A Perfect Fit - (Costume Society of America) by Gabriel Goldstein & Elizabeth Greenberg (Hardcover)

About the Book

Flip on the entertainment news, open an issue of a popular magazine, or step into any department store--and you'll appreciate the impact of the multibillion-dollar fashion industry on American culture. Yet its origins in the nineteenth-century "rag trade" of Jewish tailors, cutters, pressers, peddlers, and shopkeepers have yet to be fully explored. In this copiously illustrated volume, twelve scholars from varied backgrounds consider the role of American Jews in creating, developing, and furthering the national garment industry from the Civil War forward. Drawn from an award-winning exhibition of the same title at the Yeshiva University Museum, A Perfect Fit provides a fascinating view of American society, culture, and industrialization. Essays address themes such as the development of the menswear industry; the early film industry and its relationship to American fashion; the relationship of the American industry to Britain and France; the acculturation of Jewish immigrants and its impact on American garment making; advertising history and popular culture; and regional centers of manufacturing. This multivalent group of essays compellingly weaves together important threads of the complex history of the American garment industry.

Book Synopsis

Flip on the entertainment news, open an issue of a popular magazine, or step into any department store--and you'll appreciate the impact of the multibillion-dollar fashion industry on American culture. Yet its origins in the nineteenth-century "rag trade" of Jewish tailors, cutters, pressers, peddlers, and shopkeepers have yet to be fully explored. In this copiously illustrated volume, scholars from varied backgrounds consider the role of American Jews in creating, developing, and furthering the national garment industry from the Civil War forward. Drawn from an award-winning exhibition of the same title at the Yeshiva University Museum, A Perfect Fit provides a fascinating view of American society, culture, and industrialization. Essays address themes such as the development of the menswear industry; the early film industry and its relationship to American fashion; the relationship of the American industry to Britain and France; the acculturation of Jewish immigrants and its impact on American garment making; advertising history and popular culture; and regional centers of manufacturing. This multivalent group of essays compellingly weaves together important threads of the complex history of the American garment industry.

Review Quotes

"[A] fine contribution to both fashion and American Jewish history . . . significantly enhanced by the number and variety of the 152 color illustrations." --Publishers Weekly-- "Publishers Weekly" (4/16/2012 12:00:00 AM)

[A] fine contribution to both fashion and American Jewish history . . . significantly enhanced by the number and variety of the 152 color illustrations. --Publishers Weekly


Coffee table books are generally handsome but not often scholarly. This beautiful and erudite book is an exception....[A] well researched study of the Jewish role in the garment industry illustrated by exquisite photographs of designer dresses, accessories, fashion magazine advertisements, and of the fashion celebrities themselves...It is impossible to do full justice in a brief review to the breadth and depth of this beautiful, scholarly study of Jewish involvement in the multi-billion dollar world of fashion. --Jewish Book Council

About the Author

Gabriel Goldstein served as curator of the exhibition "A Perfect Fit: The Garment Industry and American Jewry" at the Yeshiva University Museum. A specialist in Jewish art and material culture, he served at the museum for more than two decades.Elizabeth Greenberg served as assistant curator and exhibition coordinator of the exhibition. Trained as a fashion historian at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Fashion Institute of Technology, she is now curator of fine arts at Siena College in Loudonville, New York.