How have artists reacted to such creations as slashed clothing, codpieces, the crinoline or the dinner jacket? Fashion is an economic index as well as a seismograph of social sensitivities--an expression of longing and an instrument for mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. In the modern age of global homogenization through "fast fashion," this book provides an overview of clothing in art and subversive moments in fashion through painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography and film.

A journey through 500 years of fashion history, it includes works by Joseph Beuys, Erwin Blumfeld, Pierre Bonnard, Honoré Daumier, Albrecht Dürer, Max Ernst, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Natalja Gontscharowa, Hannah Höch, Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, Méret Oppenheim, Pierre-Louis Pierson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Luc Tuymans, Félix Vallotton, Andy Warhol and Erwin Wurm.