Dangerous Liaisons, Harold Koda, Andrew Bolton, and Mimi Hellman
Awhile back I got really into French fashion just before the Revolution and how it impacted the cultural life of the court. I found this particular book through a Tumblr post and the magic of ILLs, and it was quite worth it.
Dangerous Liaisons is not the French novel, but actually one of those books museums put together to show off their exhibits. This one took place at the Met in New York in 2004, and after having read the book I really wish I'd been able to see the exhibit itself. It placed costumes of the pre-Revolutionary Rococo period in representative interiors, with mannequins designed to show representative activities. The book also showed several paintings of the period and compared them to the exhibit's rooms.
The photography is amazing, and the curators' essays that accompanied them were really informative, drawing parallels between the design of furniture and clothing and the activities that might accompany them. For example, furniture could be designed to force people close together, assisting with flirtation, or could be very light and fragile, demanding grace and elegance from people maneuvering around it, particularly in large and bulky clothes. It's cool! I'll talk about this a little more when I talk about Fashion Victims, though.
Overall, this is really a lovely book, but unless you're a specialist in the period and subject, probably not worth owning. Get it from your local library or on ILL if you're interested, though. It will reward you.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/382009.html. Please comment over there if possible.
Dangerous Liaisons is not the French novel, but actually one of those books museums put together to show off their exhibits. This one took place at the Met in New York in 2004, and after having read the book I really wish I'd been able to see the exhibit itself. It placed costumes of the pre-Revolutionary Rococo period in representative interiors, with mannequins designed to show representative activities. The book also showed several paintings of the period and compared them to the exhibit's rooms.
The photography is amazing, and the curators' essays that accompanied them were really informative, drawing parallels between the design of furniture and clothing and the activities that might accompany them. For example, furniture could be designed to force people close together, assisting with flirtation, or could be very light and fragile, demanding grace and elegance from people maneuvering around it, particularly in large and bulky clothes. It's cool! I'll talk about this a little more when I talk about Fashion Victims, though.
Overall, this is really a lovely book, but unless you're a specialist in the period and subject, probably not worth owning. Get it from your local library or on ILL if you're interested, though. It will reward you.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/382009.html. Please comment over there if possible.