Icons of Women’s Style

Behind nearly every garment in the feminine wardrobe there is a first of its kind that has spawned countless others. While the definitive example – often created by a single designer – has achieved iconic status, its various reinterpretations, season after season, have become fashion staples. Take Coco Chanel’s short, simple black dress first published in American Vogue in 1926, for instance. Vogue predicted that the LBD would become ‘a sort of uniform for all women of taste’ and, indeed, it proved to be one of Chanel’s greatest contributions to fashion. Icons of Women’s Style examines, item by item, the most influential and legendary clothes and accessories – their provenance and history, the stories of their design, the celebrities who made them famous and the various ways they have shaped how women dress today.

Josh Sims is a freelance style writer, contributing to the likes of The Financial Times, The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, Mail on Sunday, Channel 4, the BBC, Esquire, GQ, Wallpaper* and i-D. He is also author of Rock/Fashion (Omnibus), A Dictionary of Fashion Designers (Collins), Mary, Queen of Shops (BBC Books) and contributor to several fashion books from Taschen. He has extensive contacts within the style and mainstream press.