Screen Style

by Marnie Fogg

Screen Style celebrates the beautiful, stylish and often covetable outfits and costumes featured in 50 iconic and diverse series of the small from Mad Men to Call My Agent, Bridgerton to Empire .

By organising the series into genres - Comedy, Coming of Age, Crime, Historical, Retro, Contemporary - the author shows how designers take different approaches when manipulating the latent power of dress to create convincing characters and enhance the experience of the viewer. She reveals how the characters themselves can become role models for what to wear, transforming actors into fashion influencers.

The book is beautifully illustrated with over 250 screen stills, each accompanied by an extended caption, further demonstrating how TV series have helped to set the standard for fashion on and off screen.

224 pages, Hardcover

Published September 19, 2023

About the author

Marnie Fogg is a media consultant in all aspects of the fashion industry. She has a Master’s Degree in Art and Design Advanced practice and theory. She has lectured in Visual Studies and the Culture of Fashion and the University of Nottingham.

She is the author of over 25 books on fashion and related subjects including: The Dress: 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion Forever, Vintage Handbags: Collecting and Wearing Designer Classics, Vintage Weddings, Vintage Fashion Illustration from Harper’s Bazarr 1930 - 1970, and a series of books “Vintage Patterns” that cover the decades 1920’s thru 1980’s.

Reviews

[Edie Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title refers to the television screen. The examples come from limited series programs from the US and elsewhere.

This creates a big problem, which is not a fault of the book. No one can watch that much TV. So although the bits on those shows in which I was familiar with were interesting, I had limited concern for the rest.

I thought well of the basic set up. We get a brief summary of each storyline, description of the costumes and a few words by the designer of what they were trying to do. Some of the entries are only worth a couple of pages whereas others could (and should) be extended to whole books. In fact, I own a wonderful one exclusively discussing Mrs Maisel’s wardrobe.

Some significant shows weren’t even mentioned. Why no “Game of Thrones”? Yes, there is already an incredible book exclusively on this subject, but the fantasy category, a natural one for discussion seems completely omitted.

The author focuses on more recent programs. There were some older ones, like “Rome” that would have been wonderful. I would have also liked the period drama, “Poldark” represented.

I also found some uncalled for mistakes in some of the plot synopsizes. These were only from stories, of which I am familiar. Who knows about the ones in which I was not?

For the most part I liked the book. It was just too little in some parts and too much in others.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to look at but offers zero new thoughts if you're someone who likes to examine the fashion of shows you watch.