Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson - ISBN: 9781350399747
Paperback
Fashion’s powerful history: identity, subversion, and modernity’s embrace.

Adorned in Dreams

Fashion and Modernity

$41.14

  • Paperback

    314 pages

  • Release Date

    23 July 2026

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Summary

When Adorned in Dreams was first published in 1985, Angela Carter described the book as ‘the best I have read on the subject, bar none.’

From haute couture to haberdashery, and ‘deviant’ dress to Dior, Elizabeth Wilson traces the social and cultural history of fashion and its complex relationship to modernity. From the ‘dress reform’ movement to certain strands of feminism, Wilson delights in the power of fashion to mark out identity - or subvert it.

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Book Details

ISBN-13:9781350399747
ISBN-10:1350399744
Author:Elizabeth Wilson
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:314
Edition:2nd
Release Date:23 July 2026
Weight:724g
Dimensions:24mm x 156mm x 232mm
Series:Foundations of Fashion Studies
A-Format
B-Format
Adorned in Dreams by Elizabeth Wilson - ISBN: 9781350399747
156 × 232 mm
C-Format
A4
mm / in
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity is one of the best books ever published on the significance of fashion in society … as relevant today as when it was first published * Valerie Steele, editor of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture *
When it was first published in 1985, Adorned in Dreams pioneered new territory in the study of fashion … no text since has come close to challenging or overtaking its original claims * Christopher Breward, National Museums Scotland *
Sharply focused, consistently intelligent, and broadly informative * Los Angeles Times *

About The Author

Elizabeth Wilson

Elizabeth Wilson’s writing career began in the ‘underground’ magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She’s written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long-listed for the Golden Dagger Award).

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