Over the past 40 years, Japanese designers have led the way in aligning fashion with art and ideology, as well as addressing identity and social politics through dress. They have demonstrated that both creative and commercial enterprise is possible in today's international fashion industry, and have refused to compromise their ideals, remaining autonomous and independent in their design, business affairs and distribution methods. The inspirational Miyake, Yamamoto and Kawakubo have gained worldwide respect and admiration and have influenced a generation of designers and artists alike. Based on twelve years of research, this book provides a richly detailed and uniquely comprehensive view of the work of these three key designers. It outlines their major contributions and the subsequent impact that their work has had upon the next generation of fashion and textile designers around the world. Designers discussed include: Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo, Naoki Takizawa, Dai Fujiwara, Junya Watanabe, Tao Kurihara, Jun Takahashi, Yoshiki Hishinuma, Junichi Arai, Reiko Sudo & the Nuno Corporation, Makiko Minagawa, Hiroshi Matsushita, Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Walter Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Helmut Lang.

Although it can be difficult to think of fashion in anything other than a contemporary context, as a concept it is hardly new. Costume historians trace the birth of fashion back to the thirteenth century and writings on fashion date back as early as the sixteenth century when Michel de Montaigne pondered its origins, thereby setting in motion a chain of inquiry that has continued to intrigue writers for centuries. This key text reprints classic fashion writings, all of which have had a profound if perhaps untrumpeted impact on our understanding and approach to modern day dress - from the psychology of clothes through to collective fashion trends. Why do we wear clothes? What do they say about our self-awareness and body image? How can we 'fashion' new identities through what we wear? Seminal fashion statements by Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Herbert Spencer, Thorstein B. Veblen, Adam Smith, Herbert Blumer, and Georg Simmel answer these questions and many more. Full of vital fashion treasures that have often been ignored, this book fills a major gap in the history of the discipline and will serve as an essential teaching text for years to come.

Provides the reader with essential foundational fashion knowledge on the history of fashion and key industry terminology. Includes specific instructions on how to approach three styles of fashion writing - service pieces, runway reviews and reports, and trend reports. The reader is taught how to determine and address the audience and the difference between writing for print and online outlets. Looks beyond traditional fashion writing to explore contemporary issues such as slow fashion, cultural appropriation, and diversity, as well as how fashion can be used to discuss other ideas through creative nonfiction and cultural criticism.

From fashion aficionados to casual wearers, this sumptuous book is the perfect companion for Birkenstock’s loyal fans on the company’s 250th anniversary.

The Birkenstock brand is adored the world over for its function-first footwear and commitment to high-quality European production. Its sandals and famous cork footbeds have filtered into countless cultures and subcultures over many decades. The rich visual history of the Birkenstock brand and the creativity it has inspired over the years is gathered here in book form for the first time.

The Book of Birkenstock provides a lush, image-led history of the company, its family origins in shoemaking and its relationship with the health and fashion industries. It also offers a peek behind the scenes into the company’s German production and world-leading design processes that form the Birkenstock footbed, appreciated by millions of wearers. Enhancing this narrative, The Book of Birkenstock is not just a publication but a premium product in itself, mirroring the brand’s dedication to excellence. It boasts beautiful printing and finishing, with a debossed cover for a tactile sense of luxury. This attention to detail ensures that each page turn is an experience in itself, inviting readers not only to engage with the content but also to appreciate the fine craftsmanship of the book.

Published in 2024, a landmark year for Birkenstock in which it celebrates its 250-year family tradition in shoemaking, this project is a testament to Birkenstock’s enduring legacy and a celebration of its continuous influence on footwear and fashion.

'A veritable tome of sneaker history...backed by nearly a decade of research and discovery.' - Hypebeast A riotous, 720-page celebration of sneaker culture and sporting legends, as told through the medium of vintage print advertising More than a decade in the making, Soled Out is the definitive - and only - collection of sneaker advertisements from the footwear industry's golden age. Lovingly written and compiled by Simon 'Woody' Wood, founder of the legendary Sneaker Freaker magazine and author of The Ultimate Sneaker Book, this colossal volume combines nearly 900 vintage images with a punchy narrative full of insider stories and historical revelations. Featuring the biggest brands, classic sneaker models, superstar athletes, and pop culture icons - from Adidas, New Balance, and Puma, to Asics, Pony, and Pro-Keds; the Nike Air Max and Converse All Star to New Balance 990 and Reebok Pump; Andre Agassi and Michael Jordan to Paula Abdul and MC Hammer - every page is laced with incredible graphics and unforgettable advertising slogans. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular scenery ahead as Soled Out powers through a 720-page marathon celebration of the rubber, leather, and mesh we wear on our feet.

