This introduction to fine lingerie offers the buyer advice on choosing suitable styles, taking correct measurements, and caring for delicate items. There are lists of the world's best designers, manufacturers and museums of lingerie and an explanation of terms relating to cut and fabric.

The Fashion Museum, Bath, takes donation of one new outfit from a contemporary designer each year. The pieces are chosen by fashion writers and intended to reflect the mood of the time – they are often prophetic of future trends. Beginning in 1963 with a Mary Quant dress, and finishing in 2012 with an appliqué evening dress by Christian Dior, this publication includes a photograph and description for each garment in the collection. Incorrectly placed text on page 126 corrected with erratum slip.

Through the work of contemporary photographers, writers, artists and designers, this book offers a vision of cultural life and life on the city streets of Iran today, and a glimpse of how Iranians think and feel about their country. Among the aspects of modern Iran explored in words and pictures are big housing developments or ‘slab cities’, publishing, heavy metal music, and beards.

In 1939, at the age of 17, Jerry Robinson was taken on by cartoonist Bob Kane to work on his new creation, Batman, and over the next few years helped create the superhero's sidekick, Robin, and his chief antagonist, the Joker. This illustrated biography charts the career of the influential artist from comic books, satirical cartoons and newspaper comic strips to his later work as a curator of comic book art and campaigner for artist's rights.

This handsome, lavishly illustrated volume charts the production and use of ceramics in architecture and interior decoration from the Middle Ages to the present. Drawing on the rich collection of London’s V&A, the book discusses different traditions and techniques, from the encaustic tiles of the Gothic era through Dutch Delftware to the lively, inventive work of Duncan Grant, while the influence of the Islamic world is shown in the tiles of Moorish Spain and Victorian England.

Award-winning journalist Harriet Quick describes shoes as objects of ‘fascination, status and desire’ in this lavish volume, presented in an embossed box with a ribbon bookmark. Over 300 images by British Vogue photographers spanning from 1920 to 2015 are organized into five themed chapters including ‘Cinderella’, with bejewelled pumps by Manolo Blahnik, and ‘Fetish & Fantasia’, featuring Jean-Paul Gaultier’s corset-laced, thigh-length boots.

Due to the expensive materials and craftsmanship required, shoes have often been regarded as status symbols; the desire of owners to display their wealth resulting in extreme designs such as the absurdly elongated toes of 14th-century 'poulaines'. This well-illustrated history of shoe design analyses the many fads of the 20th century and the latest models of contemporary designers as well as investigating footwear styles dating back as far as 3500 BCE – the oldest shoe ever found.

Mid 20th-century classics, such as Charles Eames' Model No.670 lounge chair and Arne Jacobsen's Egg chair, are among the extensive selection featured in this design compendium. Each example is afforded its own page and profiled with a brief description and example photograph. Organized chronologically, from the 1800s to the present day, the sourcebook demonstrates how different approaches to the same design problem reflect changing tastes, differing ideals and new technologies.

Elizabeth Wilhide begins this study of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) and his achievements in architecture and design by looking at how influences such as the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements were forged into a new style and a ‘unique vocabulary of design and decoration’. The book goes on to give a detailed and richly illustrated account of buildings and interiors by Mackintosh, including The Glasgow School of Art, Windyhill, The Hill House and the Willow Tea Rooms.

This comprehensive and detailed sourcebook comprises over 2,000 specially commissioned illustrations, many in colour, charting the history of the shoe from the Egyptian sandals of 2500 BCE to the baseball boots of the 21st century. Each example is carefully described, including details of materials, decorations and fastenings. The reference section provides short biographies of leading designers and companies, and a visual timeline shows the development of footwear through the centuries.

Trendsetter, fashion icon and wife of an internationally famous novelist, Syrie Maugham (1879–1955) created ultra-chic interiors for London drawing rooms and Manhattan apartments. With its white walls and mirrored panels, her blend of classical elegance and Style Moderne was imitated in several Hollywood movies. Featuring many period photographs, this volume charts her life and career, profiles her fashionable clientele of European royalty and Broadway stars, and describes each of her major commissions in detail.

