Fairy Tale Fashion Colleen Hill, Patricia Mears, Ellen Sampson, Kiera Vaclavik

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Format:: Hardback
Publication date:: 26 Mar 2016
ISBN:: 9780300218022
Imprint:: Yale University Press
Dimensions:: 276 pages: 279 x 229mm
Illustrations:: 127 color + 35 b-w illus.
Sales territories:: World

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A conceptually innovative and visually stunning investigation of the interconnected worlds of high fashion and fairy tales

Dress plays a crucial role in fairy tales, signaling the status, wealth, or vanity of particular characters, and symbolizing their transformation. Fairy tales often provide little information beyond what is necessary to a plot, but clothing and accessories are frequently vividly described, enhancing the sense of wonder integral to the genre. Cinderella’s glass slipper is perhaps the most famous example, but it is one of many enchanted or emblematic pieces of dress that populate these tales.

This is the first book to examine the history, significance, and imagery of classic fairy tales through the lens of high fashion. A comprehensive introduction to the topic of fairy tales and dress is followed by a series of short essays on thirteen stories: “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Fairies,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Snow White,” “Rapunzel,” “Furrypelts,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Swan Maidens,” Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Generously illustrated, these stories are creatively and imaginatively linked to examples of clothing by Comme des Garc¸ons, Dolce and Gabbana, Charles James, and Alexander McQueen, among many others.

Colleen Hill is associate curator of accessories at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, and the author of Exposed: A History of Lingerie (2014) and co-author, with Valerie Steele, of Shoe Obsession (2013).

“Imagine the glass slipper in Cinderella intertwining with the fashion of Alexander McQueen and Dolce and Gabbana.—Red

“This wonderfully-researched, handsome book makes you realise the unity of fairy tale and fashion, since it was, after everything is said and done the red shoes that finally did it — Garland clicked her little red heels, said “there’s no place like home”, and gave the world hope.”—Richard Edmonds, Birmingham Post

“This book is unique in examining the fairy tale through the discerning lens of high fashion… perfect for students and fashion enthusiasts – anyone who has been enthralled by the splendour and other-worldliness of high fashion.”—Catherine Amey, Fashion Bookworm