Book Review: "Fifty Dresses That Changed the World"

Today's review is the Design Museum's "Fifty Dresses that Changed the World." First published in 2009 by Conran Octopus Ltd, the text is written by Michael Czerwinski and has been reprinted a couple of times. At a little over 100 pages, this little book is a great reference for iconic dresses that any costume designer or fashion designer should recognize.

I really enjoy the variety and the feeling that it does capture the dresses that did in fact change the world. The layout of the book is consistent with information and descriptions on the left and a lovely photo on the right. The book description explains that each dress appraisal explores "what has made their iconic status and the designers that give them a special place in design history" (Amazon). 

The book is in chronological order for the dresses they selected to feature. It opens with the Delphos pleated dress from 1915 and then carries on over the decades and it ends with an LED Dress by Hussein Chalayan from 2007. While I think the book covers a great variety of dresses, I do think there are some designs that I would imagine should be in the book but aren't. One of the dresses is the Samurai dress from Alexander McQueen in 2001. While I think that is a fabulous, unique design, I really feel like one of his designs is even more ground breaking. For me that dress is from his Spring 1999 show where he had these masterful tailored dresses and then had robotic arms spray paint all over them. 

Overall it's a great resource book to have and it's a fun way to gain a lot of information about designers and key looks through the decades. There are a few other books in the collection such as chairs, shoes, and cars that changed the world. If you like having little fun coffee table esque books this would be a great addition for your bookshelves!