Icons of Women's Style by Josh Sims (Laurence King Publishers, 207 pages) $40.95
Fashion is the sum of the collective input of designers.
It is the invention and reinvention of concepts from across the decades that fuel the multi-billion-dollar industry. There are some designs that become icons and within every woman's closet are clothes that have been influenced by them.
Author Josh Sims looks at style icons from all aspects of fashion and divides the chapters into specific items including outerwear, skirts, dresses, trousers, tops, underwear, leisure and swimwear, shoes and finally accessories. In each section Sims presents significant designs that influenced the fashion of the day and in most cases many of the designers who followed.
Photographs and illustrations fill the pages with examples of each item. Sims explains the creation of the design and its impact as well as the public response at the time, which in some cases was far different than the later opinions. Models, actresses and celebrities appear in the best examples, such as Twiggy in a miniskirt, Audrey Hepburn wearing a little black dress, or Kate Middleton in a trench coat.
