The Suit
Form, Function and Style
Christopher Breward
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Suit
Form, Function and Style
Christopher Breward
About This Book
A beautifully tailored history of this fashion stapleâat once a garment of tradition, power, and subversion. The Suit unpicks the story of this most familiar garment, from its emergence in western Europe at the end of the seventeenth century to today. Suit-wearing figures such as the Savile Row gentleman and the Wall Street businessman have long embodied ideas of tradition, masculinity, power, and respectability, but the suit has also been used to disrupt concepts of gender and conformity. Adopted and subverted by women, artists, musicians, and social revolutionaries through the decadesâfrom dandies and Sapeurs to the Zoot Suit and Le Smokingâthe suit is also a device for challenging the status quo. For all those interested in the history of menswear, this beautifully illustrated book offers new perspectives on this most mundane, and poetic, product of modern culture.