London Uprising: Fifty Fashion Designers, One City

London Uprising is as much a geography/real estate lesson as it is the story of the rise of the British fashion industry in its current state. The subjects of these interviews are from the past, present, and future of what has exploded into so much more than one could have ever imagined—the true pioneers of contemporary British fashion such as Jasper Conran, Manolo Blahnik, and Phillip Treacy. Another refreshing angle of the book is that those interviewed inhabit every facet of fashion from shoes to millinery—in essence from the top to the bottom of fashion.

The prospective reader should keep in mind that these interviews come across quite conversationally to the point feeling that you sense that you might be eavesdropping on each of these meetings/interviews. In other words, this reader was engaged as well as feeling like part of the process. These are not redacted interviews that have the feeling of a chore rather than pleasure as each exudes a warmth and genuine personality. The one cautionary aspect is that some of the interviewers are maybe overly enthusiastic about their part in providing background and offering assessments for each subject in these sessions.

Even the most jaded of fashion readers will find something that he or she never knew about London, a designer, or possibly some anecdotal information that has never before been told. It is a book that this reviewer recommends as it is not filled with the press release type of prefabricated information that is fed to us each and every day about fashion by a fawning and advertising motivated media. 

Lastly, which is really the first thing you notice about this wonderful volume is how it is literally constructed to resemble a scrapbook rather than the standard format of the genre. It is a book that is not so much photo centric as expository, which simply means that you actually must read it.