Benjamin on Fashion

257 Pages·2020·2.728 MB·English

by  Philipp Ekardt

Benjamin on Fashion
i
Walter Benjamin Studies
In this series devoted to the writings of Walter Benjamin each volume will focus
on a theme central to contemporary work on Benjamin. Th e series aims to set
new standards of work on Benjamin available in English for students and
researchers in Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Literary Studies.

Series Editor: Andrew Benjamin, Anniversary Professor of Philosophy and the
Humanities at Kingston University, London and Distinguished Professor of
Architectural Th eory at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Editorial Board:
Howard Caygill, Kingston University, UK
Rebecca Comay, University of Toronto, Canada
Ilit Ferber, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Werner Hamacher, University of Frankfurt, Germany
Julia Ng, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK
Gerhard Richter, Brown University, USA

Other titles in the series
Inheriting Walter Benjamin, Gerhard Richter
Modernism Between Benjamin and Goethe, Matthew Charles
ii
Benjamin on Fashion
Philipp Ekardt
iii
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First published in Great Britain 2020

Copyright © Philipp Ekardt, 2020

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1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.

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iv
Contents
List of illustrations viii
Acknowledgments xi
List of abbreviations xvii
Fashion- Forward Benjamin: A Brief Introduction 1
– Fashion- forward Benjamin 1
– A qualifying remark: Th e limits of this study and the positivity
of fashion 9
– Textual basis 11
Part One Time/Fashion Models
1 On Some Systematic Aspects of Benjamin’s Fashion Th eory 15
– Has fashion ever been modern? 15
– Fashion as model and as chronotechnics 18
– Benjamin’s fashion passage 20
– From phenomena in time to models of time 25
– Fashion changes little 26
– Being in fashion, being form (Simmel) 29
– Diff erentials of time and deviations of direction 36
– Any past’s contemporary: Fashion as a temporal qualifi er
(the sentimental education of the discontinuous) 40
– Yesterday, and the day before (sorting time and what has gone
out of style) 43
– Zeitkern (time kernel) 45
– Th e ends of Benjamin’s time/fashion model I: Revolution 48
– Th e ends of Benjamin’s time/fashion model II: Historical
apocastasis 52
v
vi Contents
Part Two Benjamin and the Fashion of his Time
2 Th e Contingent Primacy of Sex(es) 59
– A sudden affl uence: Th e view of garments gliding by 59
– Waists are up, skirts are down (1929/1930) 64
– An onscreen vignette: L’Herbier, Helm, Louiseboulanger 67
– Should Benjamin have attended fashion shows? Helen Grund,
the expert 75
– Th e only contemporaneous fashion thinker 77
– Th e contingent primacy of sex 78
– (Schiaparelli’s) Genital millinery 83
– Fashion, whores, Surrealists (Th e pitfalls of allegory and
the forgetting of labor) 95
– Beyond the logic of the placeholder. Schiaparelli’s
(and Dora Benjamin’s) fashion work 98
– Morphology of the silhouette (Benjamin vs. Focillon) 102
3 In/Elegant Materialisms 105
– Grund’s additional notes on the essence of fashion
(an unpublished fragment from the Walter
Benjamin-Archiv) 105
– A theory of elegance: Th e animation of garments
according to Helen Grund 107
– Th eory of modeling 110
– Th e immanence of elegance 113
– Taking it to the industry 114
– Th ing and dress (Schiaparelli, Apollinaire) 116
– Th e extraneous temporality of the fashion phenomenon 128
– Th e supple and the rigid: Two tendencies in 1930s Paris
Couture—Vionnet and the Pavillon de l’ É l é gance 134
– Versions of inertia: Persistence of the fashion form 149
– Th e non-givenness of material 151
– Materialism à la mode 156
4 Th e Tiger’s Leap and the Expression of History 163
– Th e charm of the previous century 163
– Striking a note in fashion history 174
Contents vii
– Morphology in history: Time as ground 176
– Th e tiger’s leap as expression of the economy (Benjamin’s
