DEMEULEMEESTER Ann (Designer)

Resembling a well-accountred rock band, these models wear pieces from collections spanning fifteen years, illustrating the remarkable consistency of Ann Demeulemeester's vision. Founding her label for women in 1987, with menswear following in 1996, the Antwerp-based designer has remained true to a darkly romantic aesthetic, gypsy elegance and punk rebellion. Her silhouettes are typically long and layered, with lean jackets, waistcoats, tailored knitwear and flowing shirts. Her palette is restrained _ often monochrome _ with richly textured fabrics accented by totemic embellishments of ribbon and feathers. The success of this apparent stylistic asceticism rests on her talent for cutting close to the body yet barely touching it, with panels of her garments curving subtly around the contours of the wearer to create an empowering, yet seductive, carapace. 

Also look up for Ackermann, Bikkembergs, Capasa, Thimister, Van Noten

DEMARCHELIER Patrick (Photographer)

Patrick Demarchelier catches Nadja Auermann mid-spin, her aigrette adding to an aura of costume history. Though relentlessly modern, Demarchelier's work also has a grand quality usually associated with the great haute couture photographers of the 1950s. He left Paris for New York in 1975 and started a long relationship with America's magazines, in particular the Condé Nast titles Vogue, Glamour and Mademoiselle. In 1992 he joined Harper's Bazaar, recruited by Liz Tillberis for his clear, graphic photographs. It was the perfect material for the spreads designed by creative director Fabien Baron. Tough dealing largely with the vicissitudes of fashion, Demarchelier's work has also explored other territories. With a highly successful and prolific career, Demarchelier remains in demand, regularly shooting for titles like Vogue, Interview, Vanity Fair and W. 

Also look up for Baron, Chanel, Lagerfeld, Wainwright

DELL'OLIO Louis (Designer)

Dogtooth check and black leather is a blend of fashion and function, sass and shrewdness by Louis Dell'Olio, called "the designer for everywoman". The fitted, single-breasted jacket follows a body-conscious line without alienating his conservative clientele. This outfit was created under Anne Klein's label that he had taken over with Donna Karan, a friend from college, after Klein's death in 1974. Dell'Olio said of the experience, "We didn't know enough to be terrified" but together they forged a style that suited the working woman of America. In 1984 Karan left to set up her own label and Dell'Olio continued what they had started until Richard Tyler took over the company in 1993. One fan of Dell'Olio's work told Vogue, "I don't want to be gussied up to the ears... the jackets hide a multitude of sins, the plants have a fabulous fit, the clothes are clean". 

Also look up for Karan, A. Klein, Tyler

DELL'ACQUA Alessandro (Designer)

How to make something delicate and romantic appear hard-edged and punky; this dilemma is at the centre of Alessandro Dell'Acqua's work. While his clothes have a softness and sensuality defined by materials such as chiffon, shown here on a T-shirt, his outfits are often styled with aggression. Long leather gloves and broad sweeps of violet eye shadow lend edge to what would otherwise be a dainty shirt. He claims rock star Courtney Love as his heroine and her own style reflects his blend of aggressive femininity. His mix-and-match, layered pieces are modern in their versatility and wearability. His signature palette is contrasting colours (nude and black for example). Initially he specialized in knitwear, working with a small group of artisans in Bologna, and his collections carry reminders of this period through fragile knits of delicate, lacy mohair. In 1998 he presented his first men's collection at Pitti Immagine.

Also look up for Berardi, Chalayan, Cobain, Ferretti, Sarne

DELHOMME Jean-Philippe (Illustrator)

The supermodel, the hairstylist, the photographer and the assistant interact in a familiar scene from the fashion world. Such familiarity, however, becomes a novelty when painted in the form of a comic-style strip. An accessory to Jean-Philippe Delhomme's wit, fashions are blurred in favour of visually comforting satires of the affectations of those who lead their everyday lives in this industry. This bright, hand-painted gouache, which belongs to Delhomme's own one-page column published monthly in French Glamour since 1988, reveals a knowing artist. While drawing inspiration from his friends in the fashion trade, he claims to operate in, "a décalage, a kind of jet lag, that appears between life written up in magazines and what's happening in the real world". Delhomme's highly stylized and spontaneous caricatures recall the work of Marcel Vertès who, in the 1930s, fondly satirized the foibles of fashionable society. 

Also look up for Berthoud, Gustafson, Lerfel, Vertès

DELAUNAY Sonia (Designer)

Brilliantly coloured and sharply patterned geometric designs are lavishly displayed on this "simultaneous" coat. Sonia Delaunay, a leading Parisian artist of Orphism, a movement that developed out of Cubism and made colour the primary means of artistic expression, has here merged art with fashion. In 1912 she began a series of non-figurative paintings called Contrastes simultanés, combining geometric forms with bright, prismatic hues. This work was based on the theory of the simultaneous contrast of colours of the nineteenth-century chemist Michel-Eugène Chevreul. Her simultaneous fashions had their origins in these paintings, since she moulded the fabric to the shape of the garment to ensure that the application of the colours remained intact. Her new concept of fabric pattern, whereby the cut and decoration of the garment were created at the same time, perfectly complemented the unstructured clothes of the 1920s. 

Also look up for Balla, P. Ellis, Exter, Heim

DEAN James (Icon)

 James Dean, the original teenage rebel, leans against a wall, smoking. Dean was the role model for generations of disaffected youth who immediately related to his portrayal of lost adolescence and emulated his wardrobe because of it. Andy Warhol called him, "the damaged but beautiful soul of our time". His status as a handsome movie star far outshone his acting talents, and in his short-lived career he made out only three films: East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). Dean said, "Being a good actor isn't easy; being a man is even harder. I want to do both before I'm done". But, tragically, he was killed at the age of twenty-four, crashing his Porsche Spyder on the way to a race meeting. He is now suspended forever in adolescence. The basics that Dean wore are still popular today as the uniform of youth: Levi's jeans, white T-shirt and zip-up bomber jacket. 

Also look up for Presley, Strauss, Warhol

DEACON Giles (Designer)

In 2012 the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, celebrated the reopening of its renovated fashion galleries with the exhibition "Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950". Giles Deacon's stunning spring/summer 2007 ballgown appeared as the poster image for the exhibition. As the catalogue stated, Deacon's structured big-entrance dresses, aimed at women who want to be noticed" reflected an elegant and classic side of the designer more often known for his tongue-in-cheek approach. Before starting his own label in 2003, Deacon worked for revered fashion houses such as Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Bottega Veneta and Gucci. In 2004 he was named Best New Designer after launching his first collection at London Fashion Week, which has styled by his friend Katie Grand. In 2009 Deacon won the ANDAM (Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode) Fashion Award Grand Prix.

Also look up for De Castelbajac, Ford, Grand, Gucci, Kane, Worth

DAY Corinne (Photographer)

In this picture, from the series that introduced Kate Moss to the world, Corinne Day aimed to capture, "a teenage sexuality which I love. I want to make my images as documentary as possible, an image of life that is real". Day's style rejects everything that fashion photography has traditionally stood for _ glamour, sexiness, sophistication _ by shooting skinny girls in cheap nylon amidst squat-like squalor. Her anti-fashion attitude exemplified the mood of the 1990s. Herself an ex-model, Day discovered her subjects in the street. She launched the career of Kate Moss when the model was just fifteen. Day is credited with starting the trend for pre-pubescent-looking waifs. Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, however, defended her work as "a celebration of vulnerability and joyousness". In 2011 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London, mounted the exhibition "Corinne Day. The Face", the first solo exhibition of her work since her untimely death in 2010. 

Also look up for Moss, Page, Sims, Teller

DASSLER Adi (Adidas) (Designer)

Sport met fashion and music in 1986 when hip-hop group Run DMC recorded its devotion to streetwear on the track "My Adidas". Sweatshirts, track pants and trainers were appropriated by a generation of men and women who threw away the laces and decorated themselves with heavyweight gold jewellery. In the 1970s, Adidas trainers had been an anti-establishment fashion statement worn with jeans, but in the defiant, label-aware 1980s branding took over and an unsuspecting sportswear company found itself at the heart of a fashion movement. At the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens, a black American runner, won four gold medals wearing a pair of trainers made by cobbler Adi Dassler and his brother, Rudolf. They had seen a gap in the market for high-performance athletic shoes in 1920 and they started to build what was to become a label as important to street fashion as it was to sport. 

Also look up for Hechter, Hilfiger, Knight & Bowerman, McCartney, Y. Yamamoto

DALÍ Salvador (Illustrator)

In this dream sequence by Salvador Dalí, the spectator's attention is fixed on the figure wearing a bold yellow dress very fashionably cut on the bias, the fabric falling in smooth, vertical folds. Dalí described his pictures as "hand-painted dream photographs" and his juxtaposition of the real and unreal presented fashion in a new way, bringing out its elegance and seduction. During the 1930s, with economic and political pressures mounting, fashion and fashion illustration took an escapist route, venturing into Surrealism, the dominant art movement of the decade. Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld and George Hoyningen-Huene captured Surrealism's bizarre elements in their work. Vogue also commissioned artists such as Dalí, who collaborated with Schiaparelli in the design of fabrics and accessories, to make "photo-paintings", presenting fashion's relationship with Surrealism. 

Also look up for Bérard, Blumenfeld, Cocteau, Man Ray, L. Miller, Schiaparelli

DAHL-WOLFE Louise (Photographer)

Beneath the Cairo sun, model Nathalie shades herself in a cotton robe by Alix Grès. Louise Dahl-Wolfe, the photographer, often cast her images in bright sunlight. Beaches, deserts and sunny plains were her natural domain, first for compositions in black and white and later for some of the most sumptuous photographs ever taken of swimwear, playsuits and the exoticism of modern fashion. Her most frequent editor-stylist was Diana Vreeland. The unpretentious Dahl-Wolfe and the extravagant Vreeland were an odd couple in style, but together they became collaborator-adventurers in seeking out an ambient naturalism for the modern woman. Vreeland's flamboyance and artifice were sweetly tempered by Dahl-Wolfe's interest in portraiture and in landscape. Even in the most glamorous image, Dahl-Wolfe displays her inquiring mind and analytical insight, giving photography character and idiosyncrasy. 

Also look up for Grès, McCardell, Maxwell, Revillon, Snow, Vreeland

DACHÉ Lilly (Milliner)

Lilly Daché decorates a half-hat with feathers, autumnal berries and dried flowers for American Vogue. Towering turbans, draped toques and snoods, and knitted or openwork nets that enclosed the hair at the back of the head were other millinery confections characteristic of Daché. Trained at Caroline Reboux's atelier in Paris, she emigrated to the United States and in 1924 became, like Hattie Carnegie before her, an assistant in the millinery department at Mary's. Two years later she set up her own establishment in New York and became one of the most eminent milliners in America, challenging Paris for the title of millinery capital. She adorned the heads of New York high society and of Hollywood stars such as Betty Grable and Marlene Dietrich _ as well as Carmen Miranda. Her most outstanding discovery was Halston, who designed pillbox hats for Jacqueline Kennedy before moving into fashion. 

Also look up for Carnegie, Kennedy, Sieff, Talbot

CUNNINGHAM Bill (Photographer)

The grandfather of street-style photography, Bill Cunningham has chronicled fashion for The New York Times since the late 1970s. He can be spotted _ most likely in his signature cobalt blue jacket _ on a trusty Schwinn bike heading towards 5th Avenue and 57th Street, his preferred corner for shooting. Born in 1929, Cunningham dropped out of Harvard to move to New York City. Initially working in advertising, he went on to write for Women's Wear Daily _ where he picked up his first camera. His first New York Times photos depict Greta Garbo (whose coat he captured before recognizing its owner) and Farrah Fawcett (who, as he didn't own a TV, he didn't know). Today, the private-minded photographer lives in a studio brimming with filing cabinets of his photos, which he develops at one-hour lab. The 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York captured the life of one of the city's most endearing and enduring fixtures. 

Also look up for Grand, Menkes, Schuman, Wintour

CROLLA Scott (Designer)

Using rich colours, opulent brocade and blooming prints, Scott Crolla's early work was a historical fantasy. Crolla trained in art and sculpture, but grew bored of the discipline, moving to fashion because it is, "the honest side of the whole artistic discourse". In 1981 he formed a partnership with fellow artist Georgina Godley. Brocade trousers worn with tail coats dominated a time when fashion became costume and men rediscovered the vain pleasure of peacockery _ a historical tendency that puts this outfit into context. Despite its fancy-dress connotations, Crolla's work was instrumental in encouraging men and women to wear ruffled shirts and brocade trousers. 

Also look up for Godley, Hope, Wilde

CREED Charles (Designer)

This outfit is typical of the 1930s. The suit has a boxy-style jacket with a broad shoulder line and wide lapels, while the skirt is straight and the hemline stays well below the knees. It foreshadows the masculine, military style of the Second World War, but details such as the buttons anchor the outfit firmly in the prewar era. Charles Creed belonged to an English family of tailors who were known for their understated tweeds, popular in nineteenth-century Paris. The family established a tailoring firm in 1710 and in Paris in 1850, launching womenswear in the early 1890s. During the Second World War, Creed designed women's suits and coats while on leave from the army and was also involved in the Utility scheme. He set up his own fashion house in London in 1946 and enjoyed success in America where his restrained English tailoring found a ready market. 

Also look up for Bérard, Burberry, Jaeger, Morton

CRAWFORD Cindy (Model)

Cindy Crawford works on her multi-million-dollar body, the marketing of which is still controlled by its owner, who says, "I see myself as a president of a company that owns a product that everybody wants". Her defined physique, honed in the fitness market, welded the connection between health and beauty for a generation of women. A shoot for Playboy was also part of the business strategy, "I wanted to reach a different audience... let's face it, most college guys don't buy Vogue". While conservative in the fashion sense (she kept the same hairstyle for ten years), Crawford was a commercial supermodel. Her popularity is attributable to her clean sex appeal and "multicultural" appearance. It adds up to the perfect cover face: a beauty that alienates nobody. Crawford remains a pragmatist, an example of the new model breed that has learned to separate fact from fantasy. 

Also look up for Campbell, Evangelista, Lindbergh, Schiffer

CRAHAY Jules-François (Designer)

Jules-François Crahay poses with Jane Birkin who wears a matte jersey dress pulled into a lazy handkerchief knot at the shoulder. Crahay learned the techniques of dressmaking at his mother's shop in Liège and at the fashion house of Jane Régny in Paris. After these apprenticeship he became a designer at Nina Ricci in 1952, then at the house of Lanvin in 1963. While he was fêted for his refined eveningwear, Crahay was also one of the leading fashion designers to promote the peasant and gypsy styles that dominated fashion at the end of the 1960s. As early as 1959, his collections contained full, flounced skirts worn with low-cut, elasticated blouses and scarves worn around the head, neck and waist. All were made in vividly coloured, lightweight materials that produced the light, feminine style for which Crahay is remembered. He characterized his own work by saying that he wanted to have fun making his dresses. 

Also look up for Lanvin, Pipart, Ricci    

COX Patrick (Shoe designer)

The python-skin "Wannabe" shoe became an icon in 1993, when Patrick Cox realized that his collection needed a lightweight summer shoe. His answer was the "Wannabe": a moccasin-constructed loafer. In 1995 his Chelsea shop was besieged by customers wanting a pair, some of whom attempted bribery. When he launched the range in 1993, Cox acknowledged his debt to the white loafers worn by the American comedian Pee-Wee Herman. An indispensable accessory of the rave culture, the Wannabe is one half of Cox's shoe business _ the other comprises a collection of styles that develops with fashion trends. Born in Canada, Patrick Cox moved to London in 1983 to study at Cordwainers Technical College. His first success was a customized Dr Martens shoe in 1984, and he went on to work with a long list of designers. In 2008, Cox relinquished ownership of his business while remaining on the board. 

