The Little Book of London Style: The fashion story of the iconic city

by Karen Homer

An inspiration to countless designers and the stomping ground of fashion's in-crowd, London is the capital of subculture. From Mary Quant to Alexander McQueen, from punks to goths, and from Twiggy to Naomi Campbell, Little Book of London Style is the beautifully illustrated guide to the essential brands, trends and people that make up the style DNA of this unique city.

Genres: Fashion, Art, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

Published October 4, 2022

About the author

Karen Homer is a renowned fashion journalist and bestselling author of The Little Book of Dior and Things a Woman Should Know About Style. She has written for The Times, Telegraph, Vogue, Elle, and lives in London.

Reviews

[Mind the Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Låg övergiven på ett fyndbord på Urban Outfitters. Oväntat nyutgiven. Ville läsa den som en hyllning till Vivienne Westwood och Mary Quant som båda nu lämnat världen.

Ser fram emot subkulturkapitlet och jag vet att stilinfluenserna i sektionen efter det går ända fram till Harry Styles, haha.

[Emma Gerstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first mistake was buying a coffee table book and expecting scholarship—if you want an overview with nice pictures this is it, if you’re interested in research and broader sociopolitical context it’s not.

[Hero Diml · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

This book is a great resource for beginners in fashion, however it lacks essential features that could make it more useful.

Lesser known designers were overlooked and restricted to one page and there weren't enough images for the reader to understand better several collections mentioned. On the other hand the book did provide a summary of London's fashion history and as many details as a summary could have.

My favourite and maybe most useful chapter is Street Style in which plenty of subcultures that thrived in London are explained. While the book doesn't really focus on how these trends came into being, it highlights each subculture's main characteristics in fashion.

[keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

Being sick + on a long car ride means I am getting through books quickly! I picked up this one in a cute store in Carmel by the Sea.

I loved the pictures featured and almost feel like there weren’t enough, since fashion is such a visual art form and can’t always be described in text. The layout, with bright shades of yellow and pink interspersed with titles in fun fonts and quotes from fashion icons is adorable.

My favorite chapters, in order from most to least favorite:
4: Street Style
Teddy Boys! Mods vs. Rockers! New Romantics! I loved seeing the broader social movements + the people behind them.

3: Style Icons
Best use of photos here. Also appreciated seeing trends in chronological order.

1: Birth of a Style Capital
Short and sweet, wish it focused less on individual designers

2: Fashion Designers
IMO, should have focused more on the technical aspects of the designs. Surely not everyone had an an “eponymous” label?

[Charlotte Edson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and interesting, but not as well laid out as "The Little Book of Paris Style".

I believe that there were some designers that should have been included, and some style icons that should have been included. There was a lot of emphasis on Princess Diana and olden times, and not a lot spoken about the modern day. Many "style icons" of the modern day were white and heteronormative, which was disappointing.

I felt that the Paris book just gave me more.

[kim :)) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've come to realise that what I find most fascinating is street fashion, and only about 1/4 of the book spoke about it. The rest was mainly about designers and pioneers, not something I'm all that interested in. The Swedish translation is also at times questionable (where you can tell it's translated... the word makes no sense in Swedish but I can easily figure out what it was originally).

[Silvia Rosado · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved getting to know the stories about subcultures and British fashion designers. Also, I was positively amazed at how current the book is, highlighting the fashion impact of artist such as Harry Styles, and the 2020’s street style fashion trends.

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great factual guide especially for beginners who are just starting to learn about British fashion history and the iconic designers that came from London.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Den skrapar verkligen bara på ytan. Den yttersta ytan. Jag kommer trotts (tack vare?)detta läsa hela serien.

[eris · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent surface-level overview