fashion ideology) 180
Notes 187
Bibliography 223
Index 233
List of illustrations
0.0 Man Ray: La folie du moment (1937) © Man Ray Trust / VG
Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019. xviii
0.1 Wols: Mannequin at the Pavillon de l’ É l é gance (1937).
Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. © VG
Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019. 12
2.1 George Hoyningen-Huene: Model Dinarzade in a
Jean Patou cardigan and notched-collar knit top with
tweed inset matching the skirt; hat by Rose Valois.
Vogue (1928). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 62
2.2 Edward Steichen: Tennis player Suzanne Lenglen in a Jean Patou
Sports Costume. Vogue (1926). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 63
2.3 Edward Steichen: Model Marion Morehouse in a black Patou
dress with chiff on tiered bottom. Vogue (1930). © Cond é
Nast/Getty Images. 64
2.4.a–e Brigitte Helm in Marcel L’Herbier’s “L’Argent,” costume by
Louiseboulanger with Jacques Manuel (1928), fi lm stills.
Cin é graphic / Soci é t é des Cin é romans / Universumfi lm. 68–70
2.5.a–c Brigitte Helm in Marcel L’Herbier’s “L’Argent,” costume
by Louiseboulanger with Jacques Manuel (1928), fi lm stills.
Cin é graphic / Soci é t é des Cin é romans / Universumfi lm. 72–73
2.6 Brigitte Helm in a Louiseboulanger neglig é e; Femina
(January 1929). Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen
Museen zu Berlin. 74
2.7 Minotaure No. 3/4 (1933), pagespread. Kunstbibliothek der
Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. Man Ray photographs © Man Ray
Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019. 85
2.8.a–d Mae West in A. Edward Sutherland’s “Every Day’s a Holiday,”
costume by Schiaparelli (1937), fi lm stills. Paramount Pictures. 90–91
2.9 Advertisement for Schiaparelli perfume “Shocking” (1937).
Kunstbibliothek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. 93
viii
List of illustrations ix
3.1 Man Ray: Elsa Schiaparelli, head on plaster torso, coiff ure by
Antoine (1933). © Man Ray Trust / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019. 118
3.2 Horst P. Horst: Mrs. Reginald Fellows with coiff ure by Antoine
and white Mandarin collared Schiaparelli coat. Vogue (1935).
© Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 119
3.3 Maison Schiaparelli, design sketch (collection winter 1937).
Paris, Mus é e des Arts d é croatifs—collection UFAC. Copyright
MAD, Paris / Jean Th olance. 121
3.4 Schiaparelli Shoe Hat (collection winter 1937). © Ullstein
Bild/Getty Images. 122
3.5 Maison Schiaparelli, design sketch (collection winter 1936).
Paris, Mus é e des Arts d é croatifs—collection UFAC. Copyright
MAD, Paris / Christophe Delli ä re. 122
3.6 a, b Cecil Beaton: Models in Schiaparelli Drawer Suits.
Vogue (1936). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 123–124
3.7 Cecil Beaton: Wallis Simpson in a black Schiaparelli
evening jacket with white trimming and a Schiaparelli dress.
Vogue (1937). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 125
3.8 George Hoyningen-Huene: Model Toto Koopman in an
Augustabernard evening dress. Vogue Paris (1934).
© Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives / Horst Estate. 135
3.9 George Hoyningen-Huene: Model Marion Morehouse in a
Vionnet dress. Vogue (1933). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 137
3.10 Vogue Paris (June 1937)—page spread. © Cond é Nast. 139
3.11 a, b Pavillon de l’ É l é gance booklet (1938). Biblioth è que
Nationale de France. 140–141
3.12 Wols: Mannequin at the Pavillon de l’ É l é gance (1937).
Kunstbiblitohek der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin. © VG
Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2019. 143
3.13 a George Hoyningen-Huene: Model Sonia in Vionnet pale
crepe romain pajamas. Vogue (1931). © Hoyningen-Huene
Estate Archives / Horst Estate. 145
3.13 b George Hoyningen-Huene: Model Sonia in Vionnet pale
crepe romain pajamas. Vogue (1931). © Cond é Nast/Getty Images. 145
3.14 Vogue Paris (November 1931)—page spread. © Cond é Nast. 146