HART294 Fashion History I 3 cr.

This survey course will introduce students to fashions from the 18th through the early 21st
centuries. It will address the phenomenon of increasingly changing styles, and connect fashion
with concurrent art movements and social developments. Students will make frequent visits
to the Museum of Fine Arts to examine historic garments and contextual art works, developing
critical “seeing” and thinking. In-class discussions will explore fashion from multiple
perspectives, taking into account issues of ethnicity, class, and gender. By the end of the
course, students will be able to identify stylistic developments over three centuries, and
understand fashion as an art form.

Important themes to be covered:

- Influences of contemporary art and design
movements

- Impact of politics and society on fashion

- Emergence of the haute couture fashion system
in Paris

- Development of the primacy of the
couturier/designer

- Impact of technological advances and
development of ready-to-wear

- Democratization of fashion in the late 20c.

Prerequisites: HART100

Lecture/Seminar

All College Elective