Fashion Today

by McDowell, Colin

• ISBN13: 9780714838977
• ISBN10: 0714838977
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-09
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

Fashion Today is a kaleidoscopic, colourful and provo-cative survey of the fashion world from the introduction of Dior's New Look in 1947 to the present day, and all points in between.The book is a thematic overview of fashion in its widest sense, ranging from haute couture to street-style, from the one-off to the mass market, and pr+t-++-porter. It shows how fashion has played a vital and continuing part in reflecting and influencing twentieth-century attitudes, from the sexual revolution and rise of popular culture in the 1960s to the consumerism of the 1980s and 1990s. Fashion Today places current fashion not only in the context of youth, sexuality, fetishism, exoticism and historicism, but also in the context of previous fashion movements - demonstrating that fashion reflects not only its surroundings but itself.Colin McDowell is a respected fashion commentator. He is fashion correspondent for the Sunday Times and the author of many books on the subject.'McDowell deconstructs fashion with insight, humour, verve + One of the best books on the subject in recent years.' (Chicago Tribune)'The new fashion bible.' (Time Out)

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(2)
New Looks	8	(32)
Youth Revolution	40	(36)
Designer as Superstar	76	(36)
Modelling the Image	112	(44)
The Medium and the Message	156	(38)
Selling the Dream	194	(50)
Rediscovering Elegance	244	(38)
The Lure of Retro	282	(36)
Ethnic Influences and the Art of Selection	318	(42)
Fantasy and Role Play	360	(28)
Fetishism and the Shaped Body	388	(36)
Foresesing the Future	424	(36)
Fashion, Protest and the War from Within	460	(32)
Designers' Biographies	492	(4)
Bibliography	496	(4)
Chronology	500	(4)
Index	504	(6)
Acknowledgements	510