Fashion Designers A-Z. Taschen 40th Edition Series

Fashion Master Class

Defining design of the 20th and 21st centuries

From Azzedine Alaïa, Cristóbal Balenciaga, and Coco Chanel to Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood, more than a century’s worth of fashion greats are celebrated in this new edition of Fashion Designers A-Z.

An accessibly priced and updated volume features photographs of hundreds of garments selected from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) museum's permanent collection. Elegant gowns from the turn of the century, Mondrian-style minimalist chic, and everything inbetween. Each of these works of art is chosen not only for its beauty but also for exemplifyingthe unique philosophy, skill, and aesthetics of each of the featured designers.

In her introductory essay, the museum’s director and chief curator, Valerie Steele, writes about the rise of the fashion museum and the emergence of the fashion exhibition as a popular and controversial phenomenon. The foreword is contributed by international style maven Suzy Menkes, texts by the museum’s curators help shine historical light on each label and garment pictured, and beautifully drawn portraits by the artist Robert Nippoldt pay homage to the creators behind them.

Robert Nippoldt is a German illustrator and book artist known for various publications and stage programs about the 1920s, as well as drawings for The New Yorker and Time Magazine. He has received over two dozen awards worldwide, including from the Art Directors Club in New York and the International Design Award in Los Angeles.

Unquestionably a leader in the global fashion press, Suzy Menkes is International Vogue Editor at Condé Nast International. Her work appears on the websites of 23 international editions of Vogue in 16 languages. She is also a leading Instagram influencer. Among the world’s most influential fashion critics, she is an officer of the Order of the British Empire as well as a chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. She lives and works in London and Paris. @SuzyMenkesVogue

Valerie Steele is director and chief curator of The Museum at FIT and founding editor of Fashion Theory. Described in The Washington Post as one of “fashion’s brainiest women” and by Suzy Menkes as “the Freud of fashion,” Steele combines serious scholarship (and a Yale Ph.D.) with a rare ability to communicate with general audiences. As author, curator, editor, and public intellectual, Steele has been instrumental in creating the modern field of fashion studies.