Elleand the Development ofStylismein 1960s Paris

Abstract

This essay stems from a paper presented at the Costume Society’s Annual Symposium in Leeds in July 2010 on the theme of The Price of Fashion. In this expanded version, the author identifies the construction of stylisme, a new ready-to-wear model in 1960s France, in the pages of Elle magazine. Contextualized in a changing industrial and social landscape, the essay questions how these new depictions of stylisme served to improve consumers’ ideas on ready-to-wear clothing in an industry previously fuelled by haute couture.

Fashion City or Museum of Fashion? Exploring the Mutually Beneficial Relationship between London’s Fashion Industry and Fashion Exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum

“…In 1969, Milan hosted its first Milanovendemoda textile and fashion trade fair, starting a process that would see it take over from Florence as Italy's leading fashion city in the 1970s (Segre Reinach 2006). Even Paris, the capital of haute couture, began to embrace the creative potential of pret-a-porter designs in the 1960s (Romano 2012). Across Europe and North America, this changing understanding of fashion is connected with a growing acceptance of twentieth century fashion objects in museums.…”