Fashion and the Showgirl, Part II (Dressed Classic)

In this minisode, we break down the itinerary of upcoming, ultra-exclusive day tours of New York City during which we will step back in time and into the beating heart of American fashion and costume history during the holiday season. Our day tours are offered as mix-and-match separates with unique itineraries for each day as we visit fashion exhibitions, go behind-the-seams in museum collections and on a rarified visit to The Metropolitan Opera exclusively created for Dressed.  Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠classes⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠bookshelf⁠⁠⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this two-part episode, we celebrate the avant-garde French designer Paul Poiret, who is the subject of a new retropsective exhibition Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Known as "The King of Fashion," Poiret was an incomparable force of personality, vision, and industry, who was instrumental in not just revolutionizing women’s fashion at the dawn of the twentieth century, but transforming the very concept of fashion itself, effectively laying the groundwork for the modern fashion industry that we are indebted to today. Further Reading: Exhibition catalog Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast, preorder in the US here Poiret's memoir King of Fashion 2007 exhibition catalog Poiret Further Listening: Fashion, Race, and Expanding the Narrative of Fashion History with Kimberly Jenkins Fashioning White Femininity: The Ethnic Masquerade of Modern Fashion with Dr. Victoria Pass Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠classes⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠bookshelf⁠⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we continue our exploration of the century long love affair between fashion and the showgirl. Recommended reading and viewing: Es-pranza Humphrey's article “Fashioning the Black Chorus Girl" Elspeth Brown's Work! A Queer History of Modeling Marcel Sauvage's Les Mémoires de Joséphine Baker, Baker's 1931 Casino de Paris performance Robin Givhan's The Battle of Versaiiles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With her towering headwear and sparkling body suit, the showgirl is an instantly recognizable, cross cultural pop icon--and one that is front and center currently with the debut of Taylor Swift's latest album The Life of a Showgirl. In this two-part episode from 2020, we explore the showgirl's lesser known relationship to fashion, a love affair that extends back over one hundred years. Recommended reading: Andrea Stuart's Showgirls Linda Mizejewski, Ziegfeld Girl: Image and Icon in Culture and Cinema Jane Merrill’s The Showgirl Costume: An Illustrated History Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠⁠website⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠classes⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠bookshelf⁠⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit one of our popular 'etiquette in history' episodes today and examine the complex social codes of party throwing and going in Gilded Age New York. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠classes⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠⁠bookshelf⁠⁠⁠⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠AirWave Media⁠⁠⁠⁠ network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Freud x fashion this week as Dr. Valerie Steele joins us to speak about her exhibition Dress, Dreams, and Desire: Fashion and Psychoanalysis which is currently on view at The Museum at FIT through January 4, 2026. The exhibition--which is the first of its kind--explores "key psychoanalytic concepts about the body, sexuality, and the unconscious," by way of 100 items of dress spanning more than 130 years of fashion history. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠classes⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ Our ⁠⁠⁠bookshelf⁠⁠⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Dressed is a part of the ⁠⁠⁠AirWave Media⁠⁠⁠ network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wonderful and often bizarre world of fashion fads from history, we ask the question: which should live on to wear another day and which should be left to history? Recommended resources:•  Bedazzled Beetles•  Hobble Skirt•  Painted knees Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠website⁠ and ⁠classes⁠ Our ⁠Instagram⁠ Our ⁠bookshelf⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we investigate the historical fashion trends written about in an 1884 Harper’s Bazar article entitled “The Follies of Fashion.” Covering everything from Ancient Roman curling irons to Cleopatra’s donkey milk baths to “barbarous” steel corsets, we decipher fashion fact from fashion fiction. Primary Sources Box for rouge and patches, 1750-55 Jean de la Bruyère’s translation of The Characters of Theophrastus  Memoirs of Madame de la Tour de Pin Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia Secondary Sources: Sarah Bendall’s Shaping Femininity: Foundation Garments, the Body and Women in Early Modern England Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell’s Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Donkey Milk article in Beverages  Micaela Higgs’s “The Entirely False History of Tricking Men with Makeup” Kelly Olson’s “Fashion and Adornment,” in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity Valerie Steele’s The Corset: A Cultural History Caroline Weber’s Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠website⁠ and ⁠classes⁠ Our ⁠Instagram⁠ Our ⁠bookshelf⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the most toxic makeup in history to the world's first sunglasses, in this 2023 episode, we discuss all things fashion and Guinness World Records with Senior Editor Ben Hollingum. Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠website⁠ and ⁠classes⁠ Our ⁠Instagram⁠ Our ⁠bookshelf⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From clothes curtains to computer microchips to calico doll dresses, in the latest edition of Fashion History Now, we explore the fascinating--and surprising-- stories quite literally woven into the clothes we wear and the technology we use. Other things we love in this episode: Catherine Martin X Upcycled by Miu Miu. Check out Catherine's directorial debut fashion film here. Sarah Espeute's incredible clothes curtains: @sarahespeute and Oeuvres Sensibles for pre-order. Dressed happenings: Cassidy's Vintage Fashion History 101 and What Women Wore to the Revolution class, April's Fashion History Tours of the MET Want more Dressed: The History of Fashion?  Our ⁠website⁠ and ⁠classes⁠ Our ⁠Instagram⁠ Our ⁠bookshelf⁠ with over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices