FASHION: The Definitive History of Costume and Style

From royalty to rock stars, designers, movie stars and models who epitomised 'the look' of any given moment in time, from the ancient world and Byzantine design to the designer decades from the 1980s onwards, boho chic and vintage, this huge compendium is packed with colour photos. Here are empire lines and crinolines, high ruffs and wasp waists, evening and tea gowns, suits for the city gentleman, for sport and country, the roaring twenties, austere times, the elegant male, and profiles of designers like Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, Twiggy and BIBA, Yves Saint Laurent, Japanese style, red carpet gowns and more. Very much in the style of the Dorling Kindersley layout with excellent illustrated chronologies, dozens of images, many with captions, fashion icons begin with Queen Nefertiti, the Silk Road and Style in the East from 2000BCE-600CE, Medieval Romance and Trade 600-1449 with the fashion of Eleanor of Acquitaine (c.1124-1204) under whose influence women's clothing became increasingly elaborate. The bliaut, a long overgown, was a new trend and it grew tighter around the bodice and was worn with a decorative belt or girdle. The bodice was split down either side from underarm to hip and attached with ribbons to tighten the fabric across the body. And women wore enormous cuffs long enough to drag on the ground. Here are priests, a Greek doctor, Moorish musicians, a turbaned king, a Serbian matron, a Persian caftan and other social statements are noted like buttons, jewellery, wedding clothes or long loose hair symbolising the unmarried status of a woman. Here are silks and veils, linen, leather shoes, regional variations, before going through to Renaissance splendour, custom-made armour, symbolism and fantasy, practical clothing, and in the 1600s and 1700s the brocaded silk mantua, French à la mode, the masquerade and sports dress. 400 magnificent glossy pages, 26 x 31cm, in the ultimate visual guide to everything ever worn.