Design

Examples of automata copying human actions date back to the ancient world and the idea of artificial or mechanical humans has had a particularly notable influence on art and the popular imagination since the early 20th century. This celebration of robots in visual culture explores their use in film, music, art, fashion and commerce, from the paintings of Fernand Léger and movies such as The Forbidden Planet to Kraftwerk and Transformers toys.

Illustrated with vintage advertisements and photographs, this examination of olfactory trends from the 1920s to the 1980s considers the key historical events and iconic female figures of each decade in turn and goes on to analyse in detail the scents most associated with it, such as Joy in the 1930s and Opium in the 1970s.

From the corsets and respectable dresses of Edwardian high society to the relaxed styles that reflected the optimism of the early 1920s, this history traces the changes in women’s clothing during a period of radical social transformation. With examples from historical figures, including suffragettes, nurses and factory workers, it highlights how leisurewear and workwear became more diverse and practical, expressing the new-found freedom and confidence felt by many women after the Great War ended.

Illustrated with vintage photographs, contemporary images and sketches, this visual history explores how the coiffeurs of western women evolved as social expectations gradually relaxed. The author considers the rise of fashions such as the kiss curls favoured by the dancers of the Folies Bergère, Jacqueline Kennedy’s signature bouffant, rock-n-roll beehives and anarchic punk spikes, and closes with a section dedicated to iconic hairstylists, past and present.

In a richly illustrated study of the early fashion shows in France and America between the 1880s and 1929, Caroline Evans brings ‘economic and design history together in a new formation’ as she explores topics including fashion and modernism; the innovations of designers such as Worth, Lucile and Poiret; the body and the fashion mannequins (as models were known); the international garment and fashion trade; and commercial and cultural relations between America and France.