Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Explores the increasing prominence of women in the fashion design and examines their contributions to twentieth-century fashion.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Booklist Review

Another expertly researched volume by Valerie Steele (Fashion and Eroticism [BKL Mr 1 85] and Paris Fashion: A Cultural History [BKL Je 1 88]), Women of Fashion recognizes female fashion designers and the role women had held and again hold in fashion design. Steele reveals that at one time, 65 percent of twentieth-century fashion designers were male and 35 percent female; however, by 1988 there was a surge of female couturiere, dissolving male fashion "dictatorship" stereotypes. The magnitude of innovation reached by such female fashion leaders of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s as Lanvin, Chanel, Vionnet, Schiaparelli, and McCardell is being kept aloft by today's female fashion innovators--Kawakubo, Westwood, Toledo, and Sybilla. Liberal text is supported by well-produced photographs as Steele begins with a brief history of women's early roles in clothing design and construction, then concentrates on prominent individual names from dressmaker Rose Bertin, to Marie Antoinette, to contemporary designers and their influences on international fashion movements and trends. Coverage is also given to female fashion editors and photographers (such as Carmel Snow and Louise Dahl-Wolfe). ~--Janet Lawrence