Customer Reviews

The Fashion Book

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is without a doubt the best fashion book ever written. Not only are designers in this book, but also fashion illustrators, editors, and icons. The work and time put into this book must have been unbelievable, and to charge such a low price. The book is definately worth the price, and much much more. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in fashion, at any level.

This is the Reader's Digest Condensed version of the history of fashion over the last 150 years. Unlike Reader's Digest, this book succeeds in capturing the essence in amazing kernals of elegance, curve, design, and motion. Everyone who loves fashion should have this book. There is simply no substitute for it, and you will have many hours of pleasure looking at its exciting images and reading the descriptions. The book is a great value for its price, as well, which will help make it available to more people.

The book is in a novel format, one page each for 500 icons, models, fashion and accessory designers, make-up artists, hairdressers, retailers, illustrators, and photographers done in alphabetical order. Each page typically has one person (a few have two), with one image, and one brief textual summary of the person's work.

It is an amazing challenge to capture all of a person's work in one image, and some great successes occurred. Some of my favorites were Madonna, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Harry Winston, Naomi Campbell, Coco Chanel, Noel Coward, and Rudi Gernreich.

On the other hand, some of the old black and white images did not reproduce well. Some of the worst examples are Antoine (a hairdresser with a photograph of Josephine Baker's hair), Maria-Louise Bruyere (a designer), Christian Dior, Max Factor, Barbara Goalen (a model), Gucci, and Hermes. In many cases, these choices appear to have been influenced by the desire to have the facing pages converse with one another. So you will see echoes of design, line, and style in these ways. I appreciate that effort (which is often quite eloquent), but it should not slight the individual whose work is being portrayed. I graded the book down one star for the compromises made here not working well in too many cases.

After you have finished reading and enjoying this book many times, I suggest that you think about where else it would be helpful to have a similar work in your life. Perhaps a scrapbook containing photographs of all of your friends who have something in common would be a possibility. You could write a brief text about each. This could greatly add to your pleasure in remembering these friends, and perhaps expand their interaction when they see how you have put them together.

Keep to the essence, but be bold!

a fabulous book!brilliantly done from the past to the present,reconmended to all that love fashion. the pictures are clear and creative. well proportioned to each designer, little description yet just enough, if you like getting books with tons of great imagages this the book you want.*

512 thick, glossy pages of fashion. Each page highlights a different person... Designers, models, icons, photographers, illustrators, milliners, cosmetic creators, tailors, etc. Each page has a brief paragraph or two describing the artists contributions, and below is a single large picture or illustration depicting the work of the artist. One of the more stunning fashion books I've seen. Quite impressive.

A brilliant, spectacular, visually-entertaining compendium of the who's who in fashion, The Fashion Book has not failed my high expectations. Note the well-researched facts and pictures (which many fashion books are guilty of printing inexcusably inaccurate facts)that make it the perfect reference book. I particularly like how images documented capture the quintessential essence of the work of those highlighted, not necessarily those we have come to know through much-publicised ads and editorials. Kudos to Phaidon and the editorial team.

A great reference for those interested in people who have made major contributions in fashion. This is a beautiful A-Z guide with over 400 entries that includes fashion designers, photographers, models, retailers, illustrators and icons. Even though there is not a lot of text it provides you with just enough written information that you want to find out more if it does not already quench your curiosity.

This book was suggested reference material for a college course of study at FIDM. Initially I thought this was a paperback condensed version of the hardback book. Upon receipt I found it extremely difficult to read without a magnifying glass - the print is literally micro-small. At first I blamed my aging eyes, but my nineteen year-old daughter whom I purchased the book for has 20/20 vision, and she expressed a similar opinion. I would not recommend this version of the book - if you have the option, purchase the full size hard bound copy.

I have the small paperback version, sitting on my bedside table. The type gets pretty tiny in this version but get yourself a magnifying glass and read on. Pick it up and let it flip open to any page to find interesting info on designers, photographers, models, illustrators, any major player in the fashion world past or present. It's the closest thing to a fashion 'bible' that I've ever seen. Priceless!

this is a truly great book and i recommend it to anyone. it has pictures and photos from the 19th and 20th centuries, with info on models, designers and photographers. i love it!!

This is a great referance book for anyone who loves fashion. It's an A-Z book of designers, illustrators, icons, photographers etc. Just about everyone is in here. This is a great book, because it's very inexpensive, small and great because you can look up just about anyone you would like. There are great pictures, and great informative blurbs, including birth and death dates and information about just what made the person so influential. If you love fashion/ fashion history, go out and get this book!