Overview

Why do we dress the way we do? Why has fashion changed and evolved over the centuries? How did the 3-piece suit come about? What is a ruff? Why have hemlines risen and fallen over time? Why did a suntan replace the pale, peaches-and-cream face as the sign of a high-class woman? In this book, fashion specialist Colin McDowell goes beyond standard fashion histories and narrative surveys to answer all these questions and more. Fashion is about the body. The first book to reflect this truism, The Anatomy of Fashion is the ultimate guide to how we dress, why we look the way we do and how this has changed over time. By breaking fashion down into its basic elements, explaining them in detail and showing how they fit together, McDowell maps out the historical evolution of fashion, demonstrating how fashions from each period in history have contributed to the way we look today. He paints a broad and accessible picture of the forces at work in the creation and development not just of clothing, but of all aspects of appearance. Fashion is both functional and expressive we wear clothes to keep warm or for protection but they also articulate the way we feel and are often used to impress. Fashion trends are influenced by history and their social context. For example, the waistcoat is often believed to have been introduced as part of the Victorian 3-piece suit. In fact, it was brought to England by Charles II in 1666 after his restoration and return from exile at the French court. Samuel Pepys, diarist and civil servant, wrote: 'The King hath yesterday in council declared his resolution of setting a fashion for clothes which he will never alter. It will be a vest, I know not well how.' Charles wanted the new garment to be part of a restrained national dress for gentlemen and the vest flourished throughout Georgian times as a show-off garment made of rich silks and heavily embroidered, often in silver and gold. The book is divided into 3 main sections. Section 1 looks at the body unclothed and the different 'skins' that cover it; subjects include human skin, pale skin v. tanned skin, tattoos, piercings, fabrics, colours and pattern. In section 2 fashion is broken down into body parts and the relevant individual elements of dress are discussed from head to toe. Body parts include the head (e.g., hats, hair, wigs), the shoulders (e.g. shoulder pads, straps), hands (e.g., gloves, jewellry), legs (e.g., hem lengths, pantaloons, skirt shapes, hosiery). Section 3 returns to the body as a whole to consider how these elements create 'fashion' and what different looks say about the way we dress. The author will cover subjects such as military dress and uniform, cult styles including the grunge look, goths and gangs. By breaking fashion down

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Reviews

Repeats the successful format of The Art Book and The Photography Book, and features 500personalities of the fashion world. The Bookseller Fashion is such a huge subject, you need an encyclopaedia to get around it. And that's just what Phaidon has come up with: The fashion Book covers the 500 who have mattered since 1860 - the pictures are big, the text concise and there's even a glossary. Frank - a beautifully produced and organised reference book which follows hard in the heels of its other two mega-tomes The Art Book and The Photography Book. - It just displays before you, as if in some bookish equivalent of a cat-walk, one-page entries on the entire world of fashion - And the one-page entries, each consisting of a crisp paragraph or two, a large photograph and a caption with dates, are so cross-referenced that making your way through the encyclopaedia is like twisting and turning through the chicest of labyrinths. Just as fashion is emblematic of underlying social conditions and the changing mood of the times, so The Fashion Book is not simply just a history of threads or glimpses into a hothouse world. To exist, and to succeed, fashion needs to hit the right emotive button, to hold up a new, yet flattering mirror to the times in which it exists. And so The Fashion Book reflects the cavalcade of aspirations, dreams ans attitudes which have coloured the past century and a half. For GBP24.95 and with 512 pages of extremely well-organised information about the complex, unique world that is fashion, this is a book that will be a must for every self-respecting and dedicated follower of fashion. The Sunday Telegraph Magazine It's the only fashion book you need to buy this year. Looks

'A must for every self-respecting and dedicated follower of fashion.' (Sunday Telegraph Magazine) 'An AZ of everything you could wish to know about the past 140 years of fashion. Models, moguls, designers and photographers are profiled and cross-referenced in this indispensable survey.' (Harpers & Queen) 'It is probably the most comprehensive fashion encyclopaedia for general consumption available. A must-buy for the fashion obsessive.' (Independent on Saturday) 'A masterly encyclopaedia.' (Tatler) 'A feast of fashion and cheaper by far than a designer garment.' (The Big Issue) 'An excellent guide to fashion in all its diversity.' (Irish Times) 'At last, at last, at last our prayers have been answered. Phaidon have come up with every fashion lover's dream, The Fashion Book, both beautiful and faultless.' (What's On in London) 'The fashion bible.' (Vogue) 'The ultimate fashion reference book.' (Elle)

The Fashion Book's production quality is a glossy-magazine junkie's dream - heavy, shiny white paper and graphically designed to within an inch of its life. And its content lives up to the way it looks - something of a rarity in the way of fashion books. It's essentially an A-Z of 500 movers and shakers in the fashion world, from Richard Avedon to Zoran, Balmain to Yamamoto. Its alphabetical format cuts through narrow categories and places models next to photographers, designers and fashion icons - where else would you find the late rock star Kurt Cobain next to Jean Cocteau? Enough pictures (one on every page) to be sumptuous, enough text (and glossaries and listings) to be informative - what more could you ask for? (Kirkus UK)

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