Exploding Fashion: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Twentieth Century Fashion

by Alistair O'Neill

Exploding Fashion examines the impact of innovative pattern-cutting in several key examples of 20th century fashion design. With over 200 illustrations, it ‘explodes' designs by 6 game-changing fashion designers from the world's leading fashion houses, and reverse engineers them in order to understand how they work. Written by a curator and professor at Central Saint Martins, London's premier college of art and design, this is the first comprehensive exploration of how a traditional design process can enter into a dialog with new concepts, illuminating haute couture and prêt-à-porter methods for a visually-driven digital age.

Genres: Fashion

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 19, 2021

Reviews

[Snorki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is part of the output from a project investigating the structure of 5 classic dresses from 5 different designers in the 20th century, from a 1920s Voinnet to a 1980s Comme des Garçon. It’s really interesting - looking at the transition from 2D pattern to 3D structure, and also examining how a dress isn’t really understood properly from a photograph or on a mannequin - it has to be seen on a moving body to appreciate it fully. Found this a very interesting read.