This site is intended to be an evolving, cultivated resource for people who are interested in the history, meaning, construction and enjoyment of male fashion.
The history of dress is itself a relatively new field, and within that menswear is often ignored, overlooked, or left in the background of the more elaborate, decorative, and/or quickly changing fashions of women. But of course male fashion is equally important when investigating anything from class and gender to economic policy and cultural identity.
Here you’ll find recommended bibliographies organized both thematically and chronologically, strong examples of historic garments in museum collections, both a current list and history of museum exhibitions devoted specifically to male clothing, blogs and other menswear sites online, and travel resources for cities around the world. Obviously this site focuses on western dress – I’d love for someone to create a resources for fashion on other cultures.
I’d love your feedback about this site, and I welcome suggestions for what I can add to it.
About The Author
Chloe Chapin is a professor of fashion history at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She spent two decades as a costume designer for theater, and is an occasional portrait painter. She has a BFA in Performance Production from Cornish College of the Arts, an MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama, and is working on an MA in Fashion and Textile Studies from FIT. In 2014 she’ll be in Stockholm on a Fulbright Grant researching and producing a project about the history of men’s suits.
You can see more of Chloe’s projects at www.chloechapin.com.