The Colour of Clothes: Fashion and Dress in Autochromes 1907-1930, Cally Blackman

The Colour of Clothes unearths a forgotten epoch in fashion photography, capturing the dawn of colour through the Lumière brothers’ autochrome process and its vibrant influence on early 20th‑century dress. Coloured images—many never before published—bring Edwardian finery and the liberated forms of the 1920s into startlingly vivid relief. Couturiers such as Fortuny, Poiret, Vionnet, Lucile, Chanel and Lanvin appear rendered in their true tones, offering an immersive visual journey through fashion history that transcends black-and-white archives.

Cally Blackman blends archival expertise and scholarly precision with compelling storytelling. Through 370 autochromes, she reanimates opulent fabrics, lavish salon presentations, and early travel snapshots—setting fashion within the broader picture of luxury, technology, and modernity. Autochromes from the Archives de la Planète and the Salon du Goût Français stand centre‑stage, telling a tale of art, commerce, and colonial gaze as fashion itself turns technicolour.

About the Author
Cally Blackman is a fashion historian, lecturer at Central Saint Martins, and author of numerous seminal texts including 100 Years of Fashion, 100 Years of Menswear and 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. Her original research into autochromes draws on rare and unseen materials, bringing extraordinary clarity and nuance to early colour photography in fashion.

Publication date: 2025
Publisher: Thames & Hudson 
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780500025482