The University of Arkansas Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour by Michelle Tolini Finamore.
The companion volume to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s first fashion exhibition, Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour celebrates the history of American fashion. From dresses worn by First Ladies to art-inspired garments to iconic fashion moments that defined a generation, Fashioning America highlights uniquely American expressions of innovation, spotlights the stories of designers and wearers that center on opportunity and self-invention, and amplifies the voices of those who are often left out of dominant fashion narratives.
With nearly a hundred illustrations of garments and accessories that span two centuries of design, Fashioning America celebrates the achievements of a wide array of makers. Incorporating essays by fashion historians, journalists, and makers, this volume takes a fresh look at the country’s fashion history while exploring its close relationship with Hollywood and media in general, illuminating the role that American designers have played in shaping global visual culture and demonstrating why American fashion has long resonated around the world.
Michelle Tolini Finamore is a fashion curator and historian who has written widely on topics ranging from contemporary fashion to food history. Author of Hollywood before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film, she has taught courses on fashion, design, and film history at the Rhode Island School of Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Fashioning America will be published in the Fall 2022 season.
Past exhibition catalogs from Crystal Bridges and the University of Arkansas Press Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now by Mindy N. Besaw, Candice Hopkins, and Manuela Well-Off-Man; Men of Steel, Women of Wonder: Modern American Superheroes in Contemporary Art by Alejo Benedetti; Crystals in Art: Ancient to Today by Lauren Haynes and Joachim Pissarro; Crafting America: Artists and Objects, 1940 to Today by Glenn Adamson and Jen Padgett; and In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting, by Daniel Finamore and Austen Barron Bailly.