ESHCC employees publish special issue on “The Past and Present of Fashion Cities”

The Special Issue focuses on the spatial and transnational dimensions of the fashion industry, with a long-term historical perspective – from Paris in the late nineteenth century to Turin and London in the early-mid twentieth century. It challenges the definitions of fashion cities and how to study them.

While scholars across the globe have enriched the geography of fashion by studying locations beyond the “big four” (Paris, Milan, London, and New York), there remains a need for a better understanding of fashion centers from global and evolutionary perspectives, especially, the relationships between different urban spaces. Their fluctuations in form remain a growing, but under-researched, area of consideration. The Special Issue features articles from business historians Elisabetta Merlo and Mario Perugini (Bocconi University), fashion historian Bethan Bide (University of Leeds), media historian Sophie Kurkdjian (l'Institut d'Histoire du Temps Présent, IHTP-CNRS), urban and historical geographer David Gilbert (Royal Holloway, University of London) and economic geographer Patrizia Casadei (University of Sussex and London School of Economics).

Besides, this Special Issue offers exciting implications in terms of theory and methodology. On the one hand, it queries how fashion centers come into being and how they change throughout time. On the other hand, methodologically, the articles point to the value of studying fashion in a more historical and international context.

Previous versions of the articles featured in this Special Issue were presented at two seminars at Erasmus University Rotterdam, “Exploring Fashion Capitals in the Long Twentieth Century” in December 2017 and “Business History of Fashion: The State of the Art” in November 2018.

Read the full “Letter from the editors: The Past and Present of Fashion Cities” and the whole Special Issue.