Also look up for Blair, Choo, Flett, R. James, Maertens, Westwood 

COWARD Noël (Icon)

The playwright and entertainer Noël Coward strikes a classic pose in this photograph by Horst. A flawless Prince of Wales check, accessorized with polka-dot silk and woven checks, epitomizes his peerless sophistication. After his first theatrical success in 1924, Coward remarked, "I was unwise enough to be photographed in bed wearing a Chinese dressing gown as an expression of enhanced degeneracy. I indulged in silk shirts, pyjamas, and underclothes... coloured turtleneck jerseys... and started a fashion". It was the look for the glamorous, brittle 1920s aesthete. For the first time since Oscar Wilde, a writer's appearance seemed as important as what he wrote. "All sorts of men suddenly wanted to look like Coward _ sleek and satiny, clipped and well groomed", observed Cecil Beaton. Cary Grant was one of them, remarking that he based his own urbane style on, "a combination of Jack Buchanan and Noël Coward". 

Also look up for Beaton, Horst, Wilde 

COURRÈGES André (Designer)

A former civil engineer, André Courrèges placed the meticulous cut of fashion he had practiced in Balenciaga's atelier in the 1950s in the service of the 1960s idealism of youth and the future. Along with Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne, Courrèges led the cult of visionary fashion design in Paris. It was a movement that cut away superfluous material, banned decoration and established geometry and new materials for fashion. "I think the women of the future, morphologically speaking, will have a young body", said Courrèges at the time. His miniskirts were stiff and square and advocated a minimum of body coverage, enjoying those "young" bodies that became visible in the 1960s. His most characteristic symbol, often covering his dresses and bare body parts, was the youthful daisy. Unisex was another Courrèges theme. He predicted that womenswear would become at least as practical as menswear. 

Also look up for Cardin, Charles, Frizon, Rabanne, Schön 

CONRAN Jasper (Designer)

In an exercise in contrast, a scarlet poppy hat, designed by Jasper Conran and made by Philip Treacy for a production of My Fair Lady, explodes above an unadorned Conran black dress. Conran regarded Jean Muir as his mentor and his own work carries her hallmarks of modern sophistication. Having studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, Conran set up his own label at the age of nineteen. He relies on a monochrome palette interspersed with stimulating bursts of striped fabric or salvos of color: bold orange, cerise or cobalt blue. He likes his clothes to have, "speed and life... For me it's always about the cut and the shape". Conran's work is also wearable. In 1996 he launched the J by Jasper Conran womenswear line for the British department store Debenhams. The collection has expanded to include women's accessories, lingerie, hosiery, menswear, men's accessories, children swear and homewares. 

Also look up for Muir, Parsons The New School for Design, Treacy

CONNOLLY Sybil (Designer)

Photographed in her Dublin home, the model wears a dress made from her famous pleated linen. The tailored shawl covers a simple bodice and typically understated skirt. The doyenne of Irish fashion in the 1950s, Connolly specialized in adapting traditional Irish fabrics for modern, easy dressing. Her forward-thinking designs transformed thick mohair, Donegal tweed and linen, which she hand-pleated for delicate blouses and dresses. Like her American contemporary, Claire McCardell, she was a pioneer in the creation of smart shapes that used informal fabrics and a relaxed attitude during the 1950s and 1960s. Connolly moved to London to learn dress design, but returned to Ireland upon the outbreak of the Second World War. At the age of twenty-two she became design director of the Irish fashion house Richard Alan, going on to launch her own couture label in 1957 at the age of thirty-six. 

Also look up for Leser, McCardell, Maltézos

COLONNA Jean (Designer)

Imagine the dark backstreets of Paris, a flashing neon sign and a hidden door opening to an underground world inhabited by women who sleep during the day and dress for the night in leopard prints, stretchy sheer lace and little else. This is the world of French designer Jean Colonna, whose fashion shows conjure up the world of the Pigalle district after dark. He came to prominence during the "deconstruction" trend of the early 1990s, upsetting the establishment by creating clothes that people could actually afford. His manufacturing methods included overlocked hems and edges, doing away with the need for finishing. Colonna trained in Paris and spent two years at Balmain, before launching his own label in 1985. Colonna's philosophy has always been that "a piece of clothing must be simple _ to make, to sell and to wear". He was also among the first to attempt to dispense with the catwalk and to present his collections through catalogues. 

Also look up for Balmain, Dolce & Gabanna, Topolino

COFFIN Clifford (Photographer)

For the June 1949 issue of American Vogue, Clifford Coffin photographed four models wearing swimsuits as polka-dots on a sand dune in a customarily strong composition. Coffin's main contribution to fashion photography in the 1950s was his use of ring-flash lighting _ a circular bulb wraps around the lens and casts a directional light onto the model, thereby creating an indistinct shadow. A technique that "blasts" light onto the subject, highlighting shiny fabric and make-up, it was widely used in tandem with a wind machine in the 1970s and 1990s. Coffin was a fashion personality whose early ambition was to be a dancer. He was also an "out" homosexual, who was close to society writer Truman Capote. His work for American, British and French Vogues secured his own position in that society and he was described as "the first photographer to actually think fashion, sometimes more than fashion editors". 

