"A fashion history genius and a great writer" Dawn O'Porter, Glamour
From Eve's fig leaf to Hillary Clinton's pantsuit, the way we choose to clothe our bodies can carry layer upon layer of meaning. Across cultures and throughout history people have used clothing to signify power and status, to adorn and beautify, even to prop up or dismantle regimes. The Fashion Chronicles: Style Stories of History's Best-Dressed (Mitchell Beazley, 2018) crosses continents and over 5000 years to illuminate the importance of communication through clothing. Featuring 100 people from Sappho to Tutankhamun, Karl Marx and Michelle Obama, the book subverts the ‘best dressed’ trope and uses it to uncover sartorial stories from prehistory to the present. From aesthetics to activism, The Fashion Chronicles is a manifesto for fashion history, illuminating how the study of clothing can act as a portal to the past.
The launch was accompanied by a book tour of history and literary festivals across the country, from Hartlepool's Northern School of Art to Margate’s Turner Contemporary.
The Fashion Chronicles is available online from Foyles and Amazon, and is in all good bookshops
