New Perspectives on French Fashion History highlights new research by emerging fashion scholars. Come to just one session or take all five and learn about the history of fashion display in Parisian department stores and in presentations at World’s Fairs, the transformative impact World War I had on the French fashion industry, cultural shifts brought about by the introduction of ready-made fashion in the 1950s and 60s, and much more.

Individual classes:
$100 Adults
$85 Students and Educators
$75 BGC Members

Take all five sessions and save!
$450 Adults
$375 Students and Educators
$350 BGC Members
Space is Limited

Session One, Fashion on Display, investigates the shifting practices, strategies, and contexts of fashion display in France from 1900 to 1937. This time period is bookended by two international exhibitions held in Paris that presented fashion to the public in novel ways. Developments in mannequin design, styling, and scenography will be investigated in relation to changing ideas and values associated with fashion in national and imperial contexts.

Meet the Professor

Paula Alaszkiewicz is a specialist in fashion studies and museology. She is a doctoral candidate in the department of art history at Concordia University in Montréal. Adapting Walter Benjamin’s concept of the labyrinth as a metaphor for time, history, and space, her research fosters an exchange between structures and spaces of fashion display from museum blockbuster exhibitions to nineteenth-century department stores and international exhibitions. Paula consults on exhibitions and heritage projects internationally and works closely with the exhibition-maker Judith Clark.

Other classes in this course include:

Session 2: War Time Fashion
Taught by Maude Bass-Krueger and Sophie Kurkdjian
Monday, October 14, 2019

Session 3: Gender and Ready-Made Clothing
Taught by Alexis Romano
Monday, October 21, 2019

Session 4: Fashion and Labor in Nineteenth Century France
Taught by Susan Hiner
Monday, October 28, 2019

Session 5: Constructing Femininity: 1980–2000
Taught by Francesca Granata
Monday, November 4, 2019