Giorgio Riello | European University Institute (original) (raw)
I teach Early Modern Global History at the European University Institute. I was previously professor of Global History and Culture at the University of Warwick. I was trained as an economic historian but I have published on the history of material culture, fashion, design and consumption especially in early modern South Asia and Europe. My books include A Foot in the Past (OUP 2006), Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (CUP 2013; winner of the World History Association Bentley Prize 2014), Luxury: A Rich History (co-authored with Peter McNeil) (OUP, 2016), and Back in Fashion: Western Fashion from the Middle Ages to the Present (Yale UP, 2020).
less
Uploads
Papers by Giorgio Riello
This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and sugge... more This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and suggests the existence of three different approaches. The field of history of dress and costume has a long tradition going back to the nineteenth century. It adopts the methodologies of art history and considers artefacts as central to the analysis of different periods and themes. In the last few decades the emergence of fashion studies has been interpreted as a distancing from artefacts. It is here claimed that fashion studies brought theoretical rigour and embraced a deductive methodology of analysis in which artefacts still played an important function. The final part of this essay introduces the reader to what I call the material culture of fashion, a hybrid methodology borrowed from anthropology and archeology in which the object is central in the study of social, cultural and economic practices that are time specific. It shows in particular the challenges and paybacks of such an approach.
![Research paper thumbnail of La globalisation de l’Histoire globale : une question disputée' [‘The Globalization of Global History: A Contentious Issue’], Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 54/5 (2007), pp. 23-33.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/41078919/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Giorgio RIELLO Il est toujours intéressant d'être appelé à réfléchir sur le développement d'un se... more Giorgio RIELLO Il est toujours intéressant d'être appelé à réfléchir sur le développement d'un secteur nouveau de l'histoire, ou à tout le moins sur son renouvellement récent. Les pages qui suivent ont été rédigées à la suite de mon intervention lors de la table ronde de la SHMC tenue le 9 juin 2007 à Paris. Je tiens à remercier les organisateurs de cette rencontre qui fut passionnante. Ce ne sont pas là des mots de pure convenance, pour deux raisons.Tout d'abord, il n'est pas fréquent que des institutions académiques, en l'occurrence des sociétés savantes historiques, s'aventurent sur des terrains peu balisés : l'exercice est périlleux, qui peut tout aussi bien mener à des échecs cuisants qu'à d'heureuses fortunes. Ensuite, j'ai eu l'agréable surprise de participer à une rencontre très ouverte et informelle, loin de la componction et des préséances bien souvent en usage dans le monde universitaire. La fraîcheur d'esprit des débats (et la moyenne d'âge relativement basse des participants) m'ont conforté dans l'idée que notre discipline est encore capable de dépasser les compartimentages habituels pour accueillir toutes sortes de tentatives de renouvellement.
Writing Material Culture History examines the methodologies currently used in the historical stud... more Writing Material Culture History examines the methodologies currently used in the historical study of material culture. Touching on archaeology, art history, literary studies and anthropology, the book provides history students with a fundamental understanding of the relationship between artefacts and historical narratives. The role of museums, the impact of the digital age and the representations of objects in public history are just some of the issues addressed in a book that brings together key scholars from around the world.
A range of artefacts, including a 16th-century Peruvian crown and a 19th-century Alaskan Sea Lion overcoat, are considered, illustrating the myriad ways in which objects and history relate to one another. Bringing together scholars working in a variety of disciplines, this book provides a critical introduction for students interested in material culture, history and historical methodologies. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-material-culture-history-9781472518569/#sthash.n5A8hNDh.dpuf
... were more adaptable, faster and less expensive than weaving design. From their arrival, gener... more ... were more adaptable, faster and less expensive than weaving design. From their arrival, generations of Europeans identified with the unique ... history.46 Indeed, Georg Simmel theorized that the fashion phenomenon ... Decorative household textiles were an important early ...
Fashion Theory-the Journal of Dress Body & Culture, 2005
... century the physical mobility of the upper orders in urban or rural environments had been con... more ... century the physical mobility of the upper orders in urban or rural environments had been considerably restricted (Stobart 1998, 2002 ... According to the investigation of Commissioner Foucault and Inspecteur Noël of the Parisian police, only pederasts were wearing laces, instead ...
Enterprise & Society, 2012
This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and sugge... more This essay considers the role of artefacts in the historical study of dress and fashion and suggests the existence of three different approaches. The field of history of dress and costume has a long tradition going back to the nineteenth century. It adopts the methodologies of art history and considers artefacts as central to the analysis of different periods and themes. In the last few decades the emergence of fashion studies has been interpreted as a distancing from artefacts. It is here claimed that fashion studies brought theoretical rigour and embraced a deductive methodology of analysis in which artefacts still played an important function. The final part of this essay introduces the reader to what I call the material culture of fashion, a hybrid methodology borrowed from anthropology and archeology in which the object is central in the study of social, cultural and economic practices that are time specific. It shows in particular the challenges and paybacks of such an approach.
Giorgio RIELLO Il est toujours intéressant d'être appelé à réfléchir sur le développement d'un se... more Giorgio RIELLO Il est toujours intéressant d'être appelé à réfléchir sur le développement d'un secteur nouveau de l'histoire, ou à tout le moins sur son renouvellement récent. Les pages qui suivent ont été rédigées à la suite de mon intervention lors de la table ronde de la SHMC tenue le 9 juin 2007 à Paris. Je tiens à remercier les organisateurs de cette rencontre qui fut passionnante. Ce ne sont pas là des mots de pure convenance, pour deux raisons.Tout d'abord, il n'est pas fréquent que des institutions académiques, en l'occurrence des sociétés savantes historiques, s'aventurent sur des terrains peu balisés : l'exercice est périlleux, qui peut tout aussi bien mener à des échecs cuisants qu'à d'heureuses fortunes. Ensuite, j'ai eu l'agréable surprise de participer à une rencontre très ouverte et informelle, loin de la componction et des préséances bien souvent en usage dans le monde universitaire. La fraîcheur d'esprit des débats (et la moyenne d'âge relativement basse des participants) m'ont conforté dans l'idée que notre discipline est encore capable de dépasser les compartimentages habituels pour accueillir toutes sortes de tentatives de renouvellement.
Writing Material Culture History examines the methodologies currently used in the historical stud... more Writing Material Culture History examines the methodologies currently used in the historical study of material culture. Touching on archaeology, art history, literary studies and anthropology, the book provides history students with a fundamental understanding of the relationship between artefacts and historical narratives. The role of museums, the impact of the digital age and the representations of objects in public history are just some of the issues addressed in a book that brings together key scholars from around the world.
A range of artefacts, including a 16th-century Peruvian crown and a 19th-century Alaskan Sea Lion overcoat, are considered, illustrating the myriad ways in which objects and history relate to one another. Bringing together scholars working in a variety of disciplines, this book provides a critical introduction for students interested in material culture, history and historical methodologies. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/writing-material-culture-history-9781472518569/#sthash.n5A8hNDh.dpuf
... were more adaptable, faster and less expensive than weaving design. From their arrival, gener... more ... were more adaptable, faster and less expensive than weaving design. From their arrival, generations of Europeans identified with the unique ... history.46 Indeed, Georg Simmel theorized that the fashion phenomenon ... Decorative household textiles were an important early ...
Fashion Theory-the Journal of Dress Body & Culture, 2005
... century the physical mobility of the upper orders in urban or rural environments had been con... more ... century the physical mobility of the upper orders in urban or rural environments had been considerably restricted (Stobart 1998, 2002 ... According to the investigation of Commissioner Foucault and Inspecteur Noël of the Parisian police, only pederasts were wearing laces, instead ...
Enterprise & Society, 2012
