How to Read Fashion: A Crash Course in Styles, Designers and Couture

“The book is fabulous for the curious or uninitiated, but How to Read Fashion will fall short for the educated fashion aficionado.”

As is the case in almost areas of professional expertise, each sphere of knowledge requires its own language—medicine, law, science, auto repair. How to Read Fashion was intended to be the lexicon of all things fashion, but Ms. Ffoulkes only provides the reader with a less than comprehensive and hardly exhaustive lexicon; think of it as an abridged version.

It is understandable that a 100% complete dictionary of terms pertaining to fashion is practically impossible given fashion’s mercurial and ever-changing status, but one hoped for more than what was offered here.

A vast assortment of terms and techniques fall out of usage with time just as there new ones develop every day with the advent of fashion technology. So why is there not more here?

None of this means that the book is a failure in its intent. How to Read Fashion remains informative, educational, and enlightening. But a “handbook or dictionary”—so needed when it comes to fashion critiques, critics, and assessments for the 21st century—it is not.

Another detraction is that Ms. Ffoulkes seems to not be sure when to use designers when defining the various descriptors. For instance, in a segment titled “The Black Dress,” she offers up a brief paragraph about the item and then offers photos of two generic examples from the early 19th century and then two photos from the 21 st century and inexplicably a dress labeled “Jean Shrimpton 1960s.” Where are the Chanel or Givenchy dresses that are clearly synonymous with the terminology? Ms. Shrimpton was a model not a designer. And where are the silhouette shapes that should be included when describing the dress?

The range of designers used as examples is extremely limited; plus there are so many basic terms that make up the language of fashion that have been completely omitted. What started out as extremely promising turns out to be more primer than a definitive work of fashion terms.

The book is fabulous for the curious or uninitiated, but How to Read Fashion will fall short for the educated fashion aficionado.