".a welcome addition to the growing list of works on materiality and modern French literature, art and cultural history. Students and scholars alike will learn much." -- H-France Review "This volume is a treasure. Lavish color illustrations accompany beautifully crafted essays by some of the most insightful--and articulate--scholars working in the overlapping fields of French literature, art history, gender studies, and material culture. It is a rarity to see these kinds of cross-disciplinary perspectives joined together under a single cover, and even rarer still for a set of essays to offer such a satisfying read." -- Rachel Mesch, author of Having It All in the Belle Epoque: How French Women's Magazines Invented the Modern Woman "The dynamic intellectual and visual interplay between couture and culture becomes significantly enriched in this volume, where the dialogue between text and textile, appearance and apparel, interweave to produce conceptual advances on our understanding of modernism in France." -- Therese Dolan, author of Manet, Wagner, and the Musical Culture of Their Time "The book's strengths lie in its interdisciplinarity, along with the deep knowledge and impressive scholarship of the contributors.

Their specialist knowledge and their care in what they are writing shines through." -- Malcolm Barnard, author of Fashion Theory: An Introduction "The essays in this collection establish a constellation of strong and rich French fashion notes in modern history, and together constitute a dynamic that resonates with recurring and related imagery and ideas. The fact that it's conceptually sophisticated and philosophical doesn't get in the way of it being a good read." -- Brian Seitz, author of Intersubjectivity and the Double: Troubled Matters.