Clothing is perhaps one of the most misunderstood products of this century or, for that matter, any other century. It is only in the last ninety years or so that personalities in the form of designers have emerged. Those people (regarded by the layman with the utmost suspicion) have, in that time, released women from their corsets and built up a multi-billion dollar industry.

At last, the essential book for anybody interested in fashion design and all that is associated with it has been published. There have been many books written which concern themselves with a singular subject – reams on Chanel, illustrations from Vogue, the occasional, largely photographic book on the Japanese designers,