Author Description

Tracing the evolution of fashion—from the opulence of the court of Louis XV to the catwalk couture of today—this stunningly illustrated volume charts three centuries of fashion trends and innovations. This handsome volume is published to accompany a major exhibition that chronicles fashion from the seventeenth century to the present. Featuring three hundred iconic pieces, it highlights key moments in fashion history and provides new insight into the designers, patrons, and groundbreaking techniques and materials. It also explores how fashion has always been intertwined with both fine art and the decorative arts. Many of the great couturiers were known for this artistic cross-pollination, including such towering figures as Jeanne Lanvin, Madeleine Vionnet, Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. Re-created here are a number of fashion inflection points illustrating fashion’s elective affinities with other disciplines. Eighteenth-century wood paneling, scenic wallpapers by Zuber, and Paul Iribe’s drawings for Paul Poiret, among other examples, provide perfect settings for fashion’s stylistic metamorphoses culminating in the effervescence and eclecticism of today’s global fashion scene.