New York Fashion Week has served many purposes throughout its long history, but it has always remained at the center of the American fashion world. During World War II, Fashion Week challenged the dominance of French couture; in the 1970s and 1980s, it was a showcase for American sportswear stars who became household names; in the 2000s, it was the stage for celebrity designers using the runway as a vehicle for entertainment; and now, it is the place to see and be seen by contemporary reality TV and social media stars. Now, this illustrious history is told as it’s never been told before, in a book packed with designer interviews, backstage ephemera, and exclusive photographs culled from all 75 years of New York Fashion Week. Part historical overview, part scrapbook, and part fashion-industry field guide, American Runway will bring to life the people, places, and over-the-top runway productions of New York Fashion Week—and will sate the appetites of die-hard fashion fans and casual fashionistas alike.

A behind-the-scenes look at the only fashion show held at the White House and the intersections of fashion and politics On February 29, 1968, the White House hosted its first--and only--fashion show. At the time, the patriotic event was lauded by the press, and many predicted it would become an annual occasion, especially since fashion had grown to become the fourth largest industry in the United States, employing 1.4 million Americans, more than 80 percent of them women. But the social and political turmoil of that particular year--from the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy--cast a shadow over the festivities. Using eyewitness accounts as well as carefully preserved records, artifacts, and previously unpublished images, Red, White, and Blue on the Runway re-creates the once-in-a-lifetime event and explores the reasons why the first White House fashion show was destined to be the last. The politics of fashion touched everyone involved in this landmark occasion in American fashion history, from hostess Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson daughters to the designers, including Bill Blass, Geoffrey Beene, Mollie Parnis, and Oscar de la Renta, as well as the models and guests. Those guests included the wives of governors and of President Johnson's Cabinet, in addition to dozens of fashion designers and prominent journalists who reported on the event. In our own turbulent political climate, Red, White, and Blue on the Runway takes us back to an equally tense time, providing a unique historical perspective on themes of fashion, politics, protest, and image-making that are immediately relevant today.

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2009 When Broadway Was the Runway explores the central and largely unacknowledged role of commercial Broadway theater in the birth of modern American fashion and consumer culture. Long before Hollywood's red carpet spectacles, Broadway theater introduced American women to the latest styles. At the beginning of the twentieth century, theater impresarios captured the imagination of their largely female patrons by transforming the stage into a glorious site of consumer spectacle. Theater historian Marlis Schweitzer examines how these impresarios presented the dresses actresses wore onstage, as well as the jewelry and hairstyles they chose, as commodities that were available for purchase in nearby department stores and salons. The Merry Widow Hat, designed for the hit operetta of the same name, sparked an international craze, and the dancer Irene Castle became a fashion celebrity when she anticipated the flapper look of the 1920s by nearly a decade. Not only were the latest styles onstage, but advertisements appeared throughout theaters, in programs, and on the curtains, while magazines such as Vogue vied for the rights to publish theatrical costume sketches and Harper's Bazaar enticed readers with photo spreads of actresses in couture. This combination of spectatorship and consumption was a crucial step in the formation of a mass market for consumer goods and the rise of the cult of celebrity. Through historical analysis and dozens of early photographs and illustrations, Schweitzer aims a spotlight at the cultural and economic convergence of the theater and fashion industries in the United States.

From Elizabeth Keckly's designs as a freewoman for Abraham Lincoln's wife to flamboyant clothing showcased by Patrick Kelly in Paris, Black designers have made major contributions to American fashion. However, many of their achievements have gone unrecognized. This book, inspired by the award-winning exhibition at the Museum at FIT, uncovers hidden histories of Black designers at a time when conversations about representation and racialized experiences in the fashion industry have reached all-time highs. In chapters from leading and up-and-coming authors and curators, Black Designers in American Fashion uses previously unexplored sources to show how Black designers helped build America's global fashion reputation. From enslaved 18th-century dressmakers to 20th-century “star” designers, via independent modistes and Seventh Avenue workers, the book traces the changing experiences of Black designers under conditions such as slavery, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Black Designers in American Fashion shows that within these contexts Black designers maintained multifaceted practices which continue to influence American and global style today. Interweaving fashion design and American cultural history, this book fills critical gaps in the history of fashion and offers insights and context to students of fashion, design, and American and African American history and culture.

