Susan Taber Avila


1348
2003
23" x 15" x 12"
Thread, silk noil, stitching on industrial felt

Photo: Philip Cohen

The fashion system as we know it today essentially began in the 14th century. In the early 1300s most Western Europeans wore the same style of clothing, in the 1340s an accelerated rate of change began as the middle class gained more wealth and wanted to look equal to the nobility. In 1348 the onset of the plague wiped out huge populations from the labor force. Less labor was available and could command a higher price. A wealthy merchant class developed and thus the cycle for new, exciting and more expensive clothing began.
This piece plays with the sinister and the playful, the old tradition of costume and the new.

Sara & David Lieberman Collection


1348 1348, rear view
1348, side view 1348, detail view


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Copyright 1982-2003 Susan Taber Avila