Fifty Years of Fashion

From haute couture to hot pants, from glamour to grunge, the past fifty years have witnessed some startling revolutions in fashion. This lively survey of postwar fashion not only describes the great designers and their creations but also places trends in clothing within their social and cultural contexts. Valerie Steele begins by discussing the impact of World War II on the international fashion system, explaining, for example, how the success of Christian Dior’s 'New Look' was the result of sweeping social and economic changes that included a shift from the atelier to the global corporate conglomerate.