Jews in Suits: Men's Dress in Vienna, 1890-1938 (Dress Cultures)

Synopsis

Surviving photographs of Jewish Viennese men during the fin-de-siècle and interwar periods – both the renowned cultural luminaries and their many anonymous coreligionists – all share a striking sartorial detail: the tailored suit. Yet, until now, the adoption of the tailored suit and its function in the formation of modern Jewish identities remains under-researched.Jews in Suits uses a rich range of written and visual sources, including literary fiction and satire, 'ego-documents', photography, trade catalogues, invoices, and department store culture, to propose a new narrative of men, fashion, and their Jewish identities. It reveals that dressing in a modern manner was not simply a matter of assimilation, but rather a way of developing new models of Jewish subjectivity beyond the externally prescribed notion of 'the Jew'. Drawing upon fashionable dress, folk costume, religious dress, avant-garde, oppositional dress, typologies which are often considered separate from one another, it proposes a new way of reading men and clothing cultures within an iconic cultural milieu, offering insights into the relationship of clothing and grooming to the understanding of the self.

Copyright:

2023

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781350244238

Related ISBNs:

9781350244207

Publisher:

Bloomsbury Publishing

Date of Addition:

05/03/23

Copyrighted By:

Jonathan C. Kaplan-Wajselbaum

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.