Elizabeth L. Block is an art historian.

Preorder now: Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing (MIT Press, September 2024)

Read a quote in Dazed Beauty.

About the Author

 

Elizabeth L. Block, an art historian, is a Senior Editor in the Publications and Editorial Department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

She holds a PhD in art history from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, an MA in American Studies from Columbia University, New York, and a BA in English and art history from The George Washington University, Washington, DC.

Upcoming Events

 

Organizing a private lecture event? Tap “Contact Me” above to schedule.

The Gilded Gentleman Podcast: “Gilded Age Undergarments: What did Mrs. Astor Wear (Under There)?” April 2, 2024

“Beyond Vanity: The History and Power of Hairdressing,” National Arts Club, November 8, 2024. Free talk. Registration information to come.

 
 

Author of Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion (MIT Press). Buy here.

Buy Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion here.

Featured on Dressed: The History of Fashion Podcast: Listen here.

Winner of Victorian Society in America book award 2022.

Shortlisted for Association of Dress Historians 2022 Book of the Year.

In the Press: Daily Art Magazine, Vanity Fair, Vogue, BBC Woman’s Hour, The Washington Post, WWD, History, Town & Country, Slate, MIT Reader, The Magazine Antiques

“This handsomely illustrated, anecdotal volume illuminates the symbiotic relationship between late-19th-century Parisian fashion houses and their well-to-do American clients. Block, a senior editor for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s publication department, writes winningly”

—Michael Dirda, Book Critic, The Washington Post

“The book is a must-read for anyone who loves fashion and wants to understand more about its history and how it affected more aspects than just design.”

Daily Art Magazine

Featured on BBC TV about the Met Gala 2023. Watch here.

Featured on The Gilded Gentleman podcast. Listen here.

Featured on CUNY TV. Watch here.

Featured on Unsung History podcast. Listen here.

Silhouettes: A Fashion History Podcast. Listen here.

Featured on HERstory on the Rocks podcast. Listen here.

Featured on The Style that Binds Us podcast. Listen here.

Grant Awards for Dressing Up

 

Winner of the Aileen Ribeiro Grant from the Association of Dress Historians

Winner of a Pasold Fund Publication Grant

Winner of an Association for Art History Grant

Praise for Dressing Up

“Revising the traditional view of fashion history as a parade of (mostly male) genius designers, Block highlights the stylish customers, along with enterprising female dressmakers and businesswomen, whose tastes shaped the look of the Gilded Age.”

Library Journal

Dressing Up is widely accessible, clearly written, engaging, and thoroughly researched. . . . The book’s illustrations render the experience of reading it still more rewarding. Combined with the careful and colorful descriptions of the individual dresses, the images bring the dresses to life.”

Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide

“Block rightly moves away from focusing on couture designers as omnipotent geniuses to focus instead on the social life of garments themselves.”

Journal of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era

“Block’s text adds a valuable perspective, reinforcing the discussion of transnational fashion networks and placing Parisian design within a global consumption context.”

Business History

“Block’s material culture approach of ‘following the dresses’ effectively opens a new perspective on the relationship between the French couturiers, their clients, and the world in which the garments expressed the social status and aspirations of their wearers.”

Women’s History Review

This book provides important context that will allow critics not only to visualize—thanks to the full-page color as well as black and white images—but also to understand the structures at work in the fashion industry in the nineteenth century. . . . Readers interested in the overlap of the French and American fashion industry will appreciate the in-depth interdisciplinary research communicated through her meticulously structured chapters. In her book, Block helps the reader—from fashion and art historians, to critics studying transatlantic relations in the nineteenth century—understand the origins of this power that has come to stereotypically define France’s intrigue internationally.

Nineteenth-Century French Studies

“Perfect fireside reading, the excellent Dressing Up by Elizabeth L. Block looks at the American women who influenced French fashion. Lovely illustrations ... fascinating writing, the perfect combination. It is a total treat!”

—Kate Strasdin, Senior Lecturer, Falmouth University

“Block takes the study of nineteenth-century French fashion and its consumers to a new level with her keen synthesis of an impressive group of sources.”

—Pamela A. Parmal, Chair and Curator of Textile and Fashion Arts Emerita, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

“A long-overdue study of maison Félix, nuanced critique of the relationship between the Parisian haute couture and coiffure industries, new reading of the assertive role of U.S. clients and the architectural spaces they occupied, and detailed interpretation of fashion at the 1900 Paris Exposition are among many reasons this meticulously researched and beautifully written book makes a major contribution to late nineteenth-century fashion studies.”

—Amy de la Haye, Professor of Dress History & Curatorship, London College of Fashion

Past Events

Afternoon Tea Talks at the Salmagundi Club, moderated by Carl Raymond, host of The Gilded Gentleman history podcast, April 2023

Keynote speaker, “Community and Collaboration: Ways Forward for Fashion History,” Costume Society of America Joint 2022 Regional Symposium, November 2022

New-York Historical Society, History after Dark lecture (watch here)

Driehaus Museum, Chicago (link coming soon)

American Antiquarian Society (watch here)

New-York Historical Society (watch here)

FIDM Collections Conversation (watch here)

Costume Society of America, Conversation on Dress (watch here)

The George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum (watch here; enter passcode: DressingUp22!)

Library Company of Philadelphia (watch here)

National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Victorian Society New York

Yale Club, New York

Western Reserve Historical Society

Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum

National Arts Club

Articles

Review of Painting by Numbers: Data-Driven Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art by Diana Seave Greenwald (Princeton University Press, 2021). In Panorama (Spring 2022, vol. 8.1). Read here for free.

“Renovated Gowns and Counterfeit Corsets,” The Magazine Antiques (January/February 2022), 210–17. Contact me for a free PDF.

"Mrs. Caroline Astor Was the Ultimate New York Socialite," Town & Country, February 7, 2022

"The Richest Fashionistas Used to Recycle Clothes as a Matter of Habit. What Happened?" Slate, January 18, 2022

“Lessons in Reuse From... French Couture?” The MIT Reader, January 2022

Review of The Wig: A Hairbrained History by Luigi Amara, trans. by Christina MacSweeney (Reaktion Books, 2020), Print Quarterly (vol. 38, no. 4) (December 2021). Contact me for a free PDF.

"Gowns and Mansions: French Fashion in New York Homes During the Late Nineteenth Century," The Journal of Dress History (vol. 5, no. 1) (spring 2021). Free download here.

 "Maison Félix and the Body Types of its Clients, 1875–1900," West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture (vol. 26, no. 1) (spring/summer 2019), 80–103. Contact me for a free PDF.

"Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau: Living Statue," Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide 17 (2) (autumn 2018). Read here for free.

"Winslow Homer and Women’s Bathing Practices in Eagle Head, Manchester, Massachusetts (High Tide)," American Art 32 (2) (summer 2018), 100–15. Contact me for a free PDF.

Fellowships

2023–2024 David Jaffee Fellowship in Visual and Material Culture, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

2023–24 Short-term Research Fellowship, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware

Attingham Summer School 2023, Attingham Summer School Class of 2022 Fellowship

Reviewer

American Art

British Art Studies

Panorama

Print Quarterly

Take a look inside Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion