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Fear and Fashion in the Cold War

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From Barbarella’s bikini to vinyl radiation suits to high-tech jewelry, the Cold War’s impact on fashion was unmistakable.

 

Atomic anxieties, the space race, technological developments, and the first forays into “super-reality” led to innovations in materials, the cybernetic visions of the 1960s, and a range of surprising responses from artists, filmmakers, scientists, and designers. With a stunning selection of images, including photographs by fashion luminaries such as John French, Fear and Fashion in the Cold War explores how the image of the body was shaped by Cold War concerns between 1945 and 1970. In this engaging book, Jane Pavitt incorporates military, political, and scientific research in an engrossing discussion of how countercultural theories and experiences in the later 1960s shaped an alternative view of the “Cold War Body.”

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Jane Pavitt

11 books

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Phair.
2,129 reviews35 followers
September 26, 2010
Lately I've been looking back to my younger days a lot. This book discusses the influence of Cold War technology and paranoia on dress and lifestyle. The focus is the late 50s thru early 70s and it was fun reliving a lot of what happened in my childhood thru early adulthood. Made me recall the 'house of the future' at the '64 NY World's Fair, the explosion of synthetics, paper dresses (I still have one!), Emma Peel's cat suits. The future didn't turn out much like it was envisioned but this was fun! Too bad all the pictures were black & white.
Profile Image for Matthew Lawrence.
307 reviews16 followers
March 22, 2010
I wish it were possible to give things 4 and a half stars. This book is amazing, at least for the first 80%. I started taking notes and then eventually realized that I was basically just transcribing the whole book, so excited was I about everything to do with spacesuits and cold war fashion. But in the last fifteen pages there's a not-totally-justified jump towards more conceptual, architectural pieces that was a lot more academic and a lot less fun. Still, totally worth reading.
Author 5 books6 followers
October 5, 2013
A spin-off of the V&A's Cold War Modern exhibit, Fear and Fashion is less about the full range of fashion responses to the Cold War than the techno-fascination and techno-phobia of Western fashion in the 1950s and 60s, and the (limited) ways in which the Eastern Bloc responded to the same issues.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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