READING FASHION IN ART
Some of the questions include:
What is the title of the artwork? Does the title directly reference a work of another artist?
Who owns it now?
What captures your attention first?
Title: Reading Fashion In Art
Author: Ingrid E. Mida
Published: 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages: 221 including index
Notes: This is a practical book, which suggests a step by step approach to study artworks and culture to read fashion, in terms of how the body was dressed through the years. There are two parts in the book, first is about the methodology while second uses cases studies to show how the methodology is applied. At the end of the book there is a section with a list of 40 questions (observation checklist) which I can imagine myself answering while walking through the Louvre. This is an academic style book, it is for curious and reflective art and fashion lovers. I also feel that the skills of observation and interpretation described in this book are the fundamentals for becoming a fashion critic, or simply to be able to interpret a collection/fashion show. The capacity to feel one’s own emotions and reactions while interpreting all the contextual elements is not to be taken for granted and we know it.
Camille Silvy, Portrait of Sarah Forbes Bonetta with her husband James Davies September 15, 1862
Below is the author’s drawing of James Jacques Tissot’s ,October 1878, from Art Gallery of Ontario’s collection. The drawing is extremely detailed and descriptive and it brings to attention many features not apparent to the eye at first.
