Vintage Fashion and Couture: From Poiret to McQueen

A sumptuous survey of vintage fashion and couture from the 1910s to today.

Vintage Fashion and Couture: From Poiret to McQueen tells the story of fashion through the work of its key design talents and the memorable women who have worn their designs. It explores designers' careers through a dazzling range of clothes and accessories, and explains what makes each item so desirable and why it was so important for the fashion world. It describes the designers' role among their contemporaries, and their influence on the world of fashion.

The author, a world-renowned expert in vintage fashion, organizes the book by decade with each chapter focusing on a number of important designers and the most influential style icons. Fashion pieces are shown in color photographs with descriptive captions that include the current vintage price range, making it a practical resource for vintage shoppers.

The designers and style icons in the book are:

• 1910s: Poiret, Lucille, Fortuny, Gallenga, Paquin, Liberty & Co. Style icon: Lillie Langtry
• 1920s: Patou, Lanvin, early Chanel. Style icon: Baba d'Erlanger
• 1930s: Schiaparelli, Molyneux, Mainbocher, Vionnet. Style icon: Duchess of Windsor
• 1940s: War & Fashion in Europe, the emergence of American designers, Dior's New Look. Style icon: Lauren Bacall
• 1950s: Balmain, Balenciaga, the death of Dior and the emergence of Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel's post-war look. Style icon: Grace Kelly
• 1960s: Mary Quant, the Boutique Movement, the Space Age comes to fashion, Pop and Op Art influences, Givenchy, Design in America. Style icons: Twiggy, Audrey Hepburn
• 1970s: Biba, Ossie Clark & Celia Birtwell, Yves Saint Laurent, the birth of Rive Gauche. Style icon: Bianca Jagger
• 1980s: Valentino, Body Map, Roberto Capucci, Azzedine Alaïa, John Galliano, Mugler, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garçons. Style icon: Princess Diana
• 1990s: Jean Paul Gaultier, Versace, Martin Margiela, Junya Watanabe, Bodycon, Antony Price. Style icon: Kate Moss
• The New Century: Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane. Style icon: Daphne Guinness.

The final section, Buying Vintage, is an inside look in which the author, a world leader in vintage fashion, reveals how and where to buy the best vintage pieces, as well as how to spot fakes and forgeries.