Fashion Writing and Criticism provides students with the tools to critique fashion with skill and style. Explaining the history and theory of criticism, this innovative text demonstrates how the tradition of criticism has developed and how this knowledge can be applied to fashion, enabling students to acquire the methods and proper vocabulary to be active critics themselves. Integrating history and theory, this innovative book explains the development of fashion writing, the theoretical basis on which it sits, and how it might be improved and applied. Through concise snapshot case studies, top international scholars McNeil and Miller analyse fashion excerpts in relation to philosophical ideas and situate them within historical contexts. Case studies include classic examples of fashion writing, such as Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar and Richard Martin on Karl Lagerfeld, as well as contemporary examples such as Suzy Menkes and the blogger Tavi. Accessibly written, Fashion Writing and Criticism enables readers to understand, assess and make value judgments about the fascinating and changeable field of fashion. It is an invaluable text for students and researchers alike, studying fashion, journalism, history and media studies.

Fashion is all around us, and so too is fashion journalism. Discussions of fashion proliferate in an ever-increasing range of media, from newspapers and magazines to tweets and TV programs. Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice is an accessible, comprehensive guide to writing about fashion in any form, whether in style blogging, magazine interviews, news reportage or art reviews. Exploring what sets fashion journalism apart from other forms of journalistic writing, the book features a wide range of global fashion case studies, from Carmel Snow's reporting on Dior's 'New Look' to 1970s responses to Yves Saint Laurent, and Diana Vreeland's role as a fashion editor. Through a series of engaging exercises, you will learn how to find inspiration, carry out successful research, structure your work logically, use a style appropriate to your readership, and to make the leap from descriptive writing to informed analysis and criticism. Engaging and clearly written, Fashion Journalism examines how recent technological developments are shaping and driving fashion journalism, and delves into the theory and practice of writing about fashion.

Fashion imagery has existed for hundreds of years and yet the methods used by scholars to understand it have remained mostly historical and descriptive. The belief informing these approaches may be that fashion imagery is designed for one purpose: to depict a garment and how to wear it. In this interdisciplinary book, Sanda Miller suggests a radical alternative to these well-practiced approaches, proposing that fashion imagery has stories to tell and meanings to uncover. The methodology she has developed is an iconography of fashion imagery, based on the same theory which has been key to the History of Art for centuries. Applying Panofsky's theory of iconography to illustrations from books, magazines and fashion plates, as well as fashion photography and even live fashion events, Miller uncovers three levels of meaning: descriptive, secondary (or conventional) and tertiary or 'symbolic'. In doing so, she answers questions such as who is the model; what did people wear and why; and how did people live? She proves that fashion imagery, far from being purely descriptive, is ripe with meaning and can be used to shed light on society, class, culture and the history of dress.

Fashion Writing and Criticism provides students with the tools to critique fashion with skill and style. Explaining the history and theory of criticism, this innovative text demonstrates how the tradition of criticism has developed and how this knowledge can be applied to fashion, enabling students to acquire the methods and proper vocabulary to be active critics themselves. Integrating history and theory, this innovative book explains the development of fashion writing, the theoretical basis on which it sits, and how it might be improved and applied. Through concise snapshot case studies, top international scholars McNeil and Miller analyse fashion excerpts in relation to philosophical ideas and situate them within historical contexts. Case studies include classic examples of fashion writing, such as Diana Vreeland at Harper's Bazaar and Richard Martin on Karl Lagerfeld, as well as contemporary examples such as Suzy Menkes and the blogger Tavi. Accessibly written, Fashion Writing and Criticism enables readers to understand, assess and make value judgments about the fascinating and changeable field of fashion. It is an invaluable text for students and researchers alike, studying fashion, journalism, history and media studies.

Fashion is all around us, and so too is fashion journalism. Discussions of fashion proliferate in an ever-increasing range of media, from newspapers and magazines to tweets and TV programs. Fashion Journalism: History, Theory and Practice is an accessible, comprehensive guide to writing about fashion in any form, whether in style blogging, magazine interviews, news reportage or art reviews. Exploring what sets fashion journalism apart from other forms of journalistic writing, the book features a wide range of global fashion case studies, from Carmel Snow's reporting on Dior's 'New Look' to 1970s responses to Yves Saint Laurent, and Diana Vreeland's role as a fashion editor. Through a series of engaging exercises, you will learn how to find inspiration, carry out successful research, structure your work logically, use a style appropriate to your readership, and to make the leap from descriptive writing to informed analysis and criticism. Engaging and clearly written, Fashion Journalism examines how recent technological developments are shaping and driving fashion journalism, and delves into the theory and practice of writing about fashion.

Acknowledged as one of the major sculptors and avant-garde artists of the twentieth century, Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957) also remained one of the most elusive. His mysterious nature was not only due to his upbringing in Romania - which, at the time, was still regarded by much of Europe as a backward country haunted by vampires and werewolves - but also because Brancusi was aware that myth and an 'aura of otherness' appealed to the public. This self-mythology is embodied in his white atelier in Montparnasse, Paris. In "Constantin Brancusi", Sanda Miller looks beyond the mythology of the artist to show us Constantin the Romanian student, as well as Brancusi the celebrated artist. Using new material, including private correspondence from Brancusi's archive in Paris, works from Romania, and Brancusi's own photos of his studio, the author weaves together and interprets a wealth of information, bringing to life his early years in Romania, his move to Paris and his years at his studio. She relates how his art scandalized the Paris salon, yet also explores how his work connects with the folk art of his homeland. She also provides colourful evocations of Brancusi's relationships with colleagues, dealers, friends and lovers. An innovative reassessment of Brancusi's life and work, Sanda Miller's perceptive book allows Brancusi to take his rightful place among the most important of the intellectual personalities who shaped twentieth-century modernism.

Fashion imagery has existed for hundreds of years and yet the methods used by scholars to understand it have remained mostly historical and descriptive. The belief informing these approaches may be that fashion imagery is designed for one purpose: to depict a garment and how to wear it. In this interdisciplinary book, Sanda Miller suggests a radical alternative to these well-practiced approaches, proposing that fashion imagery has stories to tell and meanings to uncover. The methodology she has developed is an iconography of fashion imagery, based on the same theory which has been key to the History of Art for centuries. Applying Panofsky’s theory of iconography to illustrations from books, magazines and fashion plates, as well as fashion photography and even live fashion events, Miller uncovers three levels of meaning: descriptive, secondary (or conventional) and tertiary or ‘symbolic’. In doing so, she answers questions such as who is the model; what did people wear and why; and how did people live? She proves that fashion imagery, far from being purely descriptive, is ripe with meaning and can be used to shed light on society, class, culture and the history of dress.