Tailored For Freedom: The Artistic Dress in 1900 in Fashion, Art and Society

Though often seen today as a mere expression of individuality, fashion around 1900 became synonymous with the physical and social emancipation of women. Reform movements at the turn of the century strove to achieve a unity of art and life, inspiring artists to experiment with how the design of women’s dresses could do more than decorate, cover, and constrict. The clothing designs of famous artists like Heinrich Vogeler, Henry van de Velde, Josef Hoffmann, and Sonia Delaunay revealed both a new aesthetic and a new attitude to the role of women. Their loose forms, flowing fabrics, bold colors, and geometric and floral patterns liberated wearers from the social convention of decades past.

Tailored for Freedom sheds light on new interdisciplinary perspectives in the period of change at the beginning of the twentieth century—from the German Reform Movement and the Wiener Werkstätte to the English Arts and Crafts Movement and the development of Haute Couture in Paris. The first comprehensive presentation of the interaction between art, fashion, photography, dance, and advertising in the Reform Movement, this lavishly illustrated volume will delight readers with the beauty of these clothes and the stories of women’s liberation behind them.