Had a lovely conversation about my new book with Miranda Melcher for the @NewBooksNetwork podcast. You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: newbooksnetwork.com/the-art-of-p...

Book spotted in a bookstore!

So thrilled to share this research with everyone at last!

Order now! www.bloomsbury.com/us/art-of-pa...

🎉Publication Day! *The Art of Parisian Chic* is now available in softcover, hardcover and ebook formats. Paperback is only $28!

Woot! My advance copies have arrived and they’re beautiful! 150 full color images 😍

1/Given everything it has seemed frivolous to post about my forthcoming book, but I’ve learned it’s being printed this week and so to celebrate I thought I’d post a #19thc carte de visite that just arrived yesterday too. It’s of the lovely Sophie Croizette, a great rival of Sarah Bernhardt...

1/Very happy with my cute new carte de visite album. Also the new postcard of Jeanne Demarsy (the model for Manet’s Jeanne). Here she’s playing a harem role in “Mon Oncle Barbassou,” an 1891 Gymnase production. I discovered a lot about Demarsy’s career as an actress and cocotte, #19thc #arthistory

Oh the pain of realizing you should have written more about a painting you only mention in passing in your proofs. Jeanne de Tourbey I am so sorry I left your story out (though my editor is doubtless pleased as this chapter is already 68 pages 😅). #19thc #fashionhistory #arthistory #academicsky

Going to be a bit quieter over the next two weeks as I have final page proofs to review (and an index to assemble!). Keeping two of the women in the book close as inspiration. ❤️ Wish me luck! #academicsky #fashionhistory #19thc #arthistory #France

1/ Now for a story that I do discuss in the book: In the late 1870s, Giovanni Boldini, a young Italian modern-life painter was enjoying an “early rise to fame,” as one contemporary critic put it. Eager to couple the beauty and celebrity of an actress with a fashionable #19thc #fashionhistory 🧵

This time a thread on Alice Regnault in a saucy Horse Guard uniform. I'm bad at posting so I forgot to indicate it's a thread, but do click through for many more images. #19thc #France #theatrehistory #academicsky

Can’t resist sharing this other recent find on eBay. Another shot of Alice Regnault by Gaston, Mathieu & Cie this time in costume as Julia, a Horse Guard in "Le Trône d'Ecosse,” which debuted at the Théâtre des Variétés on Nov. 17, 1871. #19thc #France #theatrehistory

Exciting update, the photo of Alice Regnault (born Augustine-Alexandrine Toulet) is by Gaston, Mathieu & Cie. There's an alternate crop in the Paris Musées collection. #fashionhistory #19thc #France #courtesan #chic www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/musee-car...

I’m going to start sharing images of some of the women discussed in the book. These images won’t necessarily be the ones in the book, though some of them will be. Here’s a photograph of Alice Regnault, an actress at the Théâtre du Gymnase whom I discuss, which I just bought off eBay.

Still trying to recreate my threads here so I can deactivate my twitter account! Tonight's is on the old myth that women's buttons were put on the left for the convenience of women's maids. 🗃️🪡

There is a hint of the reptilian to this mid #1870s dress. The angled pleating and position of the decorative buttons lends it an air of a watchful crocodile in shaded greens, the tongue of pale train skirting its hem, Mme Depret Paris @metcostume.bsky.social

Since everyone is doing intros: I’m a feminist art historian who writes about fashion and gender. My new book is *The Art of Parisian Chic: Modern Women and Modern Artists in Impressionist Paris* (Bloomsbury 2025) @artofparisianchic.bsky.social #19thc #academicsky #fashionhistory

Photograph of a woman with bustle dress Circa 1886, Tallahassee, Florida, United States Source: Florida Memory, #victorianfashion #fashionhistory #victorian

The book has a cover! Available for pre-order from Bloomsbury. Only $28!

Looking at a rich array of visual sources, from portraits to modern-life paintings, photographs to fashion plates, the book reveals how women were seen, how they aspired to be seen, and how they navigated public life in nineteenth-century Paris.

The book explores how modern women and modern artists in Paris (1855-1885) crafted their public images, manipulating expectations surrounding five fashionable types—the mistress, the young widow, the equestrienne, the shopgirl, and the Parisienne—to exploit and resist stereotypes.

I’m thrilled to announce that _The Art of Parisian Chic: Modern Women and Modern Artists in Impressionist Paris_ will be forthcoming from Bloomsbury Visual Arts in 2025. #fashionhistory #arthistory #womensstudies