Fashion and Art

For at least two centuries, fashion and art have maintained a competitive love-hate relationship. Both fashion and art construct imaginary worlds, and use a language of style to invigorate beliefs, perceptions and ideas.

Until now the crossovers of fashion and art have received only scattered treatment and suffered from a dearth of theorization. As an attempt to theorize the area, this collection of new and updated essays is the most well-rounded and authoritative to date. Some of the world's foremost scholars in the field are assembled here to explore the art-fashion nexus in numerous ways: from aesthetics and performance to masquerade and media.

Original and inspiring, this book will not only secure 'art-fashion' as a discrete area of study, but also suggest new critical pathways for exploring their continuing cross-pollination. Fashion and Art is essential reading for students and scholars of fashion, art history and theory, cultural studies and related fields.

Bringing together original, cutting-edge contributions from leading international scholars across a range of disciplines, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in exploring the intersections and changing relationship between fashion and art, past and present.

Adam Geczy is an artist and writer who teaches at Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Vicki Karaminas is Professor of Fashion and Director of Doctoral Studies for the School of Design at the College of Creative Arts, Massey University, Wellington New Zealand.

Finally a book on the complex relationship between art and fashion adopts a different approach. Instead of the usual attempts to decide where the boundary lines might be drawn, this anthology examines the areas where art and fashion meet. These essays are not only vital for scholars and students within both disciplines - for anyone and everyone, this is a highly enjoyable book. - Pamela Church Gibson, Reader in Cultural and Historical Studies, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts, London

A book that both traces, and participates in, the decay of the idea that Fashion is the superficial Other of Art. Between the covers of this book lies all the evidence one might need about the sustained collaboration between modernist artists and fashion designers. Through a wealth of historical detail and conceptual sophistication this book tells a fascinating story whose relevance will lie far beyond Fashion Studies. - Michael Carter

There have been previous books written on Fashion and Art, but none is of this standard. In its reach and sophistication, this book is a stand-alone in its field. For many years, fashion and art have been points of discussion and debate, and the subject of isolated disciplinary studies. Geczy and Karaminas and the key authors assembled here have done us a great service in elevating this topic to an area of serious interdisciplinary study, giving it coherence and circumscription. Fashion and Art is a landmark book for whose appearance couldn't be more timely. - Joseph H. Hancock II. Drexel University, Philadelphia.

A much awaited and exciting collection... bringing together some of the most prominent scholars and curators working within fashion (studies) and art (history), Fashion and Art boldly problematises the conflicting, yet symbiotic relations between art and fashion. - Louise Wallenberg, Director, Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden

Using thickly described and critically analyzed case materials, the authors in this edited volume break new ground in the ongoing debate regarding fashion and art. From euromodernities to contemporary, global fashionscapes, this volume sheds refreshing light on the ambiguities, anxieties, and aesthetic pleasures associated with the fashion-art relationship. - Susan B. Kaiser, Chair of the Division of Textiles and Clothing at the University of California, Davis