The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish

About this book

A New York Times Bestseller From an award-winning historian the fascinating tale of the 20th-century women who taught America how to dress A tribute to a time when styleand maybe even lifefelt more straightforward and however arbitrary there were definitive answers. Paris Review As a glance down any street in America quickly reveals American women have forgotten how to dress. We lack the fashion know-how we need to dress professionally and beautifully. In The Lost Art of Dress historian and skilled dressmaker Linda Przybyszewski reveals that this wasnt always true. In the first half of the twentieth century a remarkable group of womenthe so-called Dress Doctorstaught American women that knowledge not money was key to a beautiful wardrobe. They empowered women to design make and choose clothing for both the workplace and the home. Armed with the Dress Doctors simple design principlesharmony proportion balance rhythm emphasismodern American women from all classes learned to dress for all occasions in ways that made them confident engaged members of society. A captivating and beautifully illustrated look at the world of the Dress Doctors The Lost Art of Dress introduces a new audience to their timeless rules of fashion and beautyrules which with a little help we can certainly learn again.