Students will gain a greater understanding of the power and influence of haute couture on varions aspects of world culture and civilization by taking a look at the hundred years of fashion from the 1860s to the 1970s, a time when a succession of haute couture designers—most notably, Charles Worth, Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent—were the arbiters of fashion, and their creations were the weapon of choice for power-seeking members of the aristocracy and upper classes. Fashioning Society explores the ways in which high fashion designers and their maisons mutually influenced—and were influenced by—the fine arts as well as sociological, technological, philosophical, and political developments. By addressing the question, "What has happened to high fashion design?" the author discusses what readers should consider when trying to understand and predict long term trends

• "Looking Forward Looking Back" boxes demonstrate on a broader spectrum how motives that have shaped the relationship between high fashion and society in the past continue to interact and relate with each other today

• End-of-chapter boxes contain excerpts from articles taken from both the past and present, discussing the main themes of the chapters and the role of high fashion

• The 16-page color insert illustrates key examples of the designs and styles discussed, providing an overview of history's arc and of the connections between the seemingly disparate periods involved

• The timeline provides a chronological framework of events and trends that shaped high fashion and society

• Modernity Rising: The Age of Worth
• An Empire of Fashion
• Revolution in the Air
• Into a New Century: Backward, Forward, and Sideways
• The Fading of Europe: The American Age Begins
• The Ground Shifts
• “What a Drag It Is Getting Old”
• The Flesh Failures (Let the Sun Shine In)
• The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle
• High Fashion and Art
• The “End of History”
• Millennium Schmillennium
• We Are Caught: Trendspotting in the Early Twenty-First Century
• Thresholds

• Instructor's Guide includes sample course summaries, answers to the book's "endbox" questions, additional discussion question work, project work, comprehensive reading lists, and a separate section of essay questions for end of chapter, midterm, and final exam use

• PowerPoint Presentation provides a framework for classroom lectures and discussions and reproduces key art from the book; compatible with PC and Mac platforms

• Sample Chapter

• Sample PowerPoint Presentation

Karl Aspelund has been a designer, artist, and teacher for over twenty years in apparel, theater, film and digital media. He currently teaches design and related courses at the University of Rhode Island while working toward a PhD in Anthropology focused on researching dress and national identity.