Design, Style and Image: Themes in Fashion History

Course Content:

This module presents thematic approaches to the study of fashion as an historical subject
through image-based lectures, screenings and study visits. Students will be introduced to
the historical development of fashion and dress from the 1750s to the present day.

Each session is intended to address particular ideas and practices that have shaped and
constructed our contemporary understanding of fashion as both a productive profession
and as a meaningful social and cultural activity. The module engages with critical texts to
allow students to examine the relationship between theory and practice in fashion and
design and to develop an understanding of the emergence of fashion design as a cultural
response to modernity.

Key themes relating to clothing, including changing techniques and technologies of
production, fashion and identity, fashion and consumer culture, the development of
fashion imagery, archiving fashion, and the display and exhibition of fashion will be
explored. An integral part of this module is the consideration of designed objects and
images.

Critical debates, which have shaped theoretical discussions of fashion, are introduced and
the importance of context to the way in which fashion is valued is a central theme for
discussion.

Topics covered may include:
? The historical development of fashion and dress from 1750 to the present day;
? The role of fashion as a response to modernity;
? The role of changing production technologies and techniques in the design, production and consumption of clothing;
? The development of fashion imagery and culture;
? Fashion and identity;
? Fashion and consumer culture;
? The display, exhibition and archiving of fashion;

Autumn semester:
? Seriously studying fashion
? Fashion & Design: The role of the designer
? Fashion & Identity: Status symbols ? from clothing to fashion
? Fashion & Identity: Gendered body ? transgressions and trends in fashion
? Fashion & Identity: Culture and place
? Fashion & Politics: Dress reform and anti-fashion
? Fashion & Politics: Propaganda and Utopian ideals in fashion
? Fashion & Politics: Fair and un-fair trade
? Fashion & Politics: Sustainability and Environmental issues in fashion

Spring semester:
? Fashion, Consumption & Industry: Couture ? past, present and future
? Fashion, Consumption & Industry: Street style and subcultures
? Fashion, Consumption & Industry: Technological futures
? Fashion Methodology: Object analysis
? Fashion & Media: Image analysis ? semiotics, fashion and advertising
? Study trip to research archive or museum
? Fashion & Media: Magazines and identity construction
? Fashion & Media: Fashion and photography
? Fashion & Image: Fashion, film and fantasy
? Fashion & Media: Fashion and celebrity culture

Teaching: Image-based lectures, discussions, screenings and study visits

Assessment:
STUDY OPTION 1:
? Exhibition proposal, 1000 words (30%)
? Essay, 2000 words (70%)
STUDY OPTION 2 OR 3: Assessed essay (1,500-2000 words) (tbc)

Study Option 1 = Whole Year
Study Option 2 = Autumn
Study Option 3 = Spring/summer