At Nike, the desire to be the best is a journey, not a destination - better is always temporary. Phaidon commemorates the company's influence with Nike: Better is Temporary, a landmark publication that charts Nike's transformation from rebellious upstart to global phenomenon. This immersive visual survey offers an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes exploration into Nike's ethos-driven design formula, placing industry-defining innovations and globally recognized products alongside previously unpublished designs, prototypes, insider stories, and more. Beginning with "Breaking2," an introduction detailing Nike's 2017 attempt to facilitate a sub-two-hour marathon, the book lays out in five thematic chapters Nike's focus on performance, brand expression, collaboration, inclusive design, and sustainability. The book's extraordinary design also nods to its contents. The striking cover features overlapping silkscreened layers of Nike's proprietary Volt yellow and Hyperpunch pink colors overlaying an image of world-champion marathoner Eliud Kipchoge printed in a half-tone dot pattern. The book's spine, visible through the clear jacket, showcases a series of colored tabs that extend from its interior pages and which are referenced in the book's bonus chapter, "Crafting Color." Combining 500 color illustrations with stories, insights, knowledge, passion, and history shared by Nike's remarkable team, Nike: Better is Temporary will serve as a manual of innovation and inspiration for generations to come.

Provides the reader with essential foundational fashion knowledge on the history of fashion and key industry terminology. Includes specific instructions on how to approach three styles of fashion writing - service pieces, runway reviews and reports, and trend reports. The reader is taught how to determine and address the audience and the difference between writing for print and online outlets. Looks beyond traditional fashion writing to explore contemporary issues such as slow fashion, cultural appropriation, and diversity, as well as how fashion can be used to discuss other ideas through creative nonfiction and cultural criticism.

'Honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion' Manolo Blahnik Discover what truly happens behind the scenes in the world of high fashion in this detailed, storied memoir from style icon, bestselling author and former Vogue creative director Andre Leon Talley. During Andre Leon Talley's first magazine job assisting Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship and propelled Talley into the upper echelons by virtue of his shared knowledge and adoration of fashion. He moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild's Women's Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers. But as Talley made friends, he also made enemies. A fraught encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he developed an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour, and as she rose to the top of Vogue's masthead, Talley became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches is a candid look at the who's who of the last fifty years of fashion, and proof that fact is always fascinatingly more devilish than fiction. Andre Leon Talley's engaging memoir tells the story of how he not only survived but thrived - despite racism, illicit rumours and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry - to become one of the most legendary voices and faces in fashion.

An examination of the fabrics, garments and cloth of the Iberian Middle Ages, bringing out in particular the international context. The Medieval Iberian Peninsula, encompassing various territories which make up present-day Spain and Portugal, was an ethnic and religious melting pot, comprising Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, each contributing to a vibrant textile economy. They were also defined and distinguished by the material culture of clothing and dress, partly dictated by religious and cultural tradition, partly imposed by rulers anxious to avoid cross-ethnic relationships considered undesirable. Nevertheless, textiles, especially magnificent Islamic silks, crossed these barriers. The essays in this volume offer the first full analysis of Iberian textiles from the period, drawing on both material remains and historical documents, supported by evidence from contemporary artwork. Chapters cover surviving textiles, many of them magnificent silks; textile industries and trade; court dress and its use as a language of power and patronage; the vast market in utilitarian textiles for lower-status clothing and furnishings; and Muslim and Jewish dress. It also considers Arabic and Jewish texts as sources of information on textiles and the Arabic garment-names which crossed into Spanish. Particular emphasis is given to the the different ethnicities of Iberia and their influences on the use and trade of garments (both precious and common-place) and textiles.

