The rise of fashion: a reader

PART I. ARISTOCRATIC EXCESS AND THE DISPLAY OF RANK

"Pride" from The fable of the bees (1724) / Bernard Mandeville

Letter to his son (1750) / Lord Chesterfield

"The man of the world" (1736) / Voltaire

"Discourse on the arts and sciences" (1750) / Jean-Jaques Rousseau

"Etiquette and ceremony: conduct and sentiment of human beings as functions of the power structure of their society" from The court society (1969) / Norbert Elias

PART II. PUBLIC DISCOURSE AND THE SEMIOTICS OF DRESS

"On fashion" (1792) / Christian Garve

"An answer to the question: would it be harmful or beneficial to establish a national uniform?" (1791) / Samuel Simon Witte

"Adornment" from Sociology (1908) / Georg Simmel

PART III. DRESS REFORM AND GENDER

MASCULINE SIMPLICITY

"The benefits of a national uniform, declaimed by a citizen" from Patriotic fantasies (1775) / Justus Möser

"Men's fashion" and "Men's hats" (1898) / Adolf Loos

"The great masculine renunciation and its causes" from The psychology of clothes (1930) / J.C. Flügel

FEMINIST DRESS REFORM

"The new costume for the ladies" and "The new dress" from The lily (1851)

"Some realizations in dress reform" from Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia (1915) / Katharine Anthony

"Social life" from The second sex (1953) / Simone de Beauvoir

PART IV. IDEALIST AESTHETICS

"On art and craftwork" (1797), "on objects portrayed in visual arts" (1797), and "On strict aesthetic judgments" (1798/1799) / Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"On drapery" from Aesthetics (1820) / Georg W.F. Hegel

"Fashion and cynicism" (1820) / Friedrich Vischer

PART V. DANDYISM

"The dandiacal body" from Sartor Resartus (1831) / Thomas Carlyle

"The anatomy of Dandyism with some observations on Beau Brummell" (1845) / Barbey D'Aurevilly

"The dandy" from The painter of modern life (1863) / Charles Baudelaire

"Fashion and the modern" (1846) / Karl Gutzkow

"The dialogue of fashion and death" from The moral essays (1824) / Giacomo Leopardi

PART VI. GLORIFYING THE ARTIFICIAL

"Beauty, fashion, and happiness," "Modernity," and "In praise of cosmetics" from The painter of modern life (1863) / Charles Baudelarie

"Jewels" and "Wedding presents" from La dernière mode (1874) / Stéphane Mallarmé

"The pervasion of rouge" (1896) / Max Beerbohm

"The suitability of dress" (1882) / Oscar Wilde

"The eroticism of clothes" from Die Fackel (1906) / Karl Kraus

"Analysis of the cases (complex of symptoms)" from Transvestites: an investigation into erotic masquerade (1910) / Magnus Hirschfeld

PART VII. CLASS CONFLECT AND STATUS EMULATION

"Conspicuous consumption" and "Dress as an expression of the pecuniary culture" from The theory of the leisure class (1899) / Thorstein Veblen

"Fashion" / Georg Simmel

"Economy and fashion: a theoretical contribution on the formation of modern consumer demand" (1902) / Werner Sombart

"Bourgeois dress" (1912) / Eduard Fuchs

"Fashion" from The principles of sociology (1902) / Herbert Spencer

"Customs" (1909) / Ferdinand Tönnies.