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Publishers Weekly Review

McDermott, a British design professor and critic, maintains that punk played a central role in revitalizing the British fashion industry in the 1980s, as shown in the radical but wearable creations of Vivienne Westwood. She also examines other areas influenced by punk, including the graphics of record sleeves and in the layered layouts of the style magazines The Face and i-Dstet, which McDermott calls ``the creative centre of London.'' Likewise, she surveys British interior design, arguing that it has reached innovative postpunk peaks in the ``motorway aesthetic'' of the Hacienda nightclub and the ``theatrical setting'' of singer Adam Ant's flat. She concludes that these anarchic, idiosyncratic designers share an approach that ``exploits a national sense of irony and humour.'' This is lavishly illustrated with 50 black-and-white and 170 color photographs, and over 35 ``designer biographies'' are featured in an appendix. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

Although McDermott repeatedly apprehends its imminent decline, Britain has reigned supreme in high-fashion clothing, textile design, commercial graphics, interior decoration, and product design during the 1980s. McDermott pins the label ``street style'' on British design because she traces its inspiration to the styles Britain's working-class teenagers brought to the streets when they arose as a significant consumer class back in the 1950s. Having established that link, she devotes a chapter each to developments in the five separate areas of British design since the punk music and fashion explosion of the late 1970s liberated a generation of young designers. More than 1950s styles, contemporary British design resembles dada in its deliberate outrageousness and preferences for collage, intense color, and rough edges. These distinctions, which ultimately add up to what might be called ``high tech gone bonkers,'' are eye-poppingly displayed in more than 80 illustrations. The printing and layout are magnificent, in contrast to the typo-laden, grammatically gauche text. Designer biographies, bibliography, and index. RO. 745.941 Design Great Britain History 20th century [OCLC] 86-43186