Art and Costume Studies (ARCS-UE)

Photography is an indispensable component of fashion. It is both a persuasive tool for selling clothing and accessories and a record of artistic movements, expressions of beauty, gender and social trends. This course traces the development of fashion photography in relation to contemporary fashion, aesthetic influence, photographic styles and techniques, cultural customs and commercial needs. It begins in the 1920s with the growth of periodicals devoted to fashion and continues through the work of the present day.

Why do fashion designers and brands exert such influence in contemporary society? What explains the trajectory from The House of Worth to Chanel to this season’s hottest label? This course investigates the interlocking forces shaping fashion: the designer system, celebrities, technology, politics, the arts and media. Through lectures and film viewings, readings, discussions, and individual research, students explore fashion as a crucial aspect of culture and how the fashion system evolved from roots in Parisian couture to become a global phenomenon. Liberal Arts Core/MAP Equivalent - satisfies the requirement for Expressive Cultures

This course is a how-to manual for students who are interested in fashion, but don’t know how to explore it. It offers a toolbox of theoretical concepts, interdisciplinary scholarship, and historical and contemporary case studies. Students learn to ask questions like: How is taste mapped onto bodies in social space? Who works in fashion, and how is this work classified? How do images and clothes (both new and old) circulate around the globe? What does the science of sustainability look like? And, where is the body in fashion’s new digital imaginaries? Meets Steinhardt Lib Arts Core for Expressive Cultures