Fashioning Spain: From Matillas to Rosalía, by Francisco Fernández de Alba & Marcela T. Garcés

The first book launch in Ex Libris series is dedicated to fashion with Fashioning Spain: From Mantillas to Rosalía (Bloomsbury, 2021) edited by Francisco Fernández de Alba and Marcela T. Garcés.

Fashioning Spain is a cultural history of Spanish fashion in the 20th and 21st centuries, a period of significant social, political, and economic upheaval. As Spain moved from dictatorship to democracy and, most recently, to the digital age, fashion has experienced seismic shifts. The chapters in this collection reveal how women empowered themselves through fashion choices, detail Balenciaga's international stardom, present female photographers challenging gender roles under Franco's rule, and uncover the politicization of the mantilla. In the visual culture of Spanish fashion, tradition and modernity coexist and compete, reflecting society's changing effects.

Using a range of case studies and approaches, this collection explores fashion in films, comics from la Movida, Rosalía's music videos, and both brick-and-mortar and virtual museums. It demonstrates that fashion is ripe with historical meaning, and offers unique insights into the many facets of Spanish cultural life.

Francisco Fernández de Alba is the A. Howard Meneely Professor of Hispanic Studies at Wheaton College, MA, USA, where he teaches courses on modern and contemporary Spanish culture. He is the author of Sex, Drugs, and Fashion in 1970s Madrid (2020).

Marcela T. Garcés is an Associate Professor of Spanish at Siena College, NY, USA. She has authored several articles on contemporary Spanish film, fashion, and gastronomy. She is a scriptwriter of the documentary film The Txoko Experience: The Secret Culinary Space of the Basques (2017).