How to Read Fashion: a crash course in understanding styles

by Fiona Ffoulkes

This stylishly illustrated guide parses the visual vocabulary to understand, investigate, and interpret seminal fashions and styles. The perfect companion for fashionistas and anyone interested in a better understanding of how fashions and styles evolve, this is the first book of its kind aimed at a general audience. Both dip-in reference and stylish resource, it covers 200 years of fashion history, as well as ancillary subjects such as jewelry, accessories, and hairstyling, showing how different looks and styles are interconnected through time. Fashion is defined by the newest and very latest, yet fashion designers are constantly taking inspiration from the past. Well-known classics of yesteryear as well as more obscure designs and styles from the deeper past are constantly recycled and reinvented by the latest generation of designers and stylists. Identified in this handy volume are all the main fashion trends of the past 200 years, as well as how they relate to contemporary styles. From Neo-Classical to Gothic, Streamline Modernism to Punk, Military, and Designer Branding, this is perfect for anyone who has ever wondered about the origins of the little black dress or why the Chanel bag is known as the 2:55 bag.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, History, Art, Design

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Fiona Ffoulkes has worked in fashion and costume design for the past 30 years, including 15 years as a stylist for BBC and ITV. She has lectured in textiles and fashion at St Martins College of Art & Design and at the American University in Paris. Fiona is continuing research into the history of the French luxury clothing industry and has contributed to several publications, including Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850 (1999)

Reviews

[Bloodorange · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice starting point for individual exploration, good if you are interested in vintage fashion, but not a pro. I really liked this book's focus on showing echos and inspirations from earlier (sometimes much earlier) time periods.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the ‘How to read…’ series from Bloomsbury (and really, really like that How To Read Buildings is compact enough for my pocket when I am meandering through historic (and not so historic) sites). This entry, subtitled A crash course in understanding styles is another good contribution. I’m impressed at the way Ffoulkes can sum up a style, a design motif, a designer in less than 100 words, and at the appropriateness of the illustrations to show both form and diversity – to be able to do ‘shape and fit’ as a technique in fewer than 100 words (with all the problems of subtlety, that of course is not there) with 5 illustrations (each with a 30 word caption) spanning 1885-1990 shows a remarkable grasp of the subject. It’s the illustrations that make the book work so well: not only are they well-chosen but the production values are excellent, even if the caption/image relationship is at times a bit haphazard. She has 7 designers encapsulate the field at the book’s conclusion: this is the only bit I’m not sure worked well, but it does show the development of style, the play of the past and the present – but it is very Grandma Vogue-like.

It’s a great introduction, ideal for students like mine for whom fashion is a bit of a foreign country about as remote as the past. It’s accessibility along with a great reading list (of course we’d all dispute a list – “but what about…..”, in my case the V&A’s Sport V Fashion , but that’s just my focus) means it’s a good way to start a scholarly interest in fashion, all the whole remembering that there is a multitude of other ways to tell this story – many of them neither so Anglo-centric, or even Euro-centric. It's probably more 3½ than 4, but still a good place to start.

[Cherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit disappointing -- not for beginners, must have some sort of previous knowledge on the world of fashion to grasp and appreciate the contents of the book. Good for runway photos and seeing how history has influenced modern trends but I don't think I retained the names of 70 designers listed.

[Johanna Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small book - fun project. I'm perennially lost in fashion-talk and this book gave a well-illustrated and solid intro the fashion across the ages.

[Gigra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun facts appear from time to time, but overall it feels a little bit dated, showing a lot of 2010 and noughties high fashion.
It does not, as the title tells you, teach you how to read fashion, but it does offer an overview of different pieces of clothing and details. It covers everything from men's facial hair to fastenings on womenswear and is great if you have a budding interest in fashion and want to know more, but don't know where to start.
Furthermore, the font is vogue-like which makes it annoying to read since the format is so small.

[Gökhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It became a nice introduction book for me to look at fashion and I also made a lot of research on Google myself so it was helpful. Although I expected a little different approach, I can say that I still learned a lot and now I have a better idea about changes in history and fashion today.

It doesn't say everything from beginning to end with so many details but with a little bit research by yourself on Google while reading would increase the benefit you might get from the book and I think I have a better idea and different sense to look at fashion after I read it.

[Jimena Bautista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mesmo sendo um guia básico, a autora traz a evolução das peças ao longo dos anos. É de grande referência para modelistas, costureiras, estilistas e todo profissional que trabalha na área. Resumido, com boas fotografias e ilustrações e completo em dados históricos. Sucinto.

[regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

not a banger, a little disappointed BUT i enjoyed the many inserts of examples and creations

[Shermaine Yap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book to gloss through

[Amanda L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emphasis on arts both timeless and fleeting, from 17th century traditions to modern day couture. I learned here that fashion is actually pretty technical as this offered a heavy dose of terminology, much of which I was not previously familiar. Source and design origins of present-day styles were addressed and the cyclical nature of the art was implicitly conveyed. Ffoulkes even points to styles that are purely derivative of another era's Avant-garde. Beautiful photographs. I only wish that it revealed the retail value (or curation value of historical garments) of each --or at least some!-- of the pieces.

Read cover to cover in a bookstore in Reykjavik. Ahh, fond memories.

[Mary Ronan Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, heavily illustrated book about the basics of fashion, fashion history, and couturiers that I got from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when I was placing my Christmas card order. It's one of a series of How to Read . . . books and for a beginner it's splendid. I will pass it along to a grand-niece who is interested in dress design.

This is one of a series of How to Read . . . books with titles that include HtR Paintings, ... Greek Vases, ... Architecture, ... Islamic Carpets. As with most MOA publications, it's exactly what it purports to be and gives good value.

[Am Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor editing (mistakes aplenty), haphazard layout and presentation (images are just thrown at the reader all over the page, with messy captions - I had to look at them many times to make sure I was reading the correct caption for the correct image, and you can't even tell in some cases whether it's correct because the captions are so ambiguous and there is no context). The approach to this book was more like, "let's throw as much info/pictures at the reader as we can and hope they can somehow make sense of it".

[Karolina Sosnowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://tanayahczyta.wordpress.com/20...

[Gaile · Rating 1 out of 5]

Each page shows a different garment and how it started. color Photos. Very tiny book and very brief in the description of each garment.