Until recently, accounts of 20th-century art history have failed to see the relevance of fashion for their object of study. Typically, fashion was regarded as superficial, fleeting, and feminized; therefore, the interest in clothing design manifested by modernist artists from Henry Van de Velde to the Russian Constructivists has customarily been presented as an effort at rationalization or reform, and as a rejection of commercial dress design as practiced by such successful couturiers of the period as Jacques Doucet and Paul Poiret. However, as contemporary artists and scholars have become increasingly interested in the potential of sartorial display to articulate problems of identity construction and explore issues surrounding race, gender, and sexuality, museums have begun to examine the historical background for current artistic practice. Several have focused exhibitions on the relationship between art and fashion, including Il tempo e la moda at the 1996 Florence Biennale (partially reconstituted as Art/Fashion by the Guggenheim Museum Soho the following year) and Addressing the Century: 100 Years of Art and Fashion, curated by Peter Wollen and organized by the Hayward Gallery, London, in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum, Wolfberg, in 1998-99. The exhibition included more than 300 items-stunningly beautiful and provocative drawings, photographs, paintings,...