Unsettling Fashion History

This course offers an introduction to histories that have traditionally been left out of the fashion canon. Students will study a variety of European-influenced fashion cultures on the “margins”—those that artistic and literary analysis have often failed—as well as the methodologies, including archaeology and reconstruction, that have been useful in uncovering and understanding them. Populations of interest include the laboring poor, sex workers, and enslaved peoples in Europe and America; cultures beyond that were affected by colonization and/or dress trends, including native Hawai’ians, Peruvian mestizos, and the elite of Meiji Japan; and the fat, disabled, aged, and queer people present throughout. This course is primarily, but not only, concerned with the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries and will provide the tools for students to sensitively and creatively perform research and broaden the boundaries of the field. Discussion in class will be accompanied by close study of objects, guest speakers, and potentially visits to museums with relevant collections. 3 credits.