Скачать или смотреть PODCAST: Threads of Power: Dance & Fashion Series Part 1

Dance & Fashion Part 1: Threads of Power

You’d be hard pressed to find a time or place in history where ballet and fashion weren’t influencing and inspiring each other. From the aristocratic dandies to the enlightenment, from the French revolution to Napoleon’s dress code. Napoleon surprisingly took quite an interest in the Paris Opera and his promotion system for the company is still in place today.

In this podcast we’ll take a wider fashion history lens. Starting with the meaning of the words haute couture:

Much like the word ballerina, haute couture has a colloquial meaning and an insider’s meaning. Most of us recognize haute couture as meaning “high fashion”, “designer” or “hand made”- however it’s actually a legal French term that you are only supposed to use if you follow a certain set of very specific criteria like have a fashion atelier in Paris (no, London will not do).

Then we’ll rewind the clock to medieval times. When fashion was used as a way to uphold a class system largely based on birth rather than wealth or merit. It was at some points illegal to dress above your station, and the laws, called sumptuary laws, were quite specific- even dictating the exact limits of how much your cloth could cost if you were beneath a certain station.

Moving right along into the enlightenment when under our beloved Louis XIV, men’s fashion was the belle of the ball. It wasn’t until after the French revolution that women were centered both on ballet’s stages and sartorially speaking.


Listen to the full podcast above and let me know what you think.

Next week we’ll continue with the evolution of the tutu and a of costume in general. We’ll eventually arrive at Alexander McQueen, Sylvie Guillem & cross dressing spies- as one does.

Want to learn more about ballet and fashion? There are 2 books I can’t recommend enough for this. One is “Back in Fashion” (https://amzn.to/3RWuwv2) by George Riello. Then of course, Jennifer Homans’ “Apollo’s Angels” (https://amzn.to/4itMHTR) . Links are here for convenience but if your local bookstore has them, that’s way better.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thedancelens.substack.com (https://thedancelens.substack.com?utm...)