Style City: How London Became a Fashion Capital

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

One of Britain's greatest cultural achievements of the late 20th century was the establishment of British designer fashion. Robert O'Byrne explores this phenomenon from the mid-'70s, when designer fashion scarcely existed in Britain, to the new millennium, by which time London ranked alongside Paris, New York, and Milan as a world-class fashion capital. The book describes and illustrates all the key players and influences of British fashion in the period: not only the designers but also the music, the clubs, the parties, the amazing dressing-up tradition, and London itself. The language of fashion is visual, and this sumptuous book reflects that with evocative photographs by Norman Parkinson, David Bailey, Patrick Lichfield, Barry Lategan, and others, including iconic images such as the young Princess of Wales, Katherine Hamnett at 10 Downing Street wearing her "60 percent don't want Pershing" T-shirt, Margaret Thatcher in Aquascutum, and other rare shots from the designers' own archives.

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Library Journal Review

O'Byrne (After a Fashion: A History of the Irish Fashion Industry), former fashion correspondent for the Irish Times, informed by fashion promoter and consultant Annette Worsley-Taylor, breezily tells the story of how Britain transformed from a place with some disdain for the frivolous pursuit of fashion to a supportive epicenter of creative fashion designers, prolific art colleges, and a style informed by youth street culture. No longer the stepchild to the international fashion capitals Paris, Milan, and New York, London has evolved from the 1970s through the edgy punk days and the romantic influence of Princess Diana to the current city renown for both high style and street chic. O'Byrne interweaves details of fashion financials with firsthand accounts from designers like Vivienne Westwood and Jasper Conran. VERDICT The well-chosen photographs and punchy layout will appeal to students of fashion, but academic readers should also consider Catherine McDermott's Made in Britain or Christopher Breward's Fashioning London; this is more like a coffee-table book than an in-depth history.-Nancy B. Turner, Syracuse Univ. Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.