The Dress: 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion Forever

by Marnie Fogg

From the Victorian crinoline to Vivienne Westwood’s mini-crini, from Hervé Léger’s 1985 bandage dress to Christopher Kane’s 2006 neon revamp, these 100 glorious, groundbreaking dresses made fashion history. Through beautiful images, anecdotes, and analysis, The Dress looks at past styles and present-day reinterpretations, showing how design ideas have been reborn and referenced through time. Whether beaded, bias-cut, frou-frou, corseted, laced, or bustled, each dress has a story to tell.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction, Art, Photography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2015

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

[Nancy]

I think the author, Marnie Fogg, fudged a bit on this so that she could get to a count of 100--Some of these dresses did change fashion, in the sense that they became permanent options, like the shirtdress, the knit dress, and the cocktail dress. Others were merely in fashion for awhile, like hobble skirts. But her scholarship is fascinating, from very early years to the current day (published in 2014).
And the photos are mouth-watering. Indulge yourself with this one!

[Syifa Adiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

We never get out of style

[LPR · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of those books I grabbed on impulse on my last visit to the library pre-shutdown, which explains that, while about something I'm super interested in, it's not as focused as a text I would seek out on purpose.

This book has beautiful full-color photos and illustrations, and I did love the huge coffee-table format. I also loved that it was a series of one-page stories, which made it ideal for non-committal before-bed reading for five minutes at a time. The thematic choice to follow certain elements (the crinoline, the sheath, the empire waist, polka dots, military uniform elements) through history made for a very interesting structure in that I never knew what was coming next.

The kicker for me was that I'm interested in what real people wore in history, and in fashion history and those evolutions, and I'm not at all interested in contemporary runway high fashion. So that landed me at liking exactly half the book: the first half of every section. And given that interest, the structure was a little too sporadic to learn much from in any kind of context. I'm new here, I still need decade-by-decade primers! Thorough ones, preferably. So it was well done, but not precisely what I was looking for, and I skimmed sometimes, when the element was something that popped up post-1970s approx. Still fun though.

[Rosa M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now need to move out immediately and get a cute studio apartment with my friends, all because I was given the perfect coffee-table book for Christmas but I don't have a coffee table. Fun, colorful and well-researched. Two things that generally annoyed me; 1. this book has not been updated since 2014 and fashion has changed considerably since then, and 2. there were several actual typos, and if I can recognize more than half a dozen typos in your book, then there's definitely a problem with the editor/proofreader.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photographs are excellent. The information is pretty good. The writing . . . like many coffee-table books I’ve read, the writing is dense and wordy. Why use one superstar word when five will do? How about this one: “By distributing angular expanses of pure colour in counterpoint and asymmetrical balance, Ilincic is manipulating such principles as colour temperature, intensity and relativity to both animate and anchor the human figure in space.” Can I read and understand this? Yes. By the time the book was finished, however, I was no longer enjoying it.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos. Interesting look at different dress styles from way back in the past to modern times. My fashion loving heart enjoyed.

[Nine Provinces · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super eye candy. The photography is excellent, the editing is very clean. The book flows aesthetically without sticking slavishly to a timeline or history line. The text is short, but very enlightening.

It's tons of fun to see the original take on one concept,(such as Empress Josephine in her famous empire coronation dress with the full jewel game strong ), and a page later we see 1996 John Galliano's take, our model lazily peeking at us under a wig of chandelier-like crystals. Her gown is sheer and we can see her opulent underwear. There are quite a few familiar paintings included as reference to historical fashion.

It's impossible to discuss fashion without some humor. This book pays tribute to the cheeky interpretations of our modern world. All your faves are here: Viviene Westwood, Galliano, Givenchy, McQueen. You know you wanna look.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great change from fiction and quite interesting...