Alistair O'Neill

Exploding Fashion examines the impact of innovative pattern-cutting in several key examples of 20th century fashion design. With over 200 illustrations, it ‘explodes’ designs by 6 game-changing fashion designers from the world’s leading fashion houses, and reverse engineers them in order to understand how they work. Written by a curator and professor at Central Saint Martins, London's premier college of art and design, this is the first comprehensive exploration of how a traditional design process can enter into a dialogue with new concepts, illuminating haute couture and prêt-à-porter methods for a visually-driven digital age.

In this timely book, three noted fashion historians examine the global transformations in the fashion industry today, and identify the challenges of the future. Since the dawn of designer fashion at the beginning of the 20th century, the role and position of the designer has drastically changed. This book addresses how the interpretation of creativity, authorship, craft, and innovation have evolved in this new context, and asks what role designers play in a globalised and digitised fashion world.