This attractively designed social history rummages through the wardrobes of women in the years before the First World War to reveal the lives and fashions of the real women behind the stiff, mono-bosomed ideal of Edwardian high society, and closes with the newly liberated breed who donned trousers and overalls to work in munitions factories, uniforms to tend the wounded and widow's weeds to mourn a generation of men. The wide-ranging text is highly illustrated.

Into the gap between the antique and the new, there is retro. Done well, the style works with architecture of every period. Drawing together stunning, rarely seen photographs from the exclusive Côté Maison magazines, this book explains how to achieve the perfect retro interior. It explores different interpretations of the look, from Rustic Reclamation to Structural Industrial, and how to combine the different elements – furniture, mirrors, lighting and textiles – in a striking and unusual yet sympathetic manner.

Under the direction of the designer Shirley Craven (b.1934), Hull Traders was one of the most innovative and influential textile studios of the 1960s; its bold, vivid patterns perfectly captured the exuberance and iconoclasm of the era. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, this stylish book celebrates a remarkable creative partnership, and reproduces more than 125 vibrant fabrics by such celebrated artists as Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), Ivon Hitchens (1893–1979) and Althea McNish (b.1933).

In this classic work, Belgian comics writer and scholar Thierry Smolderen digs deep into the origins of the 20th-century comic strip. He establishes how the picture stories and illustrations of artists like William Hogarth, Rodolphe Töpffer and Gustave Doré laid the foundation of the form, which flourished with the evolution of visual culture caused by developments in printing technology, photography, audio recording and cinema. First published in 2000, the book is translated here by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen.

Leonard S Marcus, a distinguished historian of children's literature, presents a short biography of Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), illustrated with a great collection of his work, including many previously unpublished drawings. From doodling in the margins of his schoolbooks to his tragically early death, the book traces the career of the 'man who invented the modern picture book' and whose dynamic visual storytelling was to influence later illustrators, notably Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak. Slightly off-mint.

In 1933, Stephen Tallents, who had been working on posters for the Empire Marketing Board, joined the General Post Office (GPO) to revitalize its public relations and advertising campaigns. He was to become a major patron of art and design, commissioning work by designers such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, Lewitt-Him and Frank Newbould. This volume describes the major personalities and themes of Tallents’s ambitious project.

Published in association with the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, this book originally accompanied an exhibition of the design work of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. A short essay on the two artists introduces over 100 reproductions of their work in a great range of media, including wallpaper design, book jackets and illustration, posters and ceramics, for clients including Wedgwood, Kew Gardens and the Golden Cockerel Press.

Comprising four A–Z sections, this comprehensive, well-designed guide covers the classification of typefaces from Albertus to Zapfino; the anatomy of letterforms; signs and symbols from @ to ¥; and the ‘typographer’s toolkit’ for organizing type on the page.

Men's File magazine was founded in 2008, initially as a showcase for Nick Clements' photography and his own collection of mid-20th-century clothing, cars and motorcycles. The magazine has since become a vintage style tastemaker, tracing the origins of subculture clothing and paraphernalia, from American surf style and classic biker-chic to English country wear, through a mixture of fashion shoots, interviews and articles. This volume selects the best of the first four issues.

Recent interest in retro and period fashions has seen a revival of swing dancing, the style that dominated dance halls from the 1920s to the 1940s. This colourful celebration of the exuberant dance sets out the basic moves of the Charleston, the Collegiate Shag, the Balboa and the Lindy Hop, and explores the history and culture of swing, including how to dress and apply make-up to achieve the authentic look.

Film director Otto Preminger gave Saul Bass his break in movies, allowing the designer to carry through his ideas of creating a unified graphic identity for a film, removing sensationalist illustrations and images of the stars. This book reproduces 20 of his classic poster designs, from Vertigo and Spartacus to The Shining. The reproductions are printed on heavy board and sized to fit 12 x 16 inch (305 x 406mm) frames.

A study of the blackletter font style in Mexico and its importance in everyday aesthetic life, introducing the artists who adorn shops, service providers and vehicles and

Digital technology has had a profound effect on magazine publishing, reducing large circulations but making it easier to manipulate text and images, and cheaper than ever to print small numbers. This review of developments in magazine design in the 21st century includes hundreds of example pages from a wide spectrum of publications from mainstream titles to the many new independent magazines that have emerged in recent years.

