VAN BEIRENDONCK Walter (Designer)

Hovering somewhere in the aesthetic territory between a video game, tribal costume and sexual fetishism, this outfit expresses the all-embracing futuristic hedonism of W&LT, the club-wear label designed by Walter Van Beirendonck during the 1990s. Graduating from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1980, he was one of the "Antwerp Six" who broke onto the international scene in 1987. His roving imagination is fed by his interest in contemporary art, anthropology, historical costume and current affairs. After leaving W&LT in 1999 he turned his attention to beautifully realized experimental high fashion, using bespoke textiles and materials such as raffia, printed tablecloths and techniques not usually associated with menswear. A great supporter and promoter of young designers, he has taught fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp since 1985, becoming head of the fashion department in 2006. 

Also look up for Bikkembergs, Bowery, Mugler, Royal Academy of Fine Arts

BEENE Geoffrey (Designer)

The model's pleated trousers are "not too wide, not too narrow" and the perfect coat to throw over it is a "trench coat in beige cotton". With their soft wrapping and pared-down functionality. Beene's creations were the epitome of simple elegance. While his dresses were sometimes seen as the American version of couture, Beene was ultimately a designer with a sportswear sensibility and a focus on comfort. Comfort was paramount and had been since his label was launched in 1963. His first collections used an easy fit for clothes designed for active women. He often worked with humble materials, including cotton piqué and sweatshirt fleece. Beene freely borrowed from menswear _collections included vests and ties_ whilst the West met the East in his use of quilting, obi belts and layering. In honour of his legacy, the Council of Fashion Designers of America created the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Also look up for Blass, Miyake, Mizrahi, Vionnet 

BECKHAM Victoria (Designer)

Victoria Beckham took the pop world by storm in the 1990s as a member of the chart-topping Spice Girls, and alongside her football and fashion icon husband David (or "Posh and Becks" as they have become unavoidably known) she is half of one of the most powerful couples in fashion, gracing the pages go high-fashion magazines and tabloids alike. In more recent years Beckham has also shown herself to be a shrewd businesswoman in the fashion industry. Having modelled for runway shows and editorials, Beckham launched her womenswear label in 2008 to wide acclaim, her structured, body-conscious silhouette an evident hit. Beckham's modern aesthetic _which emphasizes form, color and female contours_ is fast becoming a staple on the red carpet. In 2012 Beckham added an eyewear collection to her increasing successful brand. 

Also look up for D. Beckham, Berardi, Dolce & Gabbana, McCartney, Mouret  

BECKHAM David (Icon)

David Beckham's immense fame and fortune boil down to his world-class football skills, a daring fashion sense and commercially viable sex appeal. Already the star of major endorsements, he launched a permanent collection of bodywear with H&M in 2012, accompanied by a Super Bowl ad and a gigantic, hand-painted mural in midtown Manhattan. He began his career with Manchester United at only seventeen, later playing with Real Madrid and Los Angeles Galaxy. In 1997 he met "Posh Spice" (now better known as fashion designer Victoria Beckham), and "Posh and Becks" became a media sensation. Despite the occasional fashion misstep, he has inspired many male trends, from cornrows to diamond studs. Both athlete and lucrative sex object, he epitomizes a contemporary breed of man: in 1994 the term "metrosexual" was coined and he was subsequently identified as its archetype. 

Also look up for V. Beckham, Bikkembergs, Dean, Knight & Bowerman, Madonna  

BEATON Sir Cecil (Photographer)

Eight models in a spectacular neoclassical interior are wearing ball gowns by Charles James in this 1948 American Vogue editorial by Cecil Beaton. Its mood of elegant grandeur captures the spirit of Dior's New Look, which revolutionized fashion with its feminine romanticism and state-of-the-art construction. Dior claimed James had inspired the New Look and Beaton and James were lifelong friends. Beaton _photographer, illustrator, designer, writer, diarist and aesthete_ captured the nuances of fashion and the fashionable from the 1920s until his death. In 1928 he began a long relationship with Vogue. Always in touch with the zeitgeist, he developed accordingly, photographing the Rolling Stones, Penelope Tree and Twiggy in the 1960s. He was as much a part of Swinging London as they were. "Fashion was his cocaine. He could make it happen. He sought the eternal in fashion", wrote a friend after his death. 

Also look up for Campbell-Walter, Coward, Ferré, Garbo, C. James

THE BEATLES (Icons)

The Beatles are credited with marketing the "youthquake" look around the world. In 1962, while touring Germany, Stuart Sutcliffe's photographer girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr gave the group a co-ordinated image: matching "moptop" haircuts like her own beatnik-style gamine cut. 

