House of Fashion - by Jess Berry (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Since Charles Fredrick Worth established his luxurious Maison de Couture in 1858, the interior has played a crucial role in the display of fashion. House of Fashion provides a full historical account of the interplay between fashion and the modern interior, demonstrating how they continue to function as a site for performing modern, gendered identities for designers and their clientele alike. In doing so, it traces how designers including Poiret, Vionnet, Schiaparelli and Dior used commercial spaces and domestic interiors to enhance their credentials as connoisseurs of taste and style.

Taking us from the early years of haute couture to the luxury fashion of the present day, Berry explores how the salon, the atelier and the boutique have allowed fashion to move beyond the aesthetics of dress, to embrace the visual seduction of the theatrical, artistic, and the exotic. From the Art Deco allure of Coco Chanel's Maison to the luminous spaces of contemporary flagship stores, House of Fashion sets out fashion's links with key figures in architecture and design, including Louis Süe, Robert Mallet-Stevens, Eileen Gray, and Jean-Michel Frank. Drawing on photographs, advertisements, paintings and illustrations, this interdisciplinary study examines how fashionable interiors have shaped our understanding of architecture, dress, and elegance.

Review Quotes

"The sections pertaining to the history of the couture houses and individuals are clearly written and well researched, and the illustrations throughout are well chosen. The wide-ranging use of sources show an impressive amount of research on a range of disciplines, all of which is well referenced and well indexed, which makes this book a good research resource ... Thorough and interesting." --The Journal of Dress History

About the Author

Jess Berry is Senior Lecturer Design History Theory at Monash University, Australia.