Fashion Designers A-z

Fashion masterpieces: Defining designers of the 20th and 21st centuries and their most remarkable works

From Azzedine Alaia, Cristobal Balenciaga, and Coco Chanel to Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, andVivienne Westwood, a century’s worth of fashion greats from the permanent collection of theMuseum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City are celebrated in this fresh, clothbound edition ofFashion Designers A–Z.

Formerly available as a limited Collector’s Edition only, this accessibly priced and updated new edition features photographs ofover 500 garments selected from the Museum’s permanent collection. From an exquisitely embroidered velvet evening gown to Mondrian-style minimalist chic, each chosen piece is chosen not only for its beauty but for its representative value, distilling the unique philosophy and aesthetics of each of the featured designers.

Texts by the museum’s curators explain why each designer is important in fashion history and what is special about the chosen garments. In her introductory essay, director and chief curatorValerie Steele writes about the rise of the fashion museum, and the emergence of the fashion exhibition as a popular and controversial phenomenon. Together with a foreword by Suzy Menkes, Steele’s writings also provide a history of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the world of fashion scholarship and preservation.

Text in English, French, and German