A fascinating chronicle of how celebrity has inundated the world of fashion, realigning the forces that drive both the styles we covet and the bottom lines of the biggest names in luxury apparel. From Coco Chanel’s iconic tweed suits to the miniskirt’s surprising comeback in the late 1980s, fashion houses reigned for decades as the arbiters of style and dictators of trends. Hollywood stars have always furthered fashion’s cause of seducing the masses into buying designers’ clothes, acting as living billboards. Now, forced by the explosion of social media and the accelerating worship of fame, red carpet celebrities are no longer content to just advertise and are putting their names on labels that reflect the image they—or their stylists—created. Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Combs, and a host of pop, sports, and reality-show stars of the moment are leveraging the power of their celebrity to become the face of their own fashion brands, embracing lucrative contracts that keep their images on our screens and their hands on the wheel of a multi-billion dollar industry. And a few celebrities—like the Olsen Twins and Victoria Beckham—have gone all the way and reinvented themselves as bonafide designers. Not all celebrities succeed, but in an ever more crowded and clamorous marketplace, it’s increasingly unlikely that any fashion brand will succeed without celebrity involvement—even if designers, like Michael Kors, have to become celebrities themselves. Agins charts this strange new terrain with wit and insight and an insider’s access to the fascinating struggles of the bold-type names and their jealousies, insecurities, and triumphs. Everyone from industry insiders to fans of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model will want to read Agins’s take on the glitter and stardust transforming the fashion industry, and where it is likely to take us next.

Paige Forrester shocks the fashion world with her engagement to designer Dylan Marceau, resulting in more responsibility for Erin and possible changes to the direction of their popular TV show.

From February 1967 to April 1968, David Vaughan flew the Lockheed C-130 Hercules in Southeast Asia. Initially a co-pilot, he moved up to aircraft commander and then instructor pilot as he mastered the challenges of landing on very short, unimproved airstrips in difficult terrain and bad weather. He describes his progression from inexperienced novice to veteran flyer as he learned his trade under combat conditions. Vaughan's airlift missions took him to more than 50 fields in South Vietnam, from the Delta in the south to the DMZ in the north, carrying supplies, mail, food, ammunition, and soldiers alive, wounded, and dead. Among his most harrowing flights were resupply missions into the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh during the most intensive days of the 1968 Tet offensive. This expanded and revised edition of his memoir details several additional episodes and features more than twice as many photographs as appeared in the original edition.

On November 28, 1973, the world's social elite gathered at the Palace of Versailles for an international fashion show. By the time the curtain came down on the evening's spectacle, history had been made and the industry had been forever transformed. This is that story. Conceived as a fund-raiser for the restoration of King Louis XIV's palace, in the late fall of 1973, five top American designers faced off against five top French designers in an over-the-top runway extravaganza. An audience filled with celebrities and international jet-setters, including Princess Grace of Monaco, the Duchess of Windsor, Paloma Picasso, and Andy Warhol, were treated to an opulent performance featuring Liza Minnelli, Josephine Baker, and Rudolph Nureyev. What they saw would forever alter the history of fashion. The Americans at the Battle of Versailles– Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, Halston, and Stephen Burrows – showed their work against the five French designers considered the best in the world – Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, and Marc Bohan of Christian Dior. Plagued by in-fighting, outsized egos, shoestring budgets, and innumerable technical difficulties, the American contingent had little chance of meeting the European's exquisite and refined standards. But against all odds, the American energy and the domination by the fearless models (ten of whom, in a groundbreaking move, were African American) sent the audience reeling. By the end of the evening, the Americans had officially taken their place on the world's stage, prompting a major shift in the way race, gender, sexuality, and economics would be treated in fashion for decades to come. As the curtain came down on The Battle of Versailles, American fashion was born; no longer would the world look to Europe to determine the stylistic trends of the day, from here forward, American sensibility and taste would command the world's attention. Pulitzer-Prize winning fashion journalist Robin Givhan offers a lively and meticulously well-researched account of this unique event. The Battle of Versailles is a sharp, engaging cultural history; this intimate examination of a single moment shows us how the world of fashion as we know it came to be.

Rebellious, headstrong, independent - and on her own at age 15 - Lorelei dreamed of being a model, and made that happen through serendipity; a chance meeting with a '70s SoCal Rock Star opened the A-list Hollywood doors to a wondrous world, as well as a full-blown romance. Pounding the pavement in L.A. and New York taught her the hard knocks of being a working class model. Sheer will and determination jetted her off to Europe, where she became a top runway and magazine model, and where she met the doomed love of her life, fiancé Steve Clark of Def Leppard. With humor, pathos, and a world map of insight, Runway RunAway takes readers on a breathless journey around the globe with a backstage pass to high fashion, true romance, and Rock 'n Roll from some of the biggest names in the business.

In this limited edition, Ultimate Collection format linen clamshell and handmade oversized book, Valerie Steele flexes her curatorial muscle by showcasing the most iconic dresses of the twentieth century. From Poiret to Pucci, Doucet to Dior, Vionnet to Valentino, Steele selects one hundred dresses that caused a stir either on the runway or entering a room and ultimately inspired new directions in fashion. Steele’s selections include Paul Poiret's figure-liberating 1907 gown, Madame Grès’s sublimely draped goddess creation from 1938, Jean Paul Gaultier's shockingly exaggerated cone-bust corset dress circa 1984, and Hussein Chalayan’s awe-inspiring remote-control fiberglass Airplane dress from 2000. The compilation, while certainly subjective, is sure to receive nods of recognition along with a gasp or two of surprise.