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was, without doubt, the most influential designer of the 20th century. This book honours her influence by celebrating the key elements that defined and still define her style through inspired pairings of classic and contemporary photographs. Juxtaposing fashion plates from Chanel's own time with the most recent creations by Karl Lagerfeld, such as Cecil Beaton's portrait of Coco Chanel presented alongside one of Cate Blanchett by Lagerfeld himself, the resonance between archive and contemporary photographs becomes sharp, vibrant and telling. The vocabulary of Chanel's style - the little black dress, baroque inspirations, androgynous chic - is revealed in eleven chapters that compare original forms in the 1920s with the full range of their later expressions through every fashion era. Chanel's legendary fashion house continues to captivate a huge audience with an insatiable appetite for one of fashion's undisputed style perennials.

The House of Chanel opens its private archives to reveal a galaxy of brilliant designs created from 1920 onwards

Chanel's combination of tradition, originality and style has always made it the most seductive of brands. Here the House of Chanel opens its private archives, revealing a galaxy of brilliant designs created by Coco Chanel from the 1920s onwards, and now reinterpreted to become the motifs for brand new garments, accessories and beauty products.

Inspired by the House's signature fragrance, the legendary ‘Chanel No 5’, the book explores five central themes – the suit, the camellia, jewelry, fragrances and make-up, and the little black dress – and follows the threads from past to present to show how these key items have been rediscovered and reinvented by fashion designers working in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors. This visual journey is enhanced by previously unpublished archive photographs and original drawings by Karl Lagerfeld, as well as glorious images from some of the greatest names in fashion photography.

Dazzling clothes, intricate accessories, beautiful models and timeless design leave no doubt as to the lasting fame of the brand and embody everything that has come to symbolize the magic of Chanel.

This essential book provides the first comprehensive overview of the symbiotic relationship that exists between fashion and textiles. Because textiles represent a central ingredient of fashion (as with denim jeans, for example), their interrelationship should be an obvious theme for study, yet historically the two subjects are often considered separately. Gale and Kaur analyze fashion and textile's cultural, industrial and social relationships, as well as examining how the two fields compete with and influence one another. Taking as their starting point the nature of the relationship between fashion and textiles, Gale and Kaur then identify and discuss key arenas of commercial and cultural interaction, including raw materials, business, consumers, and future technology. Their examples are drawn from the experiences and opinions of industry professionals - designers, retailers, and manufacturers. Gale and Kaur look at how the raw materials from which clothing is made are heavily influenced by fashion trends on national and global levels. Why do we choose the fabrics we do, and how do our choices affect both industries? The story is very much a human one. Each garment has an intriguing history before a consumer even tries it on. Gale and Kaur unpick this history and examine how retail need and consumer demand impact upon the end product. The result is an exciting new book that begins at the level of supply and demand, and moves forward to consider issues about design, technology, globalization and broader fashion trends. Highlighting cultural differences and similarities between the two industry sectors, Fashion and Textiles offers varied professional perspectives, information about key roles and jobs, and practical considerations relating to economics, design, manufacture and retail. A key text for a wide range of courses on fashion and textiles, it is vital reading for anyone hoping to pursue a career in either field.

Inspired by new approaches in performance studies, theatre history, research in material culture and dress history, a rich discussion of the many aspects of costume in Shakespearean performance has begun. Shakespeare and Costume furthers this research, bringing together varied and stimulating essays by leading scholars that consider costume from literary, dramatic, design, performative and theatrical perspectives, as well as interviews with renowned theatre practitioners Jane Greenwood and Robert Morgan. The volume amply demonstrates how an analysis of the meaning of costume enriches our understanding of Shakespeare's plays. Beginning with an overview of the stage history of Shakespeare and costume, the volume looks at the historical context of clothing in the plays, considering topics such as royal self-fashioning, festive livery practices, and conceptions of race and gender exhibited in clothing choice, as well as costume in performance. Drawing on documentary evidence in designers' renderings, illustrations in periodicals, paintings, photographs, newspaper reviews and actors' memoirs, the volume also explores costume designs in specific Shakespeare productions from the re-opening of the London theatres in 1660 to the present day.