Also look up for Gattinoni, Gernreich, Goalen    

CODDINGTON Grace (Editor / Stylist)

"Grace Coddington is the eye _ the eye... I never saw a wrong dress she chose... Grace was without a doubt the fashion editor", says Manolo Blahnik. Coddington has influenced fashion in many different ways. In 1959 "The Cod", photographed here wearing all-over prints by Jacques Heim, was spotted by Norman Parkinson. She constantly reinvented her image by changing her distinctive red hair from a chunky Vidal Sassoon bob to a halo of frizzy curls _ a formula that would later be used by Linda Evangelista. In 1968 she moved to British Vogue, taking Calvin Klein's modern aesthetic to a 1970s European audience. Her style inspired designers such as Kenzo and Pablo & Delia and she later championed the talents of Azzedine Alaïa and Zoran. Coddington moved to American Vogue in 1987. She said of her time there, "You're either having dinner with 300 people or grovelling on the floor with pins in your mouth".  

COCTEAU Jean (Illustrator)

The legend on this fashion drawing reads, "Paris 1937". Schiaparelli made this tapering sheath dress for dining and dancing; Jean Cocteau drew it for Harper's Bazaar. Cocteau was a writer, film-maker, painter, print-maker, stage-, fabric- and jewellery-designer and fashion illustrator. His entrée into the world of fashion came through the theatre. Cocteau met Diaghilev when the Ballets Russes came to Paris in 1910 and he designed posters for him. Some of Cocteau's most important work for the theatre and fashion included his collaborations with Chanel. Between 1922 and 1937 she designed costumes for a whole cycle of his plays, including Le Train Bleu of 1924. He often sketched her and her fashions in his characteristic form of outline drawing with its sharp line and elegant simplicity. Cocteau was also closely associated with Surrealism and fashion. For Schiaparelli he designed fabrics, embroideries and jewellery. 

Also look up for Bérard, Chanel, Dessès, Horst, Rochas, Schiaparelli 

COBAIN Kurt (Icon)

Cobain was to grunge what Johnny Rotten was to punk. His greasy, bleached hair, pale waif-like body and thrift-shop clothes created the image of a strung-out, moody adolescent. The garments of grunge bands such as Cobain's Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were cheap and casual; washed-out jeans and rock T-shirts. It started as an anti-fashion formula that dressed a generation of disaffected youth known as Generation X, but, predictably, was "cleaned up" to become a mainstream movement known as "Heroin Chic": an affected representation of an addict's wardrobe. Rebelling against his upbringing among homophobic lumberjacks in his home town, Cobain would sometimes try harder by wearing his partner's flowery dress and painting his nails in red. That partner, Courtney Love, came to personify a feminized version of the look that inspired Marc Jacobs to create his "grunge" collection of 1993. 

Also look up for Dell'Acqua, Jacobs, McLaren, Rotten

CLEMENTS Suzanne & RIBEIRO Inacio (Clements Ribeiro) (Designers)

Clements Ribeiro's graphically patterned cashmere has become its trademark: from rainbow stripes to this striking Union Jack insignia, which symbolized the 1990s upswing in British fashion fortunes known as "Cool Britannia". Ribeiro said, "We do simple cuts with strong fabrics; we call it clumsy couture". Bright prints define the themes of each collection; from traditional tartans and windowpane checks to bohemian paisleys and mottled florals. Luxurious materials are used for daywear _ dusty-coloured suedes, cashmere, silk taffeta and sequins. They met at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, married and moved to Brazil after graduating. They designed their first joint collection in London in 1993. The success of their womenswear collections led in the late 1990s to the launch of a cashmere menswear line. In 2000 they revived the house of Cacharel in Paris where they were creative directors until 2007. 

Also look up for Amies, Cacharel, Campbell, Chalayan, Van Noten

CLARKE Henry (Photographer)

The citrus colours of summer are given a fresh, literal interpretation. Photographer Henry Clarke was first drawn to fashion photography by watching Cecil Beaton photograph Dorian Leigh. He created animated photographs, but Clarke was also naturally inclined to elegance, and his images of French fashion in the 1950s, in particular, exemplify the balance he sought between the formal, almost statuesque, dress of the epoch and the casual effect of snapshot instantaneity. Artful and artless at the same time, Clarke's photographs benefited from the licence given him by Diana Vreeland at Vogue and the exotic locations they used for photo shoots. Skilfully moving from 1950s high style to the dazzling colours and layering of the 1960s, he made the flamboyant and ethnographic clothes come alive in the context of Mayan archaeological sites and various settings in India, Sicily and around the world. 

Also look up for Campbell-Walter, Goalen, Pertegaz, Vreeland 

CLARK Ossie (Designer)

In this wild scene photographed at London's Chelsea Town Hall in 1970, Ossie Clark shows his clothes under the name Quorum, a company set up by Alice Pollock. It was, according to Vogue, "more a spring dance than a show". The spaced-out models wear Clark's chiffon dresses (each with a secret pocket into which a key and a £5 note would fit _ his trademark), both printed by his wife, textile designer Celia Birtwell. The couple were immortalized in a portrait entitled Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy by their friend, painter David Hockney, who can be seen on the far right of this picture. "I'm a master cutter. It's all in my brain and fingers", Clark had said, and that talent became one of the most sought-after in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Singer Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg, then the girlfriend of the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, shared an "Ossie" snakeskin suit, now one of the most precious reminders of the age. 

