Fashioning London

Over the past three centuries, London has established itself as one of the world's most inventive fashion capitals. Drawing on a range of sources, including paintings, street photography, maps, tourist guides, literature, and stage and press representations, Fashioning London paints a vivid and definitive portrait of London's iconoclastic style. Explore how particular styles of dress became emblematic of this leading international city, ultimately challenging the fashion dominance of Paris, Milan, and New York. Christopher Breward constructs an original history of clothing in London, through its manufacture, promotion, and cultural significance, while examining how issues of space, architecture and performance impinge on notions of fashionability. You will come away from this text understanding that although city life and fashion have always been intertwined, nowhere has this relationship been more excitingly expressed than on the streets of London.

Chris Breward is the Director of National Museums Scotland. He was trained at the Courtauld Institute and the Royal College of Art, London and has previously worked as Director of Collection and Research at the National Galleries of Scotland, Head of Research at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and as Principal of Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. His published interests include the relationship between art and fashion, visual and cultural histories of masculinity, and histories of city life. He is the author of Fashioning London (Bloomsbury, 2004, reissued 2026) and co-editor of Material Memories (Bloomsbury, 1999), The Englishness of English Dress (Bloomsbury, 2002), Fashion and Modernity (Bloomsbury, 2005), Fashion's World Cities (Bloomsbury, 2006), Styling Shanghai (Bloomsbury, 2020).

Preface to the re-issue 1. The Dandy: London's new West End 1790-1830 2. The Immigrant: East End, West End 1840-1914 3. The Actress: Covent Garden and The Strand 1880-1914 4. The Hostess and the Housewife: From Mayfair to Edgware 1918-1939 5. The Teddy Boy: Lambeth, Soho and Belgravia 1945-1960 6. The Dolly Bird: Chelsea and Kensington 1960-1970 7. The Student: Camden Market 1970-2000 Bibliography Afterword