Fashion Game Changers : Reinventing the 20th-Century Silhouette

Fashion Game Changers traces radical innovations in Western fashion design from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.

Challenging the traditional silhouettes of their day, fashion designers such as Madeleine Vionnet and Cristóbal Balenciaga began to liberate the female body from the close-fitting hourglass forms which dominated European and American fashion, instead enveloping bodies in more autonomous garments which often took inspiration from beyond the West. As the century progressed, new generations of avant-garde designers from Rei Kawakubo to Martin Margiela further developed the ideas instigated by their predecessors to defy established notions of femininity in dress, creating space between body and garment. This way, a new relationship between body and dress emerged for the 21st century.

With over 200 images and commentaries from an international range of leading fashion curators and historians, this beautifully illustrated book showcases some of the most revolutionary silhouettes and innovative designs of over 100 years of fashion.

“Before designers like Coco Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet, hourglass silhouettes dominated Western fashion, constricting waists and restricting women's movements. That started to change in the 20th century with innovations ranging from Chanel's gamine jackets to Cristóbal Balenciaga's cascading dresses. The book Fashion Game Changers, out April 21 from Bloomsbury Visual Arts, traces the evolution of fashion designers creating freer, looser-fitting forms. With these radical, avant-garde designs, women were finally able to breathe.” -Catie L'Heureux, NYMag.com

“This accompaniment to an exhibition by the same name at Antwerp’s ModeMuseum shines a light on those designers whose work offered women an alternative to the hourglass silhouette. The authors make the argument that Cristóbal ­Balenciaga’s work in the mid-20th century provided a bridge between pioneering designers in the early decades (Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, Paul Poiret) and avant-garde designers (Comme des Garcons, Issey Miyake, Maison Martin Margiela) working at the end of the 20th century and into the 21st. Essays cover topics such as the influence of Japonism on Western fashion and the points of view of designers such as Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin, and Georgina Godley. Additional pieces by women who regularly wear the garments of the designers discussed provide perspective on how it feels to exhibit an avant-garde style and the ­reactions they provoke. ­VERDICT This photo-heavy volume will be relished by design students and enthusiasts of envelope-pushing fashion.” —Stephanie Klose, Library Journal