Also look up for Birtwell, Fratini, Hulanicki, Pollock, Sarne

CHOW Tina (Icon)

Tina Chow strikes an elegant, demure pose. A supreme model in the 1970s, she went on to become one of the great fashion connoisseur-collectors of the twentieth century. An Asian-American, Chow represented the new diversity and universalism of modern beauty, but her fashion intelligence was even greater than her beauty. One of the most important collectors of couture clothing, Chow's practiced eye is still regarded as the paradigm of collecting and connoisseurship. Chow knew the great designers of her time, but demonstrated her interest in the past by choosing works by Madeleine Vionnet, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior for her astute collection. Her initial collecting interest was Mariano Fortuny, whose "Delphos" dresses, capes and mantles were a syncretist interpretation of East and West. 

Also look up for Antonio, Balenciaga, Fortuny, Vionnet 

CHOO Jimmy (Shoe designer)

A white sandal with pearls is trimmed with feathers, an example of the dainty, seductive work of Jimmy Choo, who was born into a family of shoemakers and made his first pair aged eleven. Previously all Choo shoes were handmade; he has recently adapted his perfectionist craftsmanship for an additional ready-to-wear line. Choo attended London's Cordwainers Technical College with a fresh generation of cobblers, including Patrick Cox and Emma Hope. Of his style, Choo says, "There is an elegance, a femininity, maybe a sexiness". It was one that came to be favoured by the Princess of Wales, who would buy one style in several colours for eveningwear and to co-ordinate with her day suits. Choo's Malaysian roots account for his signature palette: a range of crystalline colours that includes aqua blue, fuchsia pink and bright orange. Since 1999 he has also been designing men's shoes. 

Also look up for Blahnik, Cox, Diana, Hardy, Hope

CHÉRUIT Madeleine (Designer)

Monochromes forge a vintage ambience, illuminated by porcelain skin set against dazzling sequins under transparent organza. Marion Morehouse wears a deep V neckline, then considered risqué, that runs to a beltless waist, indicating the move away from the curvaceous prewar silhouette to a relaxed contour. Trained in the 1880s at the couture house Raudnitz, Chéruit was a Parisian designer who, like Lelong and Louise Boulanger, transformed high fashion into the reality of ready-to-wear. She refined the excessiveness of couture for her aristocratic Parisian clientele, who favoured her richly ornamented dresses. Fascinated by the effect of light on fabric, she worked with taffeta, lamé and gauze. With Chanel's move towards simple fashions in the 1920s, her opulent taste lost appeal. She retired in 1923, but her design house continued until 1935 when Schiaparelli famously took over her premises. 

Also look up for Bally, Boulanger, Lelong, Morehouse

CHARLES Caroline (Designer)

In an early design, Caroline Charles uses a chequerboard pattern jacket, worn with long socks. During the 1960s, Charles also worked as a broadcaster and journalist but she stayed with fashion. "Does it fit? Is it useful? Does it create the feeling that someone wants to get close to you?" These practical questions are considered for every piece of Caroline Charles clothing. Charles recalls wanting to be a dress designer from an early age. After graduating from Swindon Art School, she headed to London, which was in full 1960s swing. Following a spell at Mary Quant, she launched her own collection in 1963. Charles's occasion _ and eveningwear were an instant hit with the entertainment trendsetters of the day, including Cilla Black and Barbra Streisand. However, it has been her knack of creating very British clothes _ and, latterly, accessories and interiors _ that has allowed her career to span three decades. 

Also look up for Courrèges, Foale & Tuffin, Quant 

CHANEL Gabrielle (Coco) (Designer)

Coco Chanel is strolling in the Tuileries in Paris, a short distance from the rue Cambon where she lived and had her maison de couture, which she closed in 1939 and re-opened in 1954. She is wearing all the hallmarks of her signature style: suit, blouse, pearl jeweled, scarf, hat, gloves and handbag with gilt chains. She was a perfectionist, and the way she gestures to Alexander Liberman with her right arm manifests one of her fixations _ a comfortable arm movement. She would rip off the sleeves of her suit time again to achieve a perfect fit. The basic idea for her suits came from the concept of military uniforms. As the mistress of the Duke of Westminster, she had taken many trips on his yacht where the crew wore uniforms. The essence of her style was rooted in a masculine model of power, a direction that has dominated twentieth-century fashion.

Also look up for Cocteau, Dalí, Lagerfeld, Liberman, Parker, Di Verdura

CHALAYAN Hussein (Designer)

Moulded from a fiberglass and resin composite, the hard shell of the "Remote Control Dress" opens to reveal a contrasting mass of soft tulle. Operated by a boy on the catwalk with a radio control, this playful counterpoint speaks of the relationship between technology and nature, and our attempts to use one to control the other. Highly inventive collections and conceptual projects have become Hussein Chalayan's trademark since his debut collection in 1994, with pieces including furniture that transforms into garments and a dress made of 200 lasers. Chalayan is celebrated for the complex, almost architectural rigour of his pattern-cutting, which results in structured geometric designs. Coming to prominence in the 1990s, Chalayan was one of a generation of designers, including Alexander McQueen, responsible for the cutting-edge style associated with London's cultural boom in that decade. 

Also look up for Berardi, Cardin, Kawakubo, McQueen, Pugh, Y. Yamamoto

CERRUTI Nino (Designer)

Jack Nicholson wears loose linen separates by Cerruti in the film The Witches of Eastwick (1987). "Fashion, ultimately, is a way of describing the world we live in", says Cerruti, a philosophy that applies itself not only to the world of fashion but also to film _ he has designed costumes for over sixty movies. Cerruti initially studied philosophy and wanted to become a writer, but in 1950 he took over the family textile business in northern Italy. His launch of a menswear range, Hitman, in 1957 was the start of the company's transformation into a luxury label. A women's ready-to-wear collection followed in 1977. Epitomizing the aspirational dressing of the 1980s, the Cerruti label was used in films such as Wall Street (1987). In the 1990s, Cerruti's womenswear enjoyed a period of success while it was designed by Narciso Rodriguez, who introduced contemporary themes such as transparent, embroidered fabrics worn with precise tailoring. 

