Costumes, Period dramas and their Audiences

From the late 19th Century to the Present
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-93548-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 212 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 487 g

This book considers the notion of “historical escapism” through both costume and fashion design, illustrating how one informs the other to produce different consumable representations of the past, to quell contemporary anxieties and to confront generational traumas.

Many audiences rely on historically themed theatre, film and television to provide a glimpse of what life was like and, crucially, what clothes were worn at various points in history. But most often, they look to this version of the past to escape contemporary anxieties. To what extent do the interpolations and artistic license taken by designers affect our enjoyment and our sense of what a production “should” portray? How far does accuracy matter, and by what yardstick are we measuring it? This book pursues historical accuracy, merging the “real and the romantic”, resulting in highly atmospheric yet highly contemporary design choices. This book presents the theory that, in essence, not much has changed in the way audiences perceive and consume historical dress, and that the cyclical relationship between history and fashion should add theatre, film and TV representation into the mix. This makes it necessary to consider the social and cultural factors (especially post-pandemic) that have resulted in markedly similar design solutions being made well over a century later.

This book can be used by students across a wide range of courses, including fashion history, theatre history, costume design, art history, film studies and memory studies. It applies a multidisciplinary approach to examine the ways in which history is consumed and understood through period dramas.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Edwards, Lydia

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Kunst Kunstformen, Kunsthandwerk Installations-, Aktions-, Computer- und Videokunst
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Modedesign, Stoffe, Schmuckdesign

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1 Vintage Nostalgia 2 The Musketeers/The Last of the Dandies 3 Our Hospitality/The General 4 Pride and Prejudice/Gone with the Wind 5 The Forsyte Saga/The Six Wives of Henry VIII 6 Pride and Prejudice/Little Women 7 The Tudors/Downton Abbey 8 Outlander/Bridgerton

Über Autor(innen)

Lydia Edwards is a fashion historian, public speaker, independent consultant and lecturer at Edith Cowan University and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. She has previously taught at the University of Western Australia, Dundee University and the University of St Andrews. She is the author of Bloomsbury’s How to Read a Dress (2017 and 2021) and How to Read a Suit (2020) and runs the popular fashion history Instagram account @howtoreadadress.