Latest Style

From her base in Paris, Blanca Valmont reported fashion and cultural trends for "La Ultima Moda", a magazine published in Madrid and circulating throughout the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, the Philippines, and Macao from 1888 to 1898. Her column was at first strictly descriptive of new styles. Within weeks, however, Valmont tired of mere description, defied her editor, and tackled the social and ethical functions of fashion. She thus became the longest running fashion critic of her time in Spain. She attached consumption not only to a discourse of domesticity, but also to a generalized political discourse of civilized society. "The Latest Style" is the first book to explore Valmont's writings and their cultural contexts.