This course focuses on the development of fashion as a modern phenomenon in its relation to a diversity of media. Approached through a broadly chronological framework the course will discuss how fashion has evolved and grown in significance through its forms of mediation, which have in turn critically influenced and shaped our perception and understanding of fashion. The course will take a broad look at the various sources that form the basis for the study of the history and contemporary contexts of modern fashion, including early costume books, images, texts, objects and commodities, as they are found in paintings, photography and film, displayed in museums, available for purchase in stores, or referenced through the contemporary fashion system via fashion shows and magazines, through relationships between fashion and art, and the broader media impact of fashion through the internet. Key texts include Christopher Breward’s Fashion (2000), which is read as historical evidence and interpretation, Lou Taylor’s The Study of Dress History (2002), and selected readings which exemplify the utilization of diverse sources and methodologies that impact our understanding of fashion and its history. Students will learn to reflect critically on the practices and processes around the construction and study of fashion history during the last century and a half.