Bikinis, Bell-bottoms and Little Black Dresses: 70 Great Fashion Classics

The biggest problem with books of this ilk is that they stretch the imagination to fulfill the reality of the title. A far greater problem is that when a book like Bikinis, Bell-Bottoms & Little Black Dresses is written abroad and then distributed in the USA, a lot gets “lost in translation.”

So-called Fashion classics, such as Breton tops, sloppy joe, mini crini, and winkle picker do not exist in the American fashion vocabulary, and if they do, to say they are arcane is an understatement.

Not only is the reader faced with alien terminology, there is then confusion with the use of certain words like trousers and pump and shirtwaister. As most already know a pump is a shoe with a heel, yet in Ms. Mulvey’s litany of “Fashion Classics” is the ballet pump, which is “our” ballet slipper.

Similarly confusing is the word trousers, which connotes a more formal pants style in this country, can be used to describe jeans across the pond, hence leather trousers.

Any fashion educated reader will realize something is askew when a photo of Dinah Shore is used as an example used to define the “LBD” or little black dress.

In the book’s defense, it is adequately illustrated, and for each of the 70 “classics,” a rather good history is given to back it up.

This reviewer is at odds to designate who this book would appeal to with it being so out of place in the fashion world of the USA, which might prove amusing to some and annoying to others.