Less is More: Minimalism in Fashion

When it comes to dress, less can most definitely be more. In this striking new book, journalist Harriet Walker surveys one of the most wide-reaching movements in fashion. Minimalism has its roots in the early twentieth century, when women’s clothes became pared down and practical after centuries of complex construction. Walker reviews the work of designers who, over the decades, have adopted minimalist principles in their work, from Coco Chanel, who liberated women from Edwardian formal dress, to Donna Karan and Jil Sander, whose workwear offered women a feminine but credible alternative to power dressing; and from the avant-garde style of Japanese masters Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto to contemporary interpretations by Gareth Pugh, Roland Mouret, COS and Zara. With 250 colour illustrations, including specially commissioned photographs, Less is More is the engaging story of an abiding aesthetic that has subtly shaped modern fashion.