Review:
[Rublack and Hayward] have beautifully reassembled the complete series of 137 colour images ... [from Schwarz's] extraordinary book.
- Times Higher Education
[T]he story of a life in clothes ... [Rublack and Hayward's] historical observations, especially on colour coding, are valuable keys to unlocking the period.
- Times Literary Supplement
The First Book of Fashion tells the fascinating story of Matthaus Schwarz (b. 1497), a bourgeois man in Renaissance Germany, who was as fashion-obsessed as the trendiest teenagers in contemporary Tokyo. Like them, he documented his changing styles in a series of painted "selfies," which he gathered together in a little "book of clothes," which has now been brilliantly analyzed by the scholars Ulinka Rublack and Maria Hayward. Together, pictures and text provide unprecedented insight into the role of fashion in the creation of one individual's identity.
- Valerie Steele, multi-award-winning fashion scholar and Director of the Museum at FIT, New York, US
An exemplary edition of an amazing document, whether we read it as evidence for the history of self-representation or for the history of costume, whether worn or imagined.
- Peter Burke, University of Cambridge, UK
The First Book of Fashion provides an extraordinary insight into the sartorial world of the sixteenth century. Rublack's exacting and lively scholarship re-writes our historical understanding of men's relationship with their clothes, and the stunning visual material brings Matthaus Schwarz alive for the twenty-first century.
- Christopher Breward, University of Edinburgh, UK
The First Book of Fashion is an extraordinary resource: an illustrated wardrobe inventory that not only lifts the curtain on clothes, but the cultural and personal contexts that shaped their wearing and their wearer. This jewel-bright little manuscript is a tiny treasure and I have nothing but admiration and praise for the authors commentary. - --- Susan J. Vincent, University of York, UK
Mentioned --- Fashion, Textile and Costume Librarians
About the Author:
Ulinka Rublack is Professor of Early Modern European History at Cambridge University, UK, and author of Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe.
Maria Hayward is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Professor in Early Modern European History at the University of Southampton, UK.
Jenny Tiramani is the Principal of The School of Historical Dress in London, UK, and a costume designer for theatre and opera.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.