The Modern Venus by Elisabeth Gernerd

The Modern Venus by Elisabeth Gernerd

From rumps and stays to muffs and handkerchiefs, underwear and accessories were critical components of the 18th-century woman’s wardrobe. They not only created her shape, but expressed her character, sociability, fashionability, and even political allegiances. These so-called ephemeral flights of fashion were not peripheral and supplementary, but highly charged artefacts, acting as cultural currency in contemporary society. The Modern Venus highlights the significance of these elements of a woman’s wardrobe in 1770s and 1780s Britain and the Atlantic World, and shows how they played their part in transforming fashionable dress when this was expanding to new heights and volumes. Dissecting the female silhouette into regions of the body and types of dress and shifting away from a broad-sweeping stylistic evolution, this book explores these potent players within the woman’s armoury. Marrying material, archival and visual approaches to dress history, and drawing on a rich range of sources – including painted portraiture, satirical prints, diaries, memoirs – The Modern Venus unpacks dress as a medium and mediator in women’s lives. It demonstrates the importance of these overlooked garments in defining not just a woman’s silhouette, but also her social and cultural situation, and thereby shapes our understanding of late 18th-century life. With over 125 color images, The Modern Venus is a remarkable resource for scholars, students and costume lovers alike.

Meticulously researched and methodologically innovative, The Modern Venus reveals how underwear and accessories shaped not just women's bodies, but their engagement with the worldThis sumptuous book is a must read for anyone interested in 18th-century material, literary and visual culture. * Jennie Batchelor, University of York, UK *
A seriously interesting fashion history book on late 18th-century underwear and accessories, based on first-rate research. Great images, highly readable and intelligently planned and written. * Lou Taylor, University of Brighton, UK *

Elisabeth Gernerd is a historian of 18th-century dress, art and material culture. She is Lecturer in Design Cultures at De Montfort University, UK, and former postdoctoral fellow at Historic Royal Palaces, UCLA, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781350293373
ISBN 10	1350293377
Title	The Modern Venus
Author	Elisabeth Gernerd
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2023-11-16
Number of pages	280
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable