Fashion: A Canadian Perspective

Lisa Arsenault is a high-school English teacher who is involved in
several ministry campaigns to increase literacy.

Written from a historical perspective, this collection of essays
analyzes the diverse social, cultural, and economic influences on
Canadian fashion spanning 300 years, and the responses to fashion by
Canadian producers, distributors, and consumers. The essays are
organized into four sections: Fashion and Identity; Fashion, Trade, and
Consumption; Fashion and Transition; and Fashion and Journalism.

Identifying historical dress in Canada begins with an essay on the
blanket coat developed during the 17th century and indelibly associated
with Anglo-Canadian identity by the second half of the 19th century.
This is followed by essays analyzing the central issue of whether or not
an identifiable Canadian fashion ethic exists in the 21st century. In
the next section, fashion is addressed from the viewpoints of the
manufacturer, worker, retailer, and consumer; these essays investigate
how changes in style are a response to social and cultural requirements.
Fashion and Transition discusses conventional versus radical dress and
the workplace. The history of Canadian fashion journalism and
advertising from the late 19th century to the present concludes the
book.

The editor of this scholarly tome is the fashion and costume curator at
the Royal Ontario Museum and an adjunct professor of art history at York
University. She makes the point that fashion is often considered to be a
frivolous subject and has therefore been neglected in academia. She
seeks to elevate its reputation and fill a gap in Canadian studies.

Each essay is a thoughtful, well-researched polemic. There are
extensive footnotes at the end of each section. Archival black-and-white
photographs (and several colour plates) from the collections of such
venerable Canadian Institutions as Eaton’s and Chatelaine illustrate
the text. This fine work will undoubtedly stimulate further academic
research into Canadian fashion history.