Tigersprung
Subtitle: Fashion in Modernity
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: September 9, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 554
ISBN-13: 9780262621717
Subjects: Costume; Fashion design; Fashion; Art & Art Instruction; Art; Graphic Arts - General; Art / Graphic Arts; Aesthetics
Description: "Far from being a frivolous subject, fashion is the supreme expression of the contemporary spirit. Sartorial elements embody the pace and rhythm of modern society and culture as few other ideas or communities do. Indeed, the hallmarks of la modernite found their most immediate reflection in la mode. But no one until now has attempted a rigorous analysis of fashion, on a par with attempts to construct a philosophy of art, music, or literature. In this book Ulrich Lehmann sets out to do just that. He explores the interplay between philosophical ideas and fashion, reading texts and textiles, discourse and dresses, to investigate modernity from a variety of perspectives: artistic, philosophical, sociological, and historical." "The stage for this interplay between intellectual concept and sartorial expression is Parisian society from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Lehmann focuses on a core of pivotal individuals, beginning with Charles Baudelaire in the 1850s, continuing with Stephane Mallarme and Georg Simmel, and arriving at Walter Benjamin, Louis Aragon, and Andre Breton almost a century later. The book's title comes from Benjamin's use of the German word Tigersprung (tiger's leap) to describe fashion's leap into the past to create an ever-changing present. Lehmann focuses in particular on Benjamin's Arcades Project as an unfinished work on the philosophy of fashion. He also looks at the role of fashion in the work of the dadaists and surrealists, who used clothes and accessories as simulacra for the human body and mind."--Jacket.