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
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Dance and Fashion book cover Dance and Fashion
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2014)
Edited by Valerie Steele. With contributions by Mary Davis, Colleen Hill, Melissa Marra, Emma McClendon, Patricia Mears, Masafumi Monden, Adelheid Rasche, Elizabeth Way, and Anna Winestein.
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queer history of fashion book cover A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2013)
Editor and co-author with Christopher Breward, Shaun Cole, Vicki Karaminas, Jonathan Katz, Peter McNeil, and Elizabeth Wilson.
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Fashion A-Z book cover Fashion Design, A-Z. The Collection of The Museum at FIT
(Taschen, 2013)
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Shoe Obession book cover Shoe Obsession
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2012)
Co-authored with Colleen Hill.
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Akris book cover AKRIS
(Assouline, 2012)
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The Impossible Collection of Fashion The Impossible Collection of Fashion
(New York and Paris: Assouline, 2011)
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Japan Fashion Now book cover Japan Fashion Now
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2010)
Co-author with Patricia Mears, Hiroshi Narumi, Yuniya Kawamura.
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Berg Companion to Fashion The Berg Companion to Fashion
(Oxford: Berg, 2010)
Editor
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Isabel Toledo book cover Isabel Toledo: Fashion from the Inside Out
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2009)
Co-author with Patricia Mears.
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goth_cover_th.jpg Gothic: Dark Glamour
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2008)
Co-author with Jennifer Park.
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The Black Dress
(HarperCollins, 2007)
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Ralph Rucci
(Yale University Press and FIT, 2007).
Co-author with Patricia Mears and Clare Sauro.
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Editor in Chief, The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion 3 volumes
(New York: Scribners, 2004)
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Fashion, Italian Style
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003)
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The Fan: Fashion and Femininity
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2003)
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The Corset: A Cultural History
(London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001).
Chinese edition, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, 2004.
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The Red Dress
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2001)
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Handbags: A Lexicon of Style
(New York: Rizzoli International, 2000).
Co-author with Laird Borrelli.
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China Chic: East Meets West
(London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).
Co-editor with John S. Major.
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Shoes: A Lexicon of Style
(New York: Rizzoli International, 1999; London: Scriptum, 1999).
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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).
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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.
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Women of Fashion: Twentieth-Century Designers
(New York: Rizzoli International, 1991)
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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)
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Fashion and Eroticism: Ideals of Feminine Beauty from the Victorian Era to the Jazz Age
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).
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Add commentIn Books January 29th, 2008

Selected Articles

  • “Costume and Fashion,” in Hollywood Costume, edited by Deborah Nadoolman Landis. (London: V&A Publications, 2012)
  • “Édouard Manet: Nana” in Impressionism, Fashion & Modernity, edited by Gloria Groom. (The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2012)
  • “Fashion” in Fashion and Art, edited by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas. (London and New York: Berg, 2012)
  • “Fashion Prescribes the Ritual,” in Walter Van Bierendonck: Dream the World Awake, (Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo and the Mode Museum, 2011)
  • “Leigh Bowery,” in Not a Toy, edited by Vassilis Zidianakis (Berlin: Pictoplasm, 2011)
  • “Artificial Beauty,” in The Fashion History Reader: Global Perspectives, edited by Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil (New York: Routledge, 2010)
  • “Introduction” Roxanne Lowitt: Backstage Dior, (Kempen, Paris, New York: teNeues, 2010)
  • “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).
  • “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).
  • “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