Also look up for Armani, Von Etzdorf, Gucci, Rodriguez

CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS (School)

London's increasingly sophisticated reputation within the fashion industry in recent decades is thanks in no small part to the ferocious training ground that is the CSM fashion department, formed in 1989 when the Central School of Art and Design merged with Saint Martins School of Art. The MA course (under the direction of the highly demanding and formidably straight-talking Louise Wilson since 1992) has garnered a prestigious reputation. Maintaining strong ties with industry power players and an impressive graduate show at London Fashion Week, the fashion department encourages original vision, tempered with an understanding of the tough realities of the modern business. As a result, CSM graduates are some of the most recognizable names in the industry; internationally celebrated alumni include John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Christopher Kane. 

Also look up for Parsons The New School for Design, Royal Academy of Fine Arts

CAVANAGH John (Designer)

John Cavanagh is photographed with a model wearing his full, yet immaculately tailored coat. Its black cuffs, plain collar and geometric configuration of buttons are its only details beyond top-stitched, princess-line seams into which the pockets disappear. His was an international training, firstly with Molyneux on his return from Paris and then at Pierre Balmain. In 1952 Cavanagh opened his own couture house in London, making clothes with international appeal. He noted, "A couturier worth his name must design in the world-stream of design change, but direct it to the lives of his clients that make this business exist". Cavanagh was at the centre of London's small made-to-measure society that continued to dress the English season, despite becoming engulfed by cheap imitations. In 1964 he said, "Couture will and must continue. It is the lifeblood of the ready-to-wear". 

Also look up for Balmain, Dior, French, Molyneux, Morton

CASTILLO Antonio (Designer)

The risqué potential of the black lace used in Castillo's A-line dress is at once removed by its stately aura. A black hat, moulded into the shape of a mantilla comb, lends grace, while the model maintains an imperial pose, turning her back to the camera as if to shake hands with foreign heads of state. Born of a noble Spanish family, regality and dignity surround every one of Antonio Castillo's designs - his training was as accessory designer for Chanel and as designer at the distinguished fashion houses Piguet and Lanvin. Castillo left Spain for France in 1936 at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. He was no Courrèges, indulging in avant-garde couture for the younger generation of customers in the 1960s; instead, he subtly instilled a sense of innovation into mature, seemingly classic looks, which resulted in a quiet, exceedingly tidy style. 

Also look up for Ascher, Beretta, Lanvin, Piguet, G. Smith

DE CASTELBAJAC Jean-Charles (Designer)

The models' expressions suit Jean-Charles de Castelbajac's joke: dresses that imitate the front of a red telephone, a robot, a pack of cigarettes, a can of soup, a petrol can or even a toothpaste tube. His simple, enveloping clothes remain true to the uncut cloth. Thick, felt-like fabrics have preoccupied him since he was at boarding school, where he cut his first garment out of a blanket. He was one of France's new age of ready-to-wear designers in the 1960s and has worked with Pop Art themes such as Warhol's Campbell's soup can, which he printed onto a cylindrical dress in 1984. Inspired by the work of Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin, which he said surpassed the work of artists working on the theme of futurism, he has been called "the space-age Bonnie Cashin". In 2006 the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, featured a display that showed the variety of his work, including jackets made from toys, parachute ballgowns and Pop Art dresses. 

Also look up for Cardin, Ettedgui, Farhi, Rabanne, Warhol

CASSINI Oleg (Designer)

In the 1960s, Cassini was the American designer most identified with Jacqueline Kennedy as First Lady, an evening dress for whom is illustrated here. Stung by criticism of her costly wardrobe (largely from Balenciaga and Givenchy), even before her husband was elected president, she chose to consider Cassini her official designer. Although her mother-in-law and aides secretly helped her to continue to acquire clothes by Grès, Chanel and Givenchy, Cassini's sleek minimalism supplemented that elite wardrobe and the American designer was publicly acclaimed. By the conspicuous association with Kennedy, Cassini became a powerful figure in 1960s style, offering youthful, smooth modernity; his A-line dresses and suits of a semi-fitted top over a slim skirt corresponded to Parisian designs. Cassini respected Mrs Kennedy's demureness, while letting each garment stand out in a manner appropriate for a First Lady. 

Also look up for Givenchy, Grès, Kennedy

CASHIN Bonnie (Designer)

A capacious, grey cashmere poncho trimmed in leather typifies Bonnie Cashin's distinctive contribution to American sportswear. Attuned to dancers and their motion, the variable weather and outdoor life of California, and to Hollywood and the movies (she was a designer for Twentieth Century Fox), Cashin created ingenious sportswear. She often used global references but always remained faithful to the pragmatic and contemporary woman. Separates were versatile and luxurious; sizing was easy, given that most tops, dresses, skirts and trousers wrapped or tied, allowing for accommodation for many body types. Cashin used layering before it became an accepted and expected part of women's lives. Toggles and luggage hardware became practical fastenings for her bags and leather-trimmed wools. Cashin is regarded, along with Claire McCardell, as the mother of American sportswear. 

