Urban Chic: Cultural History of Fashion and Cities

Taught in the Department of History, University of Victoria, Spring 2017
Course by Dr. Kat Sark ​

Course Description:

This course is an interdisciplinary, multimedia course for undergraduate and graduate students. It covers the cultural history of cities, culture, and fashion, with a focus on gender, media, manufacturing, consumerism, branding, and other areas of critical inquiry. This course allows students to engage with cultural history, cultural analysis, urban history, as well as gender theory. It introduces students to historical, cultural, and critical approaches to urban culture, cultural production, and media. This course is designed to help students develop skills in critical thinking, close reading, writing, and comparative analysis. Students are expected to keep up with the readings and actively participate in the class discussions.

Course Readings: 

  1. Jennifer Craik, Fashion – The Key Concepts. New York: Berg Publishers, 2009.
  2. Yuniya Kawamura, Doing Research in Fashion and Dress: An Introduction to Qualitative Methods.  New York: Berg, 2011.
  3. Teri Agins, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. New York: Quill, 1999.
  4. Other weekly readings will be available to download from Course Spaces

Course Outline: 

(Subject to changes / in progress)
Week 1
​Introduction, Methodologies, Theoretical Approaches
​
CASE STUDIES:
  • Methodologies: cultural analysis, cultural history, gender and media analysis, interdisciplinary research
  • Ethics: environment, sweatshops, impacts of “fast fashion”  ​

​READINGS:
  • Linda Welters and Abby Lillethun, The Fashion Reader. 2nd Edition (New York: Berg, 2011), Introduction
  • Abby Lillethun, “Fashion Theory Introduction” (pp.117-121)
  • Robert J.S. Ross, “Sweatshop: A First Definition” (pp.313-315)
  • Richard McIntyre and Yngve Ramstad, “Not Only Nike’s Doing It: ‘Sweating’ and the Contemporary Labor Market” (pp.317-321) 
FILM EXCERPTS: The True Cost (dir. Andrew Morgan, 2015, 92min)
Week 2 
Paris

CASE STUDIES: Arcades, Paul Poiret, Ballets Russes, Picasso, Coco Chanel, Christian Dior’s New Look, Richard Avedon, Yves Saint Laurent, prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), Rad Hourani unisex fashion

READINGS:
  • Walter Benjamin, “Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century” (1939)
  • John Potvin (ed.), The Places and Spaces of Fashion, 1800-2007 (New York: Routledge, 2009), Introduction.
  • Teri Agins, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. (New York: Quill, 1999), Chapter 1: Paris, The Beginning and the End of Fashion
FILM EXCERPTS: Yves Saint Laurent (dir. Jalil Lespert, 2014, 110min) – invention of prêt-à-porter
Week 3
London

CASE STUDIES: Crystal Palace and Great exhibition of 1851, Charles Frederick Worth, Brit Mod, Mary Quant, Twiggy, the miniskirt, Punk Fashion, David Bowie, Alexander McQueen

READINGS:
  • Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions UniverselIes, Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs, 1851-1939 (Manchester: Manchester UP, 1988), Chapter on London.
  • Tricia Henry, Break All Rules! Punk Rock and the Making of a Style (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1989), selections. 
Week 4
Milan

CASE STUDIES: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Giorgio Armani and business suits for women, prêt-à-porter (ready-to-wear), Valentino Garavani, Miuccia Prada 
​
READINGS:
  • David Gilbert, “A New World Order? Fashion and its capitals in the twenty-first century” in Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (eds.), Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis (New York: Routledge, 2013), pp.11-30
  • Teri Agins, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. (New York: Quill, 1999), Chapter 4 – What Becomes a Legend Most? When Giorgio Armani Takes Hollywood
​FILM: Made in Milan (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990, 20min)
LINKS:
​Clothes on Film - American Gigolo
Week 5 
New York

CASE STUDIES: Vogue, Horst, Marc Jacobs, Anna Wintour, Met Gala
​ 
READINGS:
  • Teri Agins, The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. (New York: Quill, 1999), Chapter 6 – Gored in a Bull Market: When Donna Karan Went to Wall Street
  • Norma Rantisi, “How New York Stole Modern Fashion” in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds.) Fashion’s World Cities (New York: Berg, 2006), pp.109-122
​​
FILM EXCERPTS: The First Monday in May (dir. Andrew Rossi, 2016, 90min)
Week 6 
Berlin

CASE STUDIES: Fashion in the ruins, GDR Fashion Institute, Helmut Newton, F.C. Gundlach, Berliner Chic exhibition, Berlin Fashion Week
​
READINGS:
  • Susan Ingram and Katrina Sark, Berliner Chic: A Locational History of Berlin Fashion. (Bristol: Intellect, 2011), Chapter 1: Museums and Chapter 2: Historiography.
  • Judd Stitziel, Fashioning Socialism: Clothing, Politics, and Consumer Culture in East Germany (New York: Berg, 2005), Chapter 3: From New out of Old to Socialist Fashion (pp.49-77)
LINKS: 
​Locations of Berliner Chic
​Berliner Chic, One Year Later
Week 7 
Vienna