A teacher at Glasgow School of art, an exhibitor at the 1951 Festival of Britain and a textile designer for Liberty’s, Robert Stewart (1924–1995) dazzled the design world of the 1950s and 1960s. His passion was for surface design on textiles, tapestries, ceramics and paintings. This celebration of his life and achievements is richly illustrated with photographs that demonstrate the breadth of his work and provides a fascinating insight into British post-war design.

From the production of the world’s first plimsoll (1830s) to the Melissa shoe – designed by architect Zaha Hadid (2008) – via winkle-pickers, desert boots, flip-flops, crocs, heelless boots, ballet pumps with heels and the Electric Light Shoe (which is actually a sculpture), here are 50 shoe designs that have made an impact. Each entry in the guide is photographed and described in the context of its significance on the shoe-design timeline.

In 1937, Walt Disney set up a special department to develop characters for his films. Unlike the Disney animators, the artists of the Character Model Department had freedom to work in any way they wanted and created sketches and paintings in their chosen style and medium. This book profiles the work of the six leading artists working in the 1940s and is illustrated with their character artwork for films including Dumbo, Pinocchio and Peter Pan. Felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

A richly illustrated sourcebook, this journey through 3,000 years of pattern styles reveals geographical and cultural contrasts and connections from late Bronze Age metalwork motifs to 21st-century fashion design. Including a visual timeline, analyses of elements of pattern, biographies of the great innovators and examples from textiles, paintings, mosaics, engravings and architecture from around the world, the book provides an inspirational design resource and an expert guide to the history and development of pattern in art.

The McDonald's 'golden arches' logo that has become such an iconic global emblem was originally devised to reference the distinctive architecture of the early restaurants, the most recognizable feature of the growing fast food empire in the 1960s. This design history examines 23 enduring food products, including Heinz ketchup, Campbell's soup, Coca Cola and Oxo, and traces how the illustrative and typographic styles of their brand identities have developed over the years.

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement: a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage and a theorist, re-examining the place of art in the post-Revolution, classless society. This concise, illustrated study from the Design series focuses on Rodchenko's graphic work for book jackets, posters and advertising.

The 1960s ushered in an explosion of colour and style in the home. Lavishly illustrated with photographs from the archives of House & Garden magazine, this follow-up to the same author's Fifties House celebrates the design trends of the period, from mid-century Modernism to paisley prints and Indian bric-a-brac, and charts the influence of such designers as David Bailey, Terence Conran, Mary Quant and Biba's Barbara Hulanicki, who provides a foreword.

Flip-flops originated in ancient Egypt, sailors wore bell-bottom trousers – a wide leg could be rolled up while swabbing the decks – and the first people to don a parka-style coat were the Canadian Inuit. Taking 70 icons of style – from berets and bikinis to desert boots – this guide charts the history of each item, with photographs revealing how trends have been inspired by work-wear, film, history and the military.

This largely pictorial volume is divided into ten sections, focusing on each decade of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Colour illustrations chart the changing face of fashion, showing underwear, leisure wear, day wear, evening dresses, bridal gowns and accessories for each period, with notes on dates, materials, styles and designs. Short biographies of relevant couturiers and designers are provided, with an illustrated chart of how styles developed through the century. Slightly off-mint.

From red stockings and satin bustiers to leopard-print thongs, undergarments are often more interesting than the clothes that cover them. With a short introduction, this volume uses colour photographs and contemporary advertisements to illustrate a fascinating range of lingerie. From 19th-century corsets to an early bust supporter and a 1920s bra that offers no support at all, each item is described and catalogued, charting the changing shape of 20th-century fashion.

From punk rock in the 1970s to the Paris catwalks today, Vivienne Westwood’s career has spanned almost five decades and created a living legend – punk proprietor of Let it Rock, fashion designer, global brand, activist and grandmother, still wearing impossibly tall shoes in her seventies. Written in collaboration with the biographer Ian Kelly, this memoir tells the story of her extraordinary trajectory – from early memories of Second World War rationing (‘everybody was knitting’) to creating outfits for the Duchess of Cornwall.

