The Cambridge Global History of Fashion

Volume I: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century; Volume II: From the Nineteenth Century to the Present

Edited by Christopher Breward, Beverly Lemire, and Giorgio Riello

Split across two volumes, The Cambridge Global History of Fashion provides timely critical analyses of key topics and themes in the history of fashion, dress, and clothing. It foregrounds the trajectories of material and aesthetic transformation, as well as the thematic commonalities across time and space. Featuring over forty essays from experts across the field, the volumes unveil new perspectives on cultural, social, and economic change, and how these changes were expressed through fashion practice. The first volume presents a tight but comprehensive assessment of fashion from antiquity, through the early modern global era to c. 1800, engaging with colonial and imperial themes, as well as race and gender. The second volume advances the critique of ‘modernity’ from the nineteenth century through the twenty first century, providing analyses of the impact globalisation had on contemporary dress. This global perspective stands as a landmark work in the history of fashion.

Christopher Breward is Director of National Museums Scotland. He has published widely on the history of fashion and masculinity, clothing and city life and fashion’s relationship with modernity. Notable publications include The Suit: Form, Function and Style (2016), and co-edited volumes London Fashion: from Street to Catwalk (2004) and Fashion’s World Cities (2006).

Beverly Lemire is Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair at the University of Alberta. She publishes widely on consumer practice, material culture, gender and trade. Notable publications include Global Trade and the Transformation of Consumer Cultures, c. 1500–1820 (2018) and the co-edited volume Object Lives & Global Histories in Northern North America. Material Culture in Motion, c. 1780–1980 (2021).

Giorgio Riello is Chair of Early Modern Global History, European University Institute, Florence and Professor of Global History & Culture, University of Warwick. He publishes extensively on the history of fashion, textiles and trade between Europe and Asia. Among his books are Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (2013), Luxury: A Rich History (with P. McNeil, 2016) and Back in Fashion: Western Fashion from the Middle Ages to the Present (2020).