This book investigates the interconnections between textile and architecture via a variety of case studies from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century and from diverse geographic contexts. Among the oldest human technologies, building and weaving have intertwined histories. Textile structures go back to Palaeolithic times and are still in use today and textile furnishings have long been used in interiors. Beyond its use as a material, textile has offered a captivating model and metaphor for architecture through its ability to enclose, tie together, weave, communicate, and adorn. Recently, architects have shown a renewed interest in the textile medium due to the use of computer-aided design, digital fabrication, and innovative materials and engineering. The essays edited and compiled here, work across disciplines to provide new insights into the enduring relationship between textiles and architecture. The contributors critically explore the spatial and material qualities of textiles as well as cultural and political significance of textile artifacts, patterns, and metaphors in architecture. Textile in Architecture is organized into three sections: "Ritual Spaces," which examines the role of textiles in the formation and performance of socio-political, religious, and civic rituals; "Public and Private Interiors" explores how textiles transformed interiors corresponding to changing aesthetics, cultural values, and material practices; and "Materiality and Material Translations," which considers textile as metaphor and model in the materiality of built environment. Including cases from Morocco, Samoa, France, India, UK, Spain, the Ancient Andes and the Ottoman Empire, this is essential reading for any student or researcher interested in textiles in architecture through the ages.

I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny.' Coco Chanel Amy de la Haye brings together the secrets of style from the world's greatest fashion designers, their famous clients and others from the world of fashion in this delightful illustrated dictionary. Preserving the wisdom of fashion's big names, from Chanel on perfume, to Dior on elegance and Schiaparelli on hats, this charming compendium is illustrated with newly commissioned line drawings of accessories and clothing from the V&A's celebrated fashion collection by Emma Farrarons. A to Z of Style, a handy guide full of timeless advice, is the perfect gift for anyone with a sense of style or fun.

Fashionary's Bag Design encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource for bag designers and bag lovers. Focusing on the specific needs of bag designers, Fashionary has provided essential information on bag anatomy, manafacturing, materials and much more in one compact, convenient volume.

? For three decades, Vivienne Westwood has been Britain?s most consistently original, outrageous, eccentric and controversial designer. In that time she has evolved from an iconoclastic outsider to an internationally revered figure, with two British Designer of the Year awards, an OBE, her own successful fashion label and an unrivalled reputation for leading where other designers follow.
? Her lifestyle could scarcely be in greater contrast to the opulence which surrounds other leading designers: until recently she lived in a modest council flat in South London, and she still travels around the capital by bicycle, dressed in her own flamboyant creations, with a plastic bag protecting her hair from the elements. How did an awkward girl from a conventional and provincial background become one of world fashion?s most influential and respected designers? How has she managed to remain true to her own idiosyncratic vision, refusing to conform to the fashion industry?s, and society?s, expectations?
? Speaking to Westwood herself, her friends, lovers, colleagues, rivals, admirers and detractors, Jane Mulvagh has created a portrait as rich, distinctive and constantly surprising as her subject?s character and work.

This practical book explains how to achieve great designs and creative cuts by seeing ideas come to life three dimensionally. By manipulating and pinning fabric on the dress form or house model, fashion designers can visualise their ideas and become more confident with their own creative visions. This new book includes advice on how to measure the body, as well as prepare the mannequin and fabric; it explains the draping process in detail with step-by-step instructions and practical tips throughout. It gives advice on working at half scale and provides calico preparation diagrams. Finally, there are chapters which introduce new design elements and/or garment type, and covers dresses, skirts, shirts and blouses. Written by a leading designer, Draping for Fashion Design is an essential guide to this skill (also known as 'moulage'), and explains how the fashion designer can understand their designs more fully, as well as the fabric and the garment's fit, in order to achieve impressive and sometimes unexpected results.

