Hollywood Before Glamour: Fashion in American Silent Film

This is the first in-depth, book-length exploration of fashion in American silent film, offering fresh perspectives on the era that preceded the studio system as well as the evolution of Hollywood’s distinctive brand of glamour. By the 1910s, the moving image was an integral part of everyday life and communicated fascinating, but as yet uninvestigated, ideas and ideals about fashionable dress. Hollywood Before Glamour will make new connections between the fashion and film industries, and fashion will be the lens through which the reader will gain new insights into early cinema and contemporary meanings of dress.

Michelle Tolini Finamore has a PhD from the Bard Graduate Center, New York, USA, and is Curator of Fashion Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. She has held posts at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sotheby’s, the Rhode Island School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She most recently co-authored Jewelry by Artists: In the Studio, 1940-2000. She has lectured widely and written numerous articles for both the scholarly and popular press.