This course focuses on the development of fashion as a modern phenomenon in its relation to a diversity of media. Approached through a thematic and 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. We will take a look at the various sources that form the basis for the study of historical and contemporary contexts of modern fashion, including: images, texts, objects and commodities, as they are found in paintings, photography and film, displayed in museums, available for purchase, or referenced through the contemporary fashion system via fashion shows and magazines. As we study fashion and its media, as well as examples of the media themselves, we will also consider relationships between fashion and art, and the broader impact of technology on fashion from photography and film to virtuality and the internet. Students investigate actively and reflect critically on the practices and processes around the definition, construction and study of fashion history during the last century and a half. Key foundational texts include Lou Taylor's The Study of Dress History (2002), Riello and McNeil’s The Fashion History Reader: A Global Perspective (2010), and Jansen and Craik’s Modern Fashion Traditions: Negotiating Tradition and Modernity Through Fashion (2016) and selected readings, which exemplify the use of diverse sources and methodologies that shape our understanding of fashion and its histories.