House of Fashion

<p>Since Charles Fredrick Worth established his luxurious Maison de Couture in 1858 the interior has played a crucial role in the display of fashion. <i>House of Fashion </i>provides a full historical account of the interplay between fashion and the modern interior demonstrating how they continue to function as a site for performing modern gendered identities for designers and their clientele alike. In doing so it traces how designers including Poiret Vionnet Schiaparelli and Dior used commercial spaces and domestic interiors to enhance their credentials as connoisseurs of taste and style. <p/>Taking us from the early years of <i>haute couture</i> to the luxury fashion of the present day Berry explores how the salon the atelier and the boutique have allowed fashion to move beyond the aesthetics of dress to embrace the visual seduction of the theatrical artistic and the exotic. From the Art Deco allure of Coco Chanel's Maison to the luminous spaces of contemporary flagship stores <i>House of Fashion</i> sets out fashion's links with key figures in architecture and design including Louis Süe Robert Mallet-Stevens Eileen Gray and Jean-Michel Frank. Drawing on photographs advertisements paintings and illustrations this interdisciplinary study examines how fashionable interiors have shaped our understanding of architecture dress and elegance.</p>