Fashion and Art in the 20th Century
Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Syllabus

This course introduces students to the connection between fashion and art in the 20th century.  Students will learn how fashion and fabric design reflect the century’s major art trends—cubism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, pop, minimalism, and postmodernism.  Art and Fashion will explore, for example, Picasso’s influence on fashion design in the 1900s, the links between modern art and the 1920s flapper, Elsa Schiaparelli’s collaborations with Man Ray and Salvador Dali in the 1930s, the connections between Mary Quant’s Mod fashions and Pop Art in the 1960s and, in the 1990s, how postmodernist trends in art, architecture, and culture influence fashion.  Through slides, video clips, museum exhibitions, and vintage garments, students will learn to identify Fashion as Art.

Required reading:  20th Century Fashion (also spelled Twentieth Century Fashion) by Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye (Thames & Hudson: 1999).  Available at Amazon.com and other Internet booksellers. 

Weekly Class Schedule

Overview and Introduction

Royal Art and Fashion, 1600-1700

Due:  fashion autobiography 

Fashion Goes to the Guillotine, 1700-1789 

To MFA to look at 17th and 18th century portraits and furniture.

Napoleon’s Empire of Fashion, 1790 to 1820

The Romantic Artist in Fashion, 1820 to 1848 

Due: visual report identifying 17th and 18th century influences on contemporary dress

Charles Frederick Worth and Middle Class Fashion, 1850-69

To MFA to look at 18th and 19th century European decorative arts

Impressionism and the Bustle, 1870s-1889  

Art Nouveau Curves, 1890s

To MFA for 19th century portraits and furniture

Origins of Abstraction in Art and Fashion, 1900-1919

In–class presentations on 1890-1939 fashion designers, with links to Zeitgeist.

1920s and the Spread of Modernism    

1930s and Art Deco’s Worldwide Appeal 

To MFA for Showa exhibition—Japanese fashion in 1930s

Surrealism, World War, and Rise of American Sportswear (1940s)

In–class presentations on 1940-1969 fashion designers, with links to Zeitgeist

1950s and America’s Ascendance in Art and Fashion 

1960s and the Youthquake

Final Class:  Conclusion and Visual Review

In-class presentations on contemporary fashion subculture

Classroom Method and Grading:

• One half of class time each week will cover substantive historical material with instructor discussing slides or video as illustration. 

• The second half of class time each week will be experiential.  This segment will include class discussion, museum trips, projects, and presentations of student work, discussed below. 

 
Your final letter grade will be based on the following:

• Visual Report identifying 17th and 18th century influences on contemporary dress. Choose and reproduce three contemporary fashion designs/elements (from magazines, newspapers, electronic media).  Document their roots/inspiration in male or female 17th and 18th century styles (clothing, hair, hats, undergarments, footwear) by providing visual examples from at least five different research sources.  Describe similarities and differences.  Attribute all sources in footnotes or endnotes.  Submit in 8 1/2” by 11” folder.

• Class Presentations on Twentieth Century Fashion Designers (2).   Visual reports on 20th century fashion designer and connection to Zeitgeist of era of their greatest success.  Use at least five different attributed research sources and as many visual examples as possible.  Attribute all sources in footnotes or endnotes.  Submit in 8 1/2” by 11” folder.

• Outline your designer’s life.

• For what fashion or style characteristic is he/she most famous?

• What is special about the clothes themselves?  (For example, type of fabric, accessories, sewing or cutting techniques, or any other distinctive points.)

• How does your designer’s style relate to the Zeitgeist (the larger trends in art and culture of the era)?  Give examples in at least three areas of esthetic expression, such as fine arts, furniture design, architecture, graphic design.

• Class Presentation on a Contemporary Fashion Subculture.  In-class presentation using slides, video or any other media to present to class on history and development of fashion subculture post-1960s.  Attribute all sources in footnotes or endnotes.  Submit in 8 1/2” by 11” folder.

• Overall Class Participation: To receive an A: I know that you have read and assimilated the reading because you reliably and constructively converse without prompting.

 

N.B.:  According to MassArt policy, you cannot miss more than two classes and still receive credit for the course. 

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