Fashion Book Friday: Goddess: the Classical Mode

     The last months and especially weeks have been soo caotical and strange...

So, what could be better than try and come back to what I enjoy, writing these reviews, and do so with one of my favourites: The Metropolitan Museum`s Goddess: the Classical Mode.

    Originally published in 2003, as part of an exposition of the same name, it is currently not available online, like many other titles, but it is absolutely worth owning and/or hunting for.

      While it does contain a short general introduction that outlines some principles of Antique

clothing and how they have been used in modern (well, post-1800, anyway) fashion, the bulk of the book is structured more like a gallery, an image with an accompanying text, as in the image on the left. It is, of course, Isadora Duncan in one of her groundbreaking, body-liberating, Grecian dancing outfits.

     Included are paintings, historical or fashion photographies like that of of Isadora Duncan and pictores of dresses in the exposition. The majority of designs are either from the 1930s or around 2000, but examples from the Antiquity to the early 21. century are included.

    Some of the designers features are: Fortuny, Vionnet, Madame Grès, Halston, Versace, Claire McCardell, Alexander McQueen, Armani, Balenciaga....

 

It´s a stunning array of beautiful, technically often immensely challenging pieces that all give different views of what "Classical Beauty" is or should be (some, as the dress by McQueen on the right, rather subvert the conventional idea of prettiness, but retain a strong sense of drama). 

    There are chapters, ordered around topics like draperies, the use of harnesses in clothing, motifs like laurels or Greek key, but otherwise it is an endless flow of beautiful images and astonishing craftsmanship.

It is, as a book, less methodical than, say Barbara Baines (already reviewed on the blog) and does not go terrible in-depth about clothing in Antiquity, but as a visual collection of antique revivals, it cannot be beaten for width, depth and sheer beauty of the included objects (so, yes, I´m a fan of all  things "Grecian").