Publications

Journal and Books

Editor in Chief, Fashion Theory
Fashion Theory takes as its starting point a definition of ‘fashion’ as the cultural construction of the embodied identity. The importance of studying the body as a site for the deployment of discourses has been well established in a number of disciplines. Until Fashion Theory’s launch 11 years ago the dressed body had suffered from a lack of critical analysis. Increasingly scholars have recognized the cultural significance of self-fashioning, including not only clothing but also such body alterations as tattooing and piercing		 Subscribe
goth_cover_th.jpg Gothic: Dark Glamour
(Yale University Press, 2008)
Co-author with Jennifer Park.		  
The Black Dress
(HarperCollins, 2007)		 Order Online
Ralph Rucci
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2007).
Co-author with Patricia Mears and Clare Sauro.		 Order Online
Editor in Chief, The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion 3 volumes
(New York: Scribners, 2004)		 Order Online
Fashion, Italian Style
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003)		 Order Online
The Fan: Fashion and Femininity
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2003)		 Order Online
The Corset: A Cultural History
(London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).
Chinese edition, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, 2004.		 Order Online
The Red Dress
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2001)		 Order Online
Handbags: A Lexicon of Style
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2000).
Co-author with Laird Borrelli.		 Order Online
China Chic: East Meets West
(London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
Co-editor with John S. Major.		 Order Online
Shoes: A Lexicon of Style
(New York: Rizzoli International, 1999; London: Scriptum, 1999).		 Order Online
50 Years of Fashion: New Look to Now
(London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997; revised edition, 2000).
French edition: Se vêtir au XXe siècle. De 1945 à nos jours
(Paris: Adam Biro, 1998).		 Order Online
Fetish: Fashion, Sex and Power
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
German edition, Berlin Verlag, 1996;
Brazilian edition, Rocco, 1997:
French edition, Abbeville, 1997.
Italian edition, Meltemi editore, 2005.		 Order Online
Women of Fashion: Twentieth-Century Designers
(New York: Rizzoli International, 1991)		 Order Online
Men and Women: Dressing the Part.
(Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.) Co-editor with Claudia Kidwell. Author of three chapters.
Paris Fashion: A Cultural History
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988; Revised edition, Oxford: Berg, 1998)		 Order Online
Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).		 Order Online

Add commentIn Books January 29th, 2008

Selected Articles

  • “Marc Jacobs” in Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture, (NY: Rizzoli, 2009)
  • “Abstraction and the Avant-Garde,” in Fashion Body Cult, edited by Elke Bippus and Dorothea Mink (Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2007)
  • “Military Style,” Vogue Italia (November, 2006)
  • “Shoes and the Erotic Imagination,” in Shoes: A History from Sandals to Sneakers, edited by Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil (Oxford: Berg, 2006)
  • “The New Power Look,” Harpers Bazaar (September, 2006)
  • “Fashion and Glamour,” in Glamour, Fabricating Affluence (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in conjunction with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2004)
  • “The Corset” and “Monuments for Certain Ideas: Valerie Steele Talks to Hussein Chalayan,” in José Teunissen and Jan Brand, eds. The Ideal Woman (Amsterdam: SUN Publishers, 2004).
  • “Frills, Lace, Velvet,” Harpers Bazaar (November, 2005)
  • “Femme Fatale: Fashion and Visual Culture in Fin-de-Siècle Paris,” Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture (September, 2004)
  • “A Supermodern Style,” in Yeohlee: Work. Material Architecture (Victoria: The Images Publishing Group, 2003)
  • “Style in Revolt,” in Radical Fashion (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2001)
  • Messengers Style. Text by Valerie Steele. Photographs by Philippe Bialobos (New York and Paris: Editions Assouline, 2000)
  • “Armani, Fashion and Film,” in Giorgio Armani (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2000)
  • “Women Fashioning American Fashion, 1900-2000,” in Pat Kirkham, ed., Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference (New Haven: Yale University Press and Bard Graduate Center, 2000)
  • “Fashion: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” in Nicola White and Ian Griffiths, ed., The Fashion Business: Theory, Practice, Image (Oxford: Berg, 2000)
  • “Jean Paul Gaultier,” in Gerda Buxbaum, ed., Icons of Fashion: The 20th Century (Munich, London, New York: Prestel, 2000)
  • “Fashioning Masculinity,” in Giannino Malossi, ed., Material Man: Masculinity, Sexuality, Style (New York: Abrams, 1999)
  • “The Italian Look,” in Volare: The Icon of Italy in Global Pop Culture edited by Giannino Malossi (New York: Monicelli Press, 1999).
  • “A Museum of Fashion Is More Than a Clothes-Bag,” Fashion Theory vol.2 issue 4 (December. 1998)
  • Barbie Millicent Roberts: An Original (New York: Pantheon, 1998). Text by Valerie Steele. Photographs by David Levinthal.
  • “Why People Hate Fashion,” in The Style Engine edited by Giannino Malossi (New York: Monacelli, 1998).
  • “McCardell’s American Look.,” Introduction to Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism by Kohle Yohannan (New York: Abrams, 1998).
  • “Style’s Royal Flush,” The New York Times, Style Section, September 7, 1997
  • “Le Corset: A Material Culture Analysis of a Deluxe French Book,” The Yale Journal of Criticism (Fall, 1997)
  • “Surgical Spirit,” The Sunday Times (London), November 12, 1995.
  • “Sieg des Fetisch,” Deutsch Vogue (May, 1995).
  • “Jacques Fath,” “Martin Margiela,” “Jil Sander,” “Sybilla,” “Isabel Toledo,” and “Vivienne Westwood,” in Contemporary Fashion, ed. Richard Martin (London: St. James Press, 1995). Revised edition with Forward by Valerie Steele.
  • Art, Design, and Barbie: The Making of a Cultural Icon Text by Valerie Steele. (New York: Rizzoli, 1995).
  • “Italian Fashion, 1943-1968,” in The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968 (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1994).
  • “Calvinism Uncovered,” Design Quarterly (December, 1992).
  • “Paint it Black,” View on Color (Paris, October, 1992).
  • “Chanel in Context” in Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, ed. Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson (London and New York: Pandora/Harper Collins, 1992; paperback published by The University of California Press).
  • “Erotic Allure” in The Idealizing Vision: The Art of Fashion Photography, ed. Andrew Wilkes (New York: Aperture, 1991). Also published in the magazine Aperture.
  • “The F Word,” Lingua Franca (April, 1991)

Add commentIn Articles January 28th, 2008