Menswear: Vintage People on Photo Postcards (Photo Postcards from the Tom Phillips Archive)
Foreword by Eric Musgrave
Publication Date: 3rd October 2012
Hardback: 112 pages
Publisher: The Bodleian Library
ISBN: 978-185124-378-5
To celebrate the acquisition of the Tom Phillips archive, the Bodleian Library has asked the artist to assemble and design a series of books drawing on his themed collection of over 50,000 photographic postcards. These encompass the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which, thanks to the ever cheaper medium of photography, 'ordinary' people could afford to own their portraits. Menswear presents men in all manner of outfits, formal, practical or casual but always as individuals nudging the stylistic vocabulary this way and that, in fashion’s wide, rich and entertaining spectrum. Each book contains 200 images chosen with the eye of a leading artist from a visually rich vein of social history. Their covers will also feature a thematically linked painting, especially created for each title, from Tom Phillips' signature work, A Humument.