Fern Mallis is the award-winning creator of New York Fashion Week and is often called the Godmother of Fashion. She hosts the sold-out conversation series Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis, assembling an incredible list of guests at the 92nd Street Y. Mallis goes one-on-one with her guests in front of a live audience to discuss everything from their childhood aspirations, career struggles and triumphs, to dishing on the inner workings of the notoriously high-pressure fashion industry. No topic is off-limits. This second volume features fifteen new, provoca-tive, and inspiring interviews with the boldest and brightest names in the fashion world including: Christian Siriano, Billy Porter, Stan Herman, Zandra Rhodes, Bob Mackie, Iris Apfel, Tim Gunn, Leonard Lauder, Arthur Elgort, Victoria Beckham, Rosita and Angela Missoni, Bethann Hardison, and Valentino. The book also features when, by popular demand, the tables were turned and Fern Mallis was interviewed by the smart and sassy Bevy Smith. Each fashion icon shares never-before-seen personal photographs, sketches, and memorabilia to bring their story to life. For readers interested in the fashion industry, popular culture, style and design, this book takes a look behind the very public and glamorous lives of famed designers, creatives, photographers, tastemakers, and media personalities alike.

For hundreds of years, skilled craftspeople in the Syrian centers of Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs produced intricately woven textiles for the royal courts, worldly merchants, and elite Bedouin families of the Ottoman Empire. City dwellers were renowned for wearing brightly colored silk garments that glittered with gold and silver threads. By contrast, nomadic Bedouins wore woolen garments in hues and designs reflecting their desert lifestyle. The allure of these garments stems from the technical virtuosity with which they were woven and the aesthetic beauty of their drape and stylized designs. Dressed with Distinction offers a window onto the history of textile production in the Middle East during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, until political and social changes led to the dominance of Western-style commercially manufactured attire. In addition to articulating the social and seasonal contexts in which the garments were worn, this book examines the styles of dress of women, men, and children in Ottoman Syria, including cloaks (abaya), head coverings (hatta), women's body coverings (carsaf), and jackets (qumbas).

Coco Chanel's genius for fashion may have been distilled in simplicity, but her life was an extravaganza. A brilliant array of luminaries fell under her spell - Picasso, Churchill, Cocteau; lovers included the Grand Duke Dmitri; the English roue, Boy Capel; a French poet; and, a German spy and the Duke of Westminster, who offered to leave his wife for her permanently, if she would only bear him an heir. Paradoxically, though she might have been regarded in some lights as a pioneering feminist - sacrificing marriage to a revolutionary career in couture - Chanel was utterly baffled by the idea of women's politics. Educated women? 'A woman's education consists of two lessons: never leave the house without stockings, never go out without a hat'. Chanel's rise from penniless orphan to millionaire designer - 'inventing' sportswear, the little black dress and number 5 - makes compelling reading, not least because she was inclined to design her own life as deftly as she did her fashions. Axel Madsen negotiates Chanel's smoke screens with skill, bringing this tantalizing woman to life in all her alluring complexity.

'Elegant and multi-focal. Glorious!' Simon Garfield The humble pair of glasses might just be one the world's greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur. And yet how much do many of us even really think about these things perched on the ends of our noses? In this eye-opening history Travis Elborough traces the fascinating true story of spectacles: from their inception as primitive visual aids to monkish scribes right through to today's designer eyewear and the augmented reality of Google Glass. And taking in along the way such delights as lorgnettes, monocles, pince-nez, tortoise-shell 'Windsors' and Ray Ban aviator shades. Peering into early theories about how the eye worked, he considers the theological and philosophical arguments about the limits of perception by Greek thinkers, Roman statesmen and Arab scholars. There are encounters with ingenious medieval Italian glassmakers, myopic Renaissance rulers and spectacle-makers and opticians, brilliant, mad, bad and dangerous to know, in the Londons of Samuel Pepys, Dr Johnson and Sherlock Holmes. We learn how eyeglasses were the making of the silent movie star Harold Lloyd and the rock n roller Buddy Holly and helped liberate an exasperated John Lennon from Beatlemania. Get hip to horn-rims with Dizzy Gillespie and Michael Caine And see girls in glasses through the lenses of the crime fiction by Dorothy L Sayers and Raymond Chandler and the full-screen figure of Marilyn Monroe. Through the Looking Glasses is about vision and the need for humanity to see clearly, and where the impulse to improve our eyesight has led us. The society of the spectacle may finally be upon us . . . but how much of it do we really see?