the books: between the legacy of the fashion show and the inheritance of the mannequin.