Fashion Designers A-Z. The collection of The Museum at FIT

Fashion Master Class. Defining design of the 20th and 21st centuries. From Azzedine Alaïa, Cristóbal Balenciaga, and Coco Chanel to Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood, more than a century's worth of fashion greats are celebrated in this new edition of Fashion Designers A-Z. An accessibly priced and updated volume features photographs of hundreds of garments selected from the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology's permanent collection in New York.
Elegant gowns from the turn of the century, Mondrian-style minimalist chic, and everything in between. Each of these works of art is chosen not only for its beauty but also for exemplifying the unique philosophy, skill, and aesthetics of each designer. In her introductory essay, the museum's director and chief curator, Valerie Steele, writes about the rise of the fashion museum and the emergence of the fashion exhibition as a popular and controversial phenomenon.
The foreword is contributed by the international style maven Suzy Menkes, texts by the museum's curators help shine historical light on each label and garment pictured, and beautifully drawn portraits by the artist Robert Nippoldt pay homage to the creators behind them.