Iconic Dresses: 25 Moments in Twentieth Century Fashion

by William Banks-Blaney, Rachel Zoe (Foreword)

Through his selection of 25 iconic vintage dresses, William Banks-Blaney tells the history of twentieth-century couture, the fashion designers who created the dresses and the women who wore them. Each dress is examined for its design and construction, its cut and embellishments, in order to evaluate the artistry of the couturier. With exquisite photography of arguably the finest examples of each of these landmark designers, and bolstered by fashion plates contemporary to the selected pieces, Iconic Dresses is the distillation of the knowledge and skill that William employs every day when fitting the world's most beautiful dresses to today's women.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fashion, History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

Reviews

[Elyssia · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty insightful, i learned quite a few things about fashion (which i have zero knowledge of 😂)

this book is more about the history of dresses 👗 and its influence on the genre, rather than "iconic dresses" worn by movie stars/public figures

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fashion is more than just clothing. Rather, it's a medium that carries an innate message of the era through the wearer in the form of public display. From the Channel Suit era of giving females less form, more freedom, to the Dior New Look era of the post war, return to lavish ideal... Different generations have innate urge to seperate themselves from the prior generation, and display their new ideologies of lives through fashion.

[Laela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't think I liked 20th century fashion until I read this book. It is a perfect look into the impact an individual dress can have and provides insight into the cultures and styles that shaped each dress.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

nonfiction (fashion history). Great photos of dresses that marked changes in style, with info about the designers and the inspirations behind them. I thought this was going to be about famous dresses in pop culture history, but it was more about the various style movements (the flapper silhouette, the 60s shift, etc.).

[Carol Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, mostly I looked at the pictures, but they are fabulous! And occasionally I dipped into the text-- like when I ran across the picture of ordinary French women tearing a Dior dress off a model's back, in 1947 Paris (shocked at the frivolous amount of fabric).

[Wendelle]

It's a great book about the styles and sillhouettes originated and / or popularized by specific houses from the Golden Age of fashion onward.