Filling a gap in Eastern European fashion studies, this book presents middle-class women consuming fashion in the symbolic 'Little Paris' of interwar Bucharest, and examines how their material and cultural means supported the city's modernisation.
Combining archival research with personal archaeology, this interdisciplinary work explores Romania's reinvention as a modern state, focusing on middle-class women as they lived their lives - walking through the streets, at lavish events, at cafes and clubs, shopping, and working. Analysing largely unseen, unused written and visual texts, The Women of 'Little Paris' encourages exploration of new avenues for research, uniting scholars of Romanian culture, history and fashion and guiding readers through a forgotten, little explored world and, in so doing, adds to our understanding and knowledge of the global image of interwar fashion cultures and the emerging field of Romanian fashion studies.
Arvustused
A highly original addition to the cultural history of the interwar period in Romania [ Of] interest to those researching the entanglement of gender and nation in and beyond Central and Eastern Europe, to scholars of fashion and popular culture, to historians of media, and not least to those interested in urban history. * Journal of Romanian Studies * Carefully crafted, drawing on an extensive array of archival materials [ and] complemented by an extensive body of secondary literature, which Andras skillfully integrates. * Historical Yearbook * In this interdisciplinary book, Sonia-Doris Andras analyses an impressive array of visual and written materials, including the archive of her own family. The result is an original portrayal of modernising interwar Romania through the representations and self-representations of its middle-class fashionistas. * Magdalena Craciun, University of Bucharest, Romania * An exemplar of the more nuanced, multifarious and plural Fashion Studies today, The Women of 'Little Paris' is remarkable for its consideration of fashion and all the visual arts, as well as popular and urban culture, literature and the press. The work is a fitting memorial to one of the experts in this field, the late Djurdja Bartlett. * Peter McNeil, University of Technology Sydney, Australia * The Women of Little Paris is a valuable and fascinating book and the information presented within its pages is rich and detailed. Sonia-Doris Andra? makes enticing and original analyses, often from unexpected perspectives. Her study pulls together a huge and wide-ranging volume of research material to draw pertinent and insightful conclusions. * CEU Review of Books *
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Combining archival research with personal archaeology, this interdisciplinary work explores Romanias reinvention as a modern state through the lens of its fashion.
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Mapping the interwar World
Inventing Greater Romania
Fashioning the Romanian Paradox
3. Interwar Metropolitan and Urban Cultures
Women, Life, Fashion and Industry in the City
Little Paris: A National Rebirth Project
4. From the Modern Girl to the New Woman
Gender Dynamics
Crafting the New Romanian Woman
5. Authors and Characters: Women in Literature
Fictional Women, Real Bucharests
Diaries, Memoirs, Biographies
6. From Subjects to Creators: Women Imagined in the Arts
Portraying Fashion
Performing Fashion
7. Transition to New Visual Forms: Film, Photography
Fashioning the Silver Screen
Pictured with Nose Up, like Moms Wanted
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix
Index
Sonia-Doris Andras is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Seal of Excellence Fellow at the Department of Political Science, University of Pisa, Italy. She has a PhD from London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK.
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