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With contributions from leading fashion authorities and a host of spectacular images from the accompanying exhibition at the Museum at FIT, this book explores the history of Paris as the world´s fashion capital.

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Paris, Capital of Fashion accompanies a major exhibition at The Museum at FIT, New York´s only museum dedicated solely to the art of fashion. This lavishly-illustrated book is edited by MFIT´s director and chief curator, Valerie Steele, also the author of the acclaimed Paris Fashion: A Cultural History. This new book opens with an important essay on how and why Paris became famous as the international "capital of fashion."

Steele traces how the mythic "aura" of Paris fashion was constructed over generations, as the splendour of the court at Versailles came to be echoed by the spectacle of the haute couture. Yet Paris has faced repeated challenges from other fashion capitals, especially London, Milan, and New York. Essays by Christopher Breward, David Gilbert, Grazia d´Annunzio, and Antonia Finnane place Paris within a broader global narrative, while Sophie Kurkdjian investigates the cultural value of the Parisian couture, and Agnès Rocomora explores the online imagery of the chic Parisienne.

As The New Yorker recently put it, Paris is "the most glamorous and competitive of the world´s fashion capitals." No other city has been branded "Fashion" as Paris has. By opening the study of Paris fashion to new approaches, this book explains why Paris still retains its position as the world´s undisputed fashion capital.

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Introduction: Valerie Steele

Chapter 1: Paris, "Capital of Fashion"
Valerie Steele

Chapter 2: Paris, London, Shanghai: Touring the Fashion Imaginary
Christopher Breward

Chapter 3: Paris, New York, London, Milan ... Paris and a world order of fashion capitals
David Gilbert

Chapter 4: Paris and A Tale of Italian Cities
Grazia D´Annunzio

Chapter 5: Between Beijing and Shanghai: fashion in the Party state
Antonia Finnane

Chapter 6: The Cultural Value of Parisian Couture
Sophie Kurkdjian

Chapter 7: #parisienne: Social Media Stratification in Visions of Parisian Women
Agnès Rocamora

Notes
Image List
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index

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This striking book unpacks the mysteries of French fashion as material product and patrimony of a creative nation. Fashion worlds from Shanghai to Milan are studied here for the first time with a French accent, in this lavishly illustrated and imaginatively argued book. Peter McNeil FAHA, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

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