Colin McDowell is a passionate observer of the way fashion mingles different decades. Influences from the 1950s continually emerge. The Edwardian period is also popular. It evokes a more romantic time for fashion. McDowell shrugs off criticism of clothes that have been seen before.
Fashion has to sell.
If it takes too many steps into the future, the audience will simply be left behind. Fashion comes across as a strong image that braves the new world, but it's a timid world and everyone connected to the industry is aware of that. McDowell's book Fashion Today reveals the richness of 20th-century fashion as it continually reinvents itself. Over nearly 500 pages he showcases the designers who do brave the new world. He celebrates the significant designers of each decade and singles out a few who seem to design in their own fashion stratosphere.