The Style Thesaurus: A definitive, gender-neutral guide to the meaning of style and an essential wardrobe companion for all fashion lovers

by Hannah Kane

Overview

At once a lexicon of fashion and a style guide, The Style Thesaurus is the essential wardrobe companion for all fashion lovers.

Style can be used to fit in or to stand out, to send different messages and, with the right knowledge, it can also be adjusted according to mood or occasion. The Style Thesaurus examines a wide range of looks, investigates their roots in history and culture, and shows how they can be curated or combined.

Organized into groups reflecting the origins of the style - Utility, Music & Dance, Leisure etc - and fully illustrated, each entry includes examples, near synonymous styles, styling details, pairings and colour story. Entries include everything from Neo-Victoriana, Dandy and Rockabilly to Normcore, Modest or Afrofuturist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529421873
Publisher:	Laurence King Publishing
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	616,231
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Hannah Kane is a journalist, writer and Editor-in-Chief of independent style and culture magazine PHOENIX. She is an Associate Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, teaching fashion journalism, product management, and marketing communications. She also teaches at the privately-owned London College of Style in trend forecasting, art direction, styling, and shoot production.

Editorial Reviews

07/31/2023

The “clothes we wear... function as a language that can, to some extent, be read,” asserts journalist Kane in her comprehensive debut survey of clothing styles that “reappear time and time again” on city streets and in high-fashion magazine spreads. In each brief entry, Kane distills a style’s history, signature garments, and role in popular culture, such as the short-hemlined, unconstrained “flapper” aesthetic that emerged in the wake of WWI as women cast off the strictures of the corset and sought “the freedom that men had, figuratively and literally”; the cowboy style of the “Old West,” characterized by leather or suede chaps that protected cattle ranchers from scrub vegetation; and 1970s disco wear, which combined sequins and glitter with flexible fabrics that allowed club goers to “get noticed while being comfortable,” and remains a key reference point for today’s eveningwear. Rather than dispensing prescriptive fashion advice, Kane lets each entry stand on its own to celebrate the “diversity of human expression” and elucidate style’s links to history and culture. Students of fashion will be enlightened and delighted by this detail-rich resource, and even novices will be persuaded that “we are all stylists, assembling meaning to find our tribes.” Photos. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Students of fashion will be enlightened and delighted by this detail-rich resource, and even novices will be persuaded that 'we are all stylists, assembling meaning to find our tribes.'" – Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher