Colors in Fashion

Jonathan Faiers is Professor of Fashion Thinking at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK, publishes internationally on fashion and textiles, and is editor of the journal Luxury: History, Culture, Consumption.Mary Westerman Bulgarella is a consultant in the conservation, research, and display of historic textiles and dress, based in Florence, Italy and in Chicago, Illinois. She has been the Advisory Committee Coordinator of Costume Colloquium since its conception.

Sixteen engrossing essays explore the many shades of meaning in the colors adopted by royals and revolutionaries, soldiers and suffragettes, from Hollywood to Nigeria and from the sixteenth century to the present.

• IntroductionJonathan Faiers (Winchester School of Art, UK) and Mary Westerman Bulgarella (Independent Consultant, Italy)Part 1: Color and Solidarity1. Color as Theme in the Ebony Fashion FairJoy Bivins (Chicago History Museum, USA)2. Purity and Parity: The White Dress of the Suffrage Movement in Early Twentieth-Century BritainKimberly Wahl (Ryerson University, Canada)3. Birds of the Same “Color” Flock Together: Color as Expression of Identity and Solidarity in Aso-Ebi Cloth of the YorubaMargaret Olugbemisola Areo (Ladoke Akintola University, Nigeria) and Adebowale Biodun Areo (National Museum, Nigeria)4. Contradictory Colors: Tricolor in Vichy France's Fashion CultureEmmanuelle Dirix (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Antwerp Fashion Academy, Beligum)Part 2: Color and Power5. Dress and Color at the Thai Court Piyanan Petcharaburanin and Alisa Saisavetvaree (Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, Thailand)6. ‘Gold and Silver by Night’: Queen Alexandra: A Life in Color Kate Strasdin (Falmouth University, UK)7. Lord Boston’s Court Uniform: A Story of Color, Politics and the Psychology of BelongingDeirdre Murphy (Historic Royal Palaces, UK)8. Yellow is the New Red, or Clothing the Recession and How the Shade of Shame Became ChicJonathan Faiers (Winchester School of Art, UK)Part 3: Color and Innovation9. Color Before Technicolor: Colorized Fashion Films of the Silent EraMichelle Finamore (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA) 10. Color as Concept: From International Klein Blue to Viktor & Rolf's "Bluescreen"Michal Lynn Shumate (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA)11. Tainted Love: Oscar Wilde's Toxic Green Carnation, Queerness and ChromophobiaAlison Matthews David (Ryerson University, Canada)12. Starlit Skies Blue versus Durindone BlueAnna Buruma (Liberty and Central Saint Martins, UK)Part 4: Color and Desire13.Rough Wolves in the Sheepcote: The Meanings of Fashionable Color 1909-1914Claire Rose (Royal School of Needlework, UK)14. ‘Le noir étant la dominante de notre vêture …’: The Many Meanings of Black in Post-War ParisBeatrice Behlen (Museum of London, UK)15. British Scarlet Broadcloth: The Perfect Red in Eastern Africa, c.1820 - 1885Sarah Fee (Royal Ontario Museum, Canada)16. Lives Lived: Archaeology of Faded IndigoKate Irvin (Rhode Island School of Design, USA)NotesBibliographyIndex