Author and fashion historian Mairi Mackenzie says that fashion “reflects the social, economic, sexual and political attitudes of an era” and the effect of these trends over time is detailed in …Isms: Understanding Fashion, a go-to book for understanding the glorious evolution of fashion. More after the jump…..Learn about style trends from the Empire-style Neoclassicism of the 18th century, which saw women shedding corsetry in favor of clinging and diaphanous gowns of Roman antiquity, to the birth of Haute Couture, the pinnacle of fashion that began in the late 1800s.  See how anti-fashionable Grunge started in the Northwest in the early 90s and then entered the mainstream via cultural influences from MTV to Vogue. Discover the roots of trends like Space Ageism, with see-through dresses and helmet hats; Punk, marked by the dog collars and safety-pinned clothes inspired by the raw 70s music scene that starred the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and the Clash; and the coolly cerebral Minimalism that sprang up as a reaction to the excess of the 1980s.

The wide range of styles chronologically detailed over five centuries in …Isms: Understanding Fashion is helpfully accompanied by a Glossary of Designers, a Glossary of Useful Terms, a charted Chronology of Isms that helps to put the eras into timeline perspective, and an international list of places to visit to learn more about costume and fashion.

This fantastically handy and informative guide will help you understand the historical context of your Prada platforms, and make you wonder what is yet to come in the wide world of how we clothe ourselves.

…ISMS: UNDERSTANDING FASHION by Mairi Mackenzie, Universe Publishing, 2010.