Jews in Suits - (Dress Cultures) by Jonathan C Kaplan-Wajselbaum (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Shortlisted for the Leslie and Sophie Caplan Award for Jewish Non-Fiction

Surviving photographs of Jewish Viennese men during the fin-de-siècle and interwar periods - both the renowned cultural luminaries and their many anonymous coreligionists - all share a striking sartorial detail: the tailored suit. Yet, until now, the adoption of the tailored suit and its function in the formation of modern Jewish identities remains under-researched.

Jews in Suits uses a rich range of written and visual sources, including literary fiction and satire, 'ego-documents', photography, trade catalogues, invoices, and department store culture, to propose a new narrative of men, fashion, and their Jewish identities. It reveals that dressing in a modern manner was not simply a matter of assimilation, but rather a way of developing new models of Jewish subjectivity beyond the externally prescribed notion of 'the Jew'. Drawing upon fashionable dress, folk costume, religious dress, avant-garde, oppositional dress, typologies which are often considered separate from one another, it proposes a new way of reading men and clothing cultures within an iconic cultural milieu, offering insights into the relationship of clothing and grooming to the understanding of the self.

Review Quotes

"Any-one inter-est-ed in the devel-op-ment of Jew-ish iden-ti-ty in Europe ... will appre-ci-ate this thor-ough-ly researched, well-argued, and over-all com-pelling book." --Jewish Book Council

"Jews in Suits is an erudite, handsomely printed, and substantial book, by an emerging voice in Jewish and Fashion Studies." --Australian Journal of Jewish Studies

"A pleasure to read ... Kaplan has, with very real skill, produced a close analysis of the design and wearing of men's clothing in 19th- and early 20th-century Vienna ... This text has left me sadder and wiser - with a far greater understanding of the roots and depth of anti-Semitism in Austria in this period." --Lou Taylor, University of Brighton, UK

"This highly original study of Viennese Jewish men recreates their culture of clothing with clarity and imagination ... Essential reading for those interested in men's dress and modernism." --Peter McNeil, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

"This book offers fresh, new perspectives on the critical role of men's clothing in fashioning modern Jewish identities. Jews in Suits presents a thought-provoking examination of the sartorial habits of rabbis, politicians, authors and scientists, who granted themselves the authority to shine in the cultural scenes in Vienna and beyond." --Elana Shapira, University of Vienna, Austria

About the Author

Jonathan C. Kaplan-Wajselbaum is an honorary adjunct fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and education officer at the Sydney Jewish Museum. He holds a PhD in dress and design history from the Imagining Fashion Futures Research lab at the University of Technology Sydney, and has published on the intersections between dress, acculturation, and Jewish identity.