Benjamin on Fashion reconstructs and redefines Walter Benjamin »s complex, fragmentary and yet influential fashion theory that he developed in the Arcades Project (1927-1940) and beyond, while situating it within the environment from which it emerged – 1930s Parisian couture.
In this insightful new book, Philipp Ekardt brings Benjamin into
discussion with a number of important, but frequently overlooked sources. Amongst many others, these include the German fashion critic Helen Grund, who introduced him to the contemporary fashion scene; Georg Simmel »s fashion sociology; Henri Focillon »s morphological art history; designs by Elsa Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet; films by L »Herbier and others starring Mae West; and the photography of George Hoyningen-Huene and Man Ray.
In doing so, Ekardt demonstrates how fashion and silhouettes became grounded in sex; how an ideal of the elegant animation of matter was pitted against the concept of an obdurate fashion form; and how Benjamin »s idea of »fashion »s tiger »s leap into the past » paralleled the return of 1930s couture to the depths of (fashion) history. The use of such relevant sources makes this crucial for understanding Benjamin both as a thinker and a cultural theorist.
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