VINTAGE FASHION

by Emma Baxter-Wright, Karen Clarkson, Sarah Kennedy & Kate Mulvey

with special contributions from Zandra Rhodes and Cleo & Mark Butterfield

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New hardcover book, 224 pages with beautiful full-colour and B&W photos throughout. Special limited edition, bound in a luxurious silk cover depicting a 1971 Zandra Rhodes fabric.

An exquisite journey through the fashion of the decades, Vintage Fashion explores the key designers, silhouettes and shapes, prints and fabrics, and other details and characteristics that define influential vintage garments from the twentieth century. Providing background on the fashion movements of the time, as well as offering an awareness of the skills and techniques of the past, the book enables the reader to distinguish original and rare vintage clothing from later reproductions. 

Whether it is a 1950s Christian Dior dress or a 1970s Emilio Pucci shirt, period pieces by famous designers are greatly sought after, and early-century pieces are particularly beautiful and hand-crafted. From Edwardian lace dresses to a Vivienne Westwood mini-crini, vintage items are shown in the context of the time in which they were made and worn, in order to chart the influence fashion had on women's lives. For those interested in collecting and wearing vintage, as well as for anyone fascinated by looking at past influences for inspiration when developing their own individual look, this book will enable you to consolidate, understand and develop your intrinsic tastes and fashion sensibilities as well as choose a well-made garment that suits your shape and style.

Archive illustrations and fashion photography by the most lauded photographers of the time lend background to each decade, while specially commissioned photographs of rare period pieces show the forms and details to look for in authentic vintage garments. 

Focussing on the great styles that emerged between the turn of the twentieth century and the end of the 1980s, the text references vintage fashions in their cultural context, while more than 250 beautiful colour photographs demonstrate the quality fabrics, innovative techniques, silhouettes and shapes, and exquisite workmanship that make the clothing so enduring both in condition and popularity. 

The era from the belle epoque to the flapper covers the first 30 years of the twentieth century, and the rapid changes in womenswear from the restrictive corset and long, full skirt to the beaded flapper dress are examined. The book then evolves through the glamorous 1930s, the age of art deco and Hollywood, to 1940s austerity and the New Look, to 1950s 'fit or flounce' shapes and the heritage of Christian Dior. The exuberance and invention of clothing design, and the emergence of anti-fashion, is documented in the 1960s chapter, marked by both futurists like Courrege and op-art and psychedelia movements, while the 1970s reveals the anarchy and androgeny evident in such designers as Vivienne Westwood, as well as the ethnic blending and back-to-nature influences and the disco era. The 1980s conclude the decades, with a look at the power suit, menswear tailoring and the new romantics, as well as the obsession with the body beautiful in fashion. Each decade ends with a 'key looks' feature showing an at-a-glance view of the important shapes, colours and details that defined the era. 

Vintage Fashion concludes with a shopping guide, which offers pointers on sourcing and caring for original vintage pieces, along with glossaries on fashion terms and the century's most collectable and important designers.

Vintage Shoes, the companion book to Vintage Fashion is also available - click here

 Vintage Fashion by Emma Baxter-Wright, Karen Clarkson, Sarah Kennedy & Kate Mulvey. With special contributions from Zandra Rhodes and Cleo & Mark Butterfield