CASE STUDIES: Klimt, Wiener Werkstätte, Vienna Secession, Anna Aichinger, Ruins of Modernity, Helmut Lang

READINGS:
  • Roberta S. Kremer (ed.), Broken Threads: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2007), selections.
  • Susan Ingram and Markus Reisenleitner, Wiener Chic: A Locational History of Vienna Fashion (Bristol: Intellect, 2013), selections.   
​
Week 8
Tokyo

CASE STUDIES: Kenzo Takada, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake

READINGS:
  • Elizabeth Wilson, Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity (London: I.B. Tauris, 2013), Chapter 7 – Fashion and City Life 
  • Yuniya Kawamura, “Placing Tokyo on the Fashion Map: From Catwalk to Streetstyle,” in Christopher Breward and David Gilbert (eds.) Fashion’s World Cities (New York: Berg, 2006), pp.55-68
FILM EXCERPTS: Notebook on Cities and Clothes (dir. Wim Wenders, 1989, 81min)  
Week 9 
Montreal

CASE STUDIES: Denis Gagnon, fashion in Xavier Dolan’s films, fashion and technology, Ying Gao, Barbara Layne
​
READINGS:
  • Katrina Sark, Montréal Chic: A Locational History of Montreal Fashion (Bristol: Intellect, 2016), Chapter 1: A Locational History of Fashion and Chapter 5: Film and Fashion
  • Sabine Seymour, Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology (Wien: Springer, 2009), Introduction: Theoretical Discourse

​FILM EXCERPTS: Les amours imaginaires (dir. Xavier Dolan, 2011, 101min)
Week 10 
Vancouver

GUEST LECTURE: Fashion collector Claus Jahnke
​
READINGS:
  • Ivan Sayers and Claus Jahnke, From Rationing to Ravishing: The Transformation of Women’s Clothing in the 1940s and 1950s (Vancouver: Museum of Vancouver, 2014)
LINKS:
​Berlin Fashion in Vancouver
​Claus Jahnke Collection

Bibliography: 

Benn DeLibero, Linda. “This Year’s Girl: A Personal / Critical History of Twiggy” in Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss, (eds.) On Fashion. New
         Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994.
Breward, Christopher, and Gilbert, David (eds.) Fashion’s World Cities. New York: Berg, 2006.
Bruzzi, Stella, and Church Gibson, Pamela (eds.) Fashion Cultures Revisited: Theories, Explorations and Analysis. New York: Routledge, 2013.
Brydon, Anne, and Niessen, Sandra (eds), Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body. New York: Berg, 1998.
Greenhalgh, Paul. Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions UniverselIes, Great Exhibitions and World's Fairs, 1851-1939. Manchester: Manchester
          University Press, 1988.
Henry, Tricia. Break All Rules! Punk Rock and the Making of a Style. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press,1989.
Ingram, Susan, and Sark, Katrina. Berliner Chic: A Locational History of Berlin Fashion. Bristol: Intellect, 2011.
Ingram, Susan, and Reisenleitner, Markus. Wiener Chic: A Locational History of Vienna Fashion. Bristol: Intellect, 2013.
Kremer, Roberta S. (ed.) Broken Threads: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2007.
Paulicelli, Eugenia, and Clark, Hazel (eds.) The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity, and Globalization. London: Routledge, 2009.
Potvin John, (ed.) The Places and Spaces of Fashion, 1800-2007. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Rocamora, Agnès. Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media. London: I.B. Tauris, 2009.
Sark, Katrina. “Fashion among Ruins: von Trümmerfrau zu Modefrau. Fashion in Berlin 1945-46” in Berlin’s Culturescape. Ed. by Thomas Bredohl and
           Michael Zimmermann. Regina: CPRC, 2008, pp. 113-128.
Sark, Katrina and Bélanger-Michaud, Sara Danièle. Montréal Chic: A Locational History of Montreal Fashion. Bristol: Intellect, 2016. 
Sayers, Ivan, and Jahnke, Claus. From Rationing to Ravishing: The Transformation of Women’s Clothing in the 1940s and 1950s. Vancouver: Museum
          of Vancouver, 2014.
Seymour, Sabine. Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology. Wien, New York: Springer, 2009.
Stitziel, Judd. Fashioning Socialism: Clothing, Politics, and Consumer Culture in East Germany. New York: Berg, 2005.
Taylor, Lou. The Study of Dress History. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.
Welters, Linda, and Lillethun, Abby. The Fashion Reader. 2nd Edition. New York: Berg, 2011.
Wilson, Elizabeth. Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013 (1985).  

Films: 

​Annie Leibovitz, dir. Rebecca Frayn, 1993
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, dir. Barbara Leibovitz, 2008
Bill Cunningham New York, dir. Richard Press, 2011 
The First Monday in May, dir. Andrew Rossi, 2016
Iris, dir. Albert Maysles, 2014
​Made in Milan dir. Martin Scorsese, 1990
Notebook on Cities and Clothes, dir. Wim Wenders, 1989
The True Cost, dir. Andrew Morgan, 2015
Yves Saint Laurent, dir. Jalil Lespert, 2014

Disclaimer: The contents of this site are copy-right protected and cannot be reproduced without the author's permission. © Katrina Sark, 2016.