Lee Miller is renowned as one of the 20th century's finest photojournalists, but the woman who photographed the liberation of Dachau began her career as a fashion model in 1920s New York. In the 1930s, she switched from New York to Paris and London and from model to photographer. This first study devoted to Miller's work in fashion presents an outstanding collection of her photographs for Vogue and couture houses, revealing fashion as the backbone of her extraordinarily varied career.

As fashion history is now taught, a divide has developed between collections of dress in museums and academics who approach fashion via theories about the body, feminism, gender and postmodernism. A classic text in its field, this book re-examines the evolution of fashion and how it has been defined and studied since the late 17th century, and looks in detail at the assembling and use of collections of fashion and textiles.

British aviation posters in the early 20th century embraced contemporary art styles such as Modernism and Art Deco, employing leading graphic artists to create images of an exciting new world of air travel. Drawing on British Airways' poster collection, this volume traces advertising design for aviation, from Edwardian air shows, through Imperial Airways in the 1930s, to BEA and BOAC in the 1950s; with reproductions of over 150 examples by artists including Frank Newbould, John Piper and Ben Nicholson.

Held on the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain was a celebration of the end of post-war austerity and a showcase for British arts, science and trade for the future. This book examines the objects and printed ephemera produced to commemorate the Festival and includes work by major designers, including Abram Games’s Festival emblem and Lewitt-Him’s Guinness Clock in the Battersea Park Pleasure Gardens.

One of the most highly regarded British painters of the 20th century, John Piper (1903–1992) also worked in a variety of media including book illustration, murals, textiles and stained glass. This volume provides a concise biographical essay on the artist as well as reproducing a wide selection of his work, notably the Brighton Aquatints published by the Curwen Press, wallpaper designs for Sanderson & Co, and his Festival of Britain South Bank murals.

Over many centuries, the tradition of Chinese decorative arts developed a way of rendering the world that is as instantly recognizable as it is consistent and harmonious. Inspired by examples on ceramics, paintings, bronzes, jade carvings, sculptures and architectural features, this book provides designs of flowers, animals, birds and fish for use in craft projects. The accompanying CD contains all 400 motifs.

New materials, new manufacturing techniques and a new consumer society drove rapid change in product design after the Second World War. The American dream home of the 1940s and 1950s led the way, with iconic designs in cars, furniture and everyday items emerging from Europe and Japan as prosperity grew. With over 700 illustrations, this book identifies key developments, exploring such milestones as Charles Eames' chairs, the Mini, the Sony Walkman and the iPhone. Slipcased.

In his foreword, Professor Meredith Davis writes ‘a change in how we teach typography is long overdue’: this book breaks new ground, approaching the ever-changing environment of contemporary typography through explanations of how and why typography works, or does not work, in a given context. Intended as a core text for typography courses, the book is very well illustrated and each chapter starts with a ‘primer’ by William Temple giving concise definitions of terms.

Key techniques for making paper pop-ups for books and greetings cards are explained in this instructional guide (its inside cover reveals a surprisingly complex pop-up of its own). Each spread focuses on one particular mechanism, including the V-fold, pivot, pull-tab and wheel, and folds out to provide numerous ready-cut, pop-out shapes for constructing examples. Lists of basic equipment and further techniques, plus a glossary of terms, are included.

Tony Seddon traces the development of type design and typographic style through a detailed survey of 100 important typefaces, from Nicholas Jenson’s early use of Roman letterforms in the mid 15th century to Selva, a blackletter typeface designed in 2012. For each design, Seddon describes its creator and its development, and provides examples of the typeface and a large, annotated illustration of a capital and a lower-case letter showing their distinctive typographical elements and innovations.

Social changes in the early 20th century increasingly encouraged young people to develop tastes that were different from those of their parents, and to spend money on indulging their interests. Usually aligning themselves with new movements in popular music, style tribes emerged with idiosyncratic attitudes and modes of dress. This survey of youth culture identifies over 30 styles from the flappers of the 1920s and the swing kids of the 1930s, to beatniks, hippies, goths and hipsters.