The Fashion Year
edited by Brenda Polan
Zomba Books, 192 pages, 1983
I wish there was a book like this for every year. It’s like a girls’ annual, but only about fashion and without the puzzles and riddles. But alas, there are only three in this particular series — for the years 1983, 1984 and 1985 — and we’ll be looking at each one individually in coming weeks.
First up: 1983.
Compiled and largely written by The Guardian’s then-fashion editor Brenda Polan, The Fashion Year is precisely what the title suggests: it’s a look at the year in style. Set up like magazine, the book includes round-ups of the spring/summer and fall/winter collections, designer profiles, trend pieces and to top it all off, a comical look at the year’s most cringe-worthy looks in the final section, titled Horrors: Over the Top.
Collections from Paris, Milan, New York and London are reviewed and designers singled out for praise and punishment. It’s clear, for example, that editor Polan (who reviewed both the spring/summer and fall/winter runways in Paris) had no love for Jean Paul Gaultier, calling him “sleazy minded” in response to his spring/summer work, then the “fashion victim’s newest hero” for fall/winter.
Little digs like these are great for a giggle, but it’s the focus on the now — meaning 1983 — that makes The Fashion Year 1983 a great reference. There are the things we forget, like that ’83 was the year Karl Lagerfeld started at Chanel, with Hervé Léger at his side designing ready-to-wear for the label; and the things we didn’t know, like how 1983 was the year the Japanese descended on Paris. This is perhaps the most interesting story in the book, and one the writers (which include Suzy Menkes, Bernadine Morris and Sally Brampton) return to again and again.
Ten Japanese designers showed during Paris fashion week for spring and 11 for fall. Kenzo Takada and Issey Miyake had long been established in Paris, but it was newcomers like Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto that shook the Paris fashion establishment during the spring/summer shows, and as the writers report, the old guard stepped up their game come time to debut their fall/winter looks.
While Japan was clearly the biggest influence in 1983 fashion, The Fashion Year gives readers a taste of the other big trends, in short features about everything from lace, sweat-suit inspired casual wear and Princess Diana’s influence to what’s happening in swimwear and modelling. There are also designer profiles on Giorgio Armani, Azzedine Alaia, Issey Miyake and Karl Lagerfeld in his fan-carrying heyday.
Heavily illustrated, featuring primarily runway shots, The Fashion Year 1983 offers a concise overview of the collections, the top trends and the designers behind the year’s most noteworthy looks, all written (and fascinatingly so) with an immediacy from the perspective of those who were there at the time.
