- Publisher
- Phaidon
- Published
- 1998
- Shelf
- fashion: Reference
- ISBN
- 9780714838083
Reference
The Fashion Book
Phaidon Editors
Five hundred designers, photographers and houses, one page each, in alphabetical order.
Why read it
It is The Art Book's method turned on fashion, and the alphabet does the same work: Balenciaga lands beside Bailey, a Victorian corsetiere beside a 1990s stylist. Putting the designer, the photographer and the model on equal footing quietly argues that an image, not a garment, is what most fashion actually is.
Why own it
A reference you use by opening it anywhere. Each page carries the work, the dates and a short note, which settles who did what in ten seconds, and the flat, uniform treatment makes comparison across a century possible in a way a monograph never allows.
Who it is for
Anyone art-directing fashion, and anyone who needs the names straight.
Opens a search on AbeBooks, a network of independent and antiquarian sellers, which is where a good part of this shelf has to be found, because it is out of print.
Read next
Chosen because they argue with this one, not because a machine noticed they share a category.
