A must for libraries with strong textile, fashion, and design collections, this gorgeously printed catalogue reveals layers of history, art, and technology behind the production of Liberty’s renowned fabrics.
Revising the traditional view of fashion history as a parade of (mostly male) genius designers, Block highlights the stylish customers, along with enterprising female dressmakers and businesswomen, whose tastes shaped the look of the Gilded Age.
Album covers, advertising images, and portrait photographs of iconic Black cultural figures illustrate variations on cool Black Ivy style in this photo-filled homage.
Reprints of lesser-known essays (Campbell’s “What Happened to the Afro?”), plus essays that use a variety of approaches, from glamorous description (Long’s “Feminine Fashions”), to social theory (Sontag’s “Looking with Avedon”), make this a solid primer on cultural criticism and fashion journalism.
Books on 1960s dress abound in more and less scholarly titles. This accessible work stands out by contextualizing fashion alongside major social change—the Youthquake, birth control, the civil rights movement, and Vietnam War protests.
Kawakubo calls her clothes "objects for the body," and this catalog allows those objects to speak to readers who understand that fashion goes beyond what you're wearing to work tomorrow.