Also look up for Karan, A. Klein, McCardell, Maxwell, Schön

CARTIER Louis François (Jewellery designer)

This brooch, designed as a flamingo in characteristic pose, has plumage set with calibré-cut emeralds, rubies and sapphires. Cabochon citrine and sapphire are used for the beak, a sapphire for the eye, with the head, neck, body and legs pavé-set with brilliant-cut diamonds. It was created in 1940 by Jeanne Toussaint for the jewellery firm Cartier, founded in Paris in 1847 by Louis François Cartier. This jewel was designed for the Duchess of Windsor, who owned one of the finest jewellery collections of the 1940s. It was chosen by the Duke of Windsor, who spent a great deal of time choosing jewels to adorn her clothes, often designed as a setting for a particular gem. Pieces such as this one (resold in 1987 for $470,000) were still considered avant-garde many years after their design and were the precursors of a new vocabulary in bijouterie after the Second World War. 

Also look up for Bulgari, Butler, Tiffany, Windsor

CARNEGIE Hattie (Retailer)

The model wears a gown by Hattie Carnegie. Although she has a reputation as a revered designer, Carnegie never actually made a dress. She was a retailer who delivered a current look, such as this strapless, wasp-waisted silhouette derived from Dior, a shape that formed the hourglass figure of the 1950s. Carnegie's reputation was legendary. She employed designers of the calibre of Norman Norell, Travis Banton, Jean Louis and Claire McCardell; the "Carnegie look" was a sophisticated simplification of European design that was favored by American society and high-profile clients such as the Duchess of Windsor. In 1947, Life declared Carnegie (née Kanengeiser, but she took the name of the richest American of the time) to be the "undisputed leader" of American fashion, with more than one hundred stores swelling her product, and her imprimatur the keenest sign of prestige in American clothing. 

Also look up for Banton, Daché, Louis, Norell, Trigère, Windsor

CARDIN Pierre (Designer)

In what could be a still from Star Trek, men, women and even a boy strike poses to accentuate their tomorrow's wardrobe. In the mid-1960s Pierre Cardin spun off into deep space with Courrèges and Paco Rabanne. He offered utopian clothes to a new generation. Graphic symbols were cut from his jersey tunics; men's jackets were given military epaulettes. The silver shine of asymmetric zips, steel belts and buckles brought haute couture into the space age. Cardin's training had been a traditional one, at the houses of Paquin, Schiaparelli and Dior, but his mind was on the future. In 1959 he was the first couturier to design ready-to-wear and was expelled from the Chambre Syndicale. He became fashion's scientist, developing his own material, Cardine, a bonded fibre that would rigidly hold his geometric shapes, and experimenting with metals to produce dresses. In later years, Cardin put his name to everything from pens to frying pans.

Also look up for The Beatles, De Castelbajac, Courrèges, Rabanne, Schön

CAPUCCI Roberto (Designer)

Two immense ball gowns are assembled from an acre of pleated rainbow taffeta. The backs are constructed in such a way that they appear to be shoulder-to-floor bows. They are an example of engineering from Roberto Capucci who, in 1957, was called the "Givenchy of Rome" by fashion writer Alison Adburgham. She continued, "He designs as though for an abstract woman, the woman we never meet". Such is the extravagance of some experiments that the wearer becomes secondary to the gown. For ten years Capucci showed in Rome before decamping for six years to Paris in 1962, and showing alongside fashion's other architect, Cristóbal Balenciaga, with whom he is often compared. The purity of Capucci's work extended to his selling technique. His fashion shows would be conducted in silence and he refused to replicate an outfit, so that any woman buying from him would have to do so from the show collection. 

Also look up for Biagiotti, Exter, Givenchy, W. Klein

CAPASA Ennio (Costume National) (Designer)

Described as a "mix of couture and the street", Ennio Capasa's dress reveals the shoulders without adding too much details. His fabrics highlight the curves of the body. Capasa's work is dictated by material. "I always start designing a collection from the fabrics", he says. "I love the interplay between matt and shine. The fabrics are where you really experiment in fashion". He trained with Yohji Yamamoto in Japan in the early 1980s, where the practice was to pare details away from a design and to take inspiration from traditional cutting techniques. On his return to Milan in 1987, Capasa started his own label, Costume National. It combines his perception of Japanese purism with a sexier, more close-fitting silhouette influenced by street fashion - a 1990s imperative epitomized by Helmut Lang and Ann Demeulemeester. 

Also look up for Demeulemeester, Lang, Prada, Y. Yamamoto

CAMPBELL-WALTER Fiona (Model)

Fiona Campbell-Walter wears the duchesse satin ball gown, stole and gloves of an aristocrat, the society she represented in the 1950s. Born the daughter of an admiral in the Royal Navy, she was encouraged by her mother to become a model at eighteen, and was photographed by Henry Clarke, John French, Richard Avedon and David Bailey. She attended modelling school and soon became a Vogue regular, chosen for her aristocratic looks. She was also Cecil Beaton's favourite. Always in the gossip columns, Campbell-Walter married Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, an industrialist. Together they were prolific collectors, living mainly in Switzerland. They had two children but divorced in 1964. A high point of the Baroness's career in 1952 was to feature on the front cover of Life magazine - a surprising but understandable source of aspiration for fashion models, given its intellectual gravitas. 

Also look up for Beaton, Clarke, McLaughlin-Gill