From Dior's New Look to Belgian deconstructionism, Japanese futurism and British eclecticism, fashion since 1947 has gone through a bewildering array of changes, Providing a thematic survey of fashion, each chapter of this book deals with a particular aspect of fashion obsession, from elegance to fetishism, from haute-couture to street-style, and from the one-off to the mass market and pret-a-porter. The book shows how fashion has played a part in reflecting and influencing 20th-century attitudes, from the sexual revolution and rise of popular culture in the 60s through the fashion of protest and Punk in the 70s, to the consumerism of the 80s and 90s. It 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 suroundings, but itself.

Author Biography

Colin McDowell is a respected fashion commentator. He is fashion correspondent of the Sunday Times and the author of many books on the subject; including: Dressed to Kill: Sex, Power and Clothes (Hutchinson, 1992), Hats: Status, Style and Glamour (Thames and Hudson, 1992, reprinting 1996), Shoes: Fashion and Fantasy (Thames and Hudson, 1994), Literary Companion to Fashion (Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995) and Galliano (Weidenfeld, 1997) Author's Residence: Sandgate (near Folkestone) Kent, and London NW5