Textiles, Fashion, and Design Reform in Austria-Hungary Before the First World War
Professor of Art and Design History at Northern Illinois University, School of Art and Design Rebecca Houze (’03 Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) recent book ‘Textiles, Fashion, and Design Reform in Austria-Hungary Before the First World War‘ was based on her Fulbright Austria-Hungary Joint Research Award.
As Rebecca wrote:
“Without the stipend I know that I would never have been able to undertake or complete the book. The award provided not only valuable research time, but also, just as significantly, a true opportunity for cross-cultural exchange. I treasure the life-long professional colleagues and friends I made in Budapest while working on this project, which I know is much richer as a result of those friendships.”
Filling a critical gap in Vienna 1900 studies, this book offers a new reading of fin-de-siècle culture in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy by looking at the unusual and widespread preoccupation with embroidery, fabrics, clothing, and fashion – both literally and metaphorically. The author resurrects lesser known critics, practitioners, and curators from obscurity, while also discussing the textile interests of better known figures, notably Gottfried Semper and Alois Riegl. Spanning the 50-year life of the Dual Monarchy, this study uncovers new territory in the history of art history, insists on the crucial place of women within modernism, and broadens the cultural history of Habsburg Central Europe by revealing the complex relationships among art history, women, and Austria-Hungary. Rebecca Houze surveys a wide range of materials, from craft and folk art to industrial design, and includes overlooked sources-from fashion magazines to World’s Fair maps, from exhibition catalogues to museum lectures, from feminist journals to ethnographic collections. Restoring women to their place at the intersection of intellectual and artistic debates of the time, this book weaves together discourses of the academic, scientific, and commercial design communities with middle-class life as expressed through popular culture.