Tag: Charlotte Fiell

Released today: Fashion Sourcebook 1930s

Released today, Charlotte Fiell’s Fashion Sourcebook 1930s… I need this in my bookshelf immediately! Here’s the blurb:

The 1930s are remembered largely as an era of economic insecurity and crisis in the US, political instability and heated rhetoric filling the airwaves in myriad corners of the globe. What better time than the present, then, to revisit and reassess the fashions and styles of that troubled era? Despite the tensions and perils of that long-ago decade, the fashions of the time were often achingly chic, with the insouciantly androgynous flapper styles of the 1920s replaced by sweeping bias-cut gowns with deep-cut backs, floral tea-dresses, tailored suits and draped furs for anybody who could afford them. The latest volume in a series of resources devoted to specific decades, Fashion Sourcebook 1930s collects the most unforgettable looks of the decade, documenting its season-by-season fashions and offering an extensive selection of original photographs, sketches and prints–some 600 images in all, the majority in color–that give a full sense of the opulence and elegance of the period. These images are given depth and context by an essay providing a summary of the major themes within the era’s fashion and presents its most notable designers. This is an essential handbook for fashion students as well as anyone interested in fashion or cultural history.

Oh my yes. I’m off to buy it at Amazon.com!

Released today: Fashion Sourcebook 1920s

Charlotte Fiell’s latest compilation has just been released today: Fashion Sourcebook of the 1920s! I’m guessing this will be a gorgeous sourcebook for original images of twenties fashions. I want this now! But I can’t buy it until February when I move to London (and therefore have a bookshelf to put it in!). Oh well, you kids can buy it now at Amazon.com. Here’s the blurb:

Saucy flappers and manic Charlestons, dramatic silent movies and the bigband euphoria of early jazz: the 1920s must surely rank amoung the most dashing eras in American styles history, and this volume documents in ravishing detail the clothing that helped make the decade so stylish and glamorous. Sumptuously illustrated with more than 600 original photographs, drawings and prints, Fashion Sourcebook 1920s focuses largely on the Art Deco period, with its beautiful beaded dresses, cloche hats and t-bar shoes as worn by the fahsionable flappers and the “bright young things” of the time. Hemlines and haircuts both became drastically shorter, mirroring the changing social roles: at the decade’s outset, women gained the right to vote and Prohibition led many otherwise law abiding Americans to break the law of the land rather than abandon their gin fizzes. This title will prove an indispensable reference work not only for students of fashion but for all fashionistas seeking ideas for the major themes within fashion during this period, surveying its most famous designers and assessing their creative contributions. A cornucopia of beautiful clothes with exquisite detailing, this book is a rich source of inspiration as well as an important survey of Art Deco fashion.

Hairstyles: Ancient to Present

Just released today, a new book claiming to be the most comprehensive survey of hairstyles ever published. I trust this will be an amazing sourcebook, with tonnes of inspirational images, since it’s coming from Charlotte Fiell, the editor behind those fantastic Taschen design icon books – you know the ones?  She also has two fashion sourcebooks being released soon: one on the 1920s being released in a few days, and one on the 1930s due out in March 2012. I’ll post about those shortly.

Here’s the blurb for Hairstyles Ancient to Present:

No part of the human body is as culturally determined, and as diverse in its possible expressions, as hair. The afro, beehive, bob, bouffant, bowl cut, dreadlocks, mullet, mohawk, perm, pompadour – from year to year, and from era to era, old and new hairstyles come and go, telling a new tale about their wearers each time around. Hairstyles: Ancient to Present is not only the most comprehensive survery of hairstyles ever published, it is also a visual celebration of this endlessly inventive cultural phenomenon that looks at the entire cultural sprectrum of hairstyle, from ancient Greek tresses and eighteenth century powdered wigs to Art Deco bobs and Punk spikes, to the latest directions in the world of hairdressing today. Throughly researched, with 800 illustrations, this book showcases an amazing array of wonderfully imaginative styles, while also demonstrating the remarkable skill of their creators. It includes over 1,000 hairstyles, from resplendent Victorian chignons to 1950’s ponytails to the creations of today’s top stylists. With page after page of visual inspiration, Hairstyles contextualises through its accompanying texts the historical and and cultural relevance of hairdressing in society, as well as analyzing its role as a signifier of social status.