Fashioning History: Rethinking the Relationship between Taste and Historic Preservation

In 1994, architectural historian Richard Longstreth published a provocative essay in Historic Preservation Forum titled “Taste versus History,” criticizing the subjective nature of preservation professionals’ taste and its opposition to history. Rather than opposition, this paper proposes a more nuanced interaction between taste and historic preservation in contemporary consumer society. Through an examination of historic preservation projects initiated by fashion companies using the theory of taste from consumer culture, this paper explores how taste influences historical significance and how fashion redefines taste-history exchanges. It argues that taste, particularly the vertical “distinction-over” taste of fashion brands and mass consumers, can serve as an engine for uncovering and spreading history. Notably, this research provides a more comprehensive understanding of taste in relation to fashion and consumption, shedding light on how to enhance historicity and placemaking while avoiding the inherent bias in traditional “top- down” approaches to assessing historical significance.