Customer Reviews

FASHION: 150 Years of Couturiers, Designers, Labels

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"Fashion - 150 Years" is an encyclopedic work, not only in content but in size and weight. Fashion is taken from about the mid 1800s to the present. Seeling locates the beginnings of modern fashion about 1860 when the English clothing designer Charles Frederick Worth working in Paris put labels with his signature on the gowns he designed. Seeling sees this as turning clothing--however ornamental, stylized, or individualized--into art--Worth was the first "fashion designer."

Since Worth's innovative touch, there have been scores of outstanding fashion designers--all of whom make their appearance. The history of fashion from the mid 1860s is related in terms of profiles of the leading, most imaginative and skilled, most influential, and often most acclaimed fashion designers accompanied by abundant photographic material. One could follow the history just by following the copious, most color photographs. One sees how fashion spread out from its beginnings in Paris to the global, popular enterprise it is today. But one wants to read the profiles too for their colorful biographical material and ideas and approaches to fashion, and for putting the respective designer into the context of fashion history.

Seeling has been a top editor at Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and Marie Claire after her time as a journalist interviewing many world-class celebrities. This incomparable work of hers can be used as a text on fashion history and also a reference. And its readable text plus the countless photographs give it the style of a popular book for informative and entertaining reading on fashion. And it's an ideal coffee-table book.

I love this book! On its own it looks fantastic on any bookshelf, delve into the pages and this book unfolds the secrets and stories behind fashion designers. The style and layout of the content reminds me of those autobiography-type magazine articles.

These photos are fantastic and openly displays the variety of fashion from the cute and inspiring, to the odd and very abstract!

The photographs are really well spaced and nicely breaks up the very informative text. An excellent reference book with interesting and little-known facts about these designers.

Huge, detailed, wide ranging and wonderfully illustrated. If you buy only one book on fashion, this should be the one.

Got this book for my niece who is studying fashion in college. She couldn't put it down Christmas Eve. It is a great coffee table and reference book.

This is an amazing fashion encyclopedia which traces the history of fashion design and couture over a century and half. The book is so heavy but very well bound, it's full of large high quality photos showing beautiful creations from every known label. The text is highly informative but also engaging and far from being dry or boring. I highly recommend this book for anyone who needs a comprehensive beautifully illustrated historical overview detailing the development and evolving world of fashion design.

100s of color photos, great designer bios, insightful historical background, all at an unbelieveabley inexpensive price. I loved it so much I chose it as the text for my 20th Century Fashion class.