The following year, The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein contacted Soho tailor Dougie Millings, who recalled, "I'd been experimenting with round collars. I did a sketch of one, showed it to Brian, and that was that. I've never claimed to have entirely "invented" it, I just came up with the suggestion". In fact, the neat, collarless, high-neck, grey jackets with black trim had been inspired by Pierre Cardin. They became a trademark for The Beatles, worn with whip ties and pointed "Chelsea" boots. The Beatles hit the USA the following year and their girlfriends were credited with introducing America to the miniskirt. 

Also look up for Cardin, Leonard, McCartney, Sassoon, Vivier

BATES John (Designer)

John Bates is photographed with two dramatic outfits from a 1979 collection. They both use silk cut away to reveal the torso _a charismatic theme based on shapes from the 1930s and 1940s. The black dress uses a geometrically bared midriff in a modern take on Carmen Miranda's trademark_ a feature Bates had used in 1965 with his "bikini dress", the halves of which were joined with transparent netting. These squared-off shoulders minimize the hips, and spaghetti ties are used as suggestively available fastenings. Decorative cocktail hats finish both outfits and lend them the highly co-ordinated, polished look of the 1930s. In the 1960s, Bates created "the smallest dress in the world" and the black leather wardrobe for The Avengers television series. His wide range of eveningwear, much of its ethnically inspired in the 1970s, was skillfully made and had a sophisticated youthfulness. 

Also look up for Albini, Barnett, Burrows, N. Miller, Wainwright 

BASSMAN Lillian (Photographer)

"I almost always focus on a long, elegant neck", said Bassman of this photograph featured in Harper's Bazaar. Her shadow, sensual pictures are known for their gentle intimacy, "Women didn't have to seduce me the way they did male photographers. There was a kind of inner calm between the model and myself". Her images were created by innovative printing techniques such as bleaching areas to give results that resembled charcoal drawings, recalling Bassman's early career as a fashion illustrator before being apprenticed to Alexey Brodovitch. Bassman's work is more evocative of moods than subjects and has not always been understood. Carmel Snow, former editor of Harper's Bazaar, once berated Bassman for photographing a diaphanous Piguet gown to resemble butterfly wings, saying, "You are not here to make art, you are here to photograph buttons and bows"_ a landmark in the debate about the purpose of fashion photography. 

Also look up for Brodovitch, Parker, Piguet, Snow  

BARTLETT John (Designer)

A shirt is laid open at the throat and left untucked in the style of the 1950s. John Bartlett's aesthetic is a relaxed one. He thinks about clothing pictorially and his fashion shows have profound themes and narratives, often becoming essays in style. Bartlett trained at Willi Smith, a label historically known for its democratic attitude towards fashion, and he has developed a natural feel for sportswear. He began his menswear collections in 1992, adding womenswear five years later, when he told People, "My mission is to make women look sexy", just as it is for men. He is said to be the American version of Thierry Mugler in sexy stories, but Bartlett adds something extra with his relish for the rhetoric of fashion _he introduced his menswear collection in 1998 with, "Imagine a world where Forrest Gump is directed by Otto Fassbinder...", a reference to the subversive filmmakers Otto Preminger and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. 

Also look up for Matsushima, Mugler, Presley, W. Smith   

BARTHET Jean (Milliner)

While he often designed in the traditional manner of the great French hat makers such as Caroline Reboux, who placed the emphasis on purity of line and structure, Parisian Jean Barthet also embellished his creations with trimmings that reflected his own imagination. In this case, inspired by existentialism ideas of the period, Barthet created a hat that symbolized the hovering hands of fate. Two rose satin hands, one adorned with a diamond studded ring and bracelet from Boucheron, decorate the shallow black velvet calotte. Barthet showed his first collection in 1949 and rose to become the most successful milliner in Paris, dressing the heads of Sophia Loren and Catherine Deneuve. His success was underlined by his membership of the Chamber Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and he collaborated throughout his career with his colleagues Claude Montana, Sonia Rykiel, Emmanuel Ungaro and Karl Lagerfeld. 

Also look up for Deneuve, Hirata, Paulette, Reboux

BARRETT Slim (Jewellery designer)

In this swathe of chain links by Slim Barrett, jewellery becomes a garment with a piece that suggests both a draped necklace and a hood. Pierre Cardin and Paco Rabanne both used this theme by expanding dresses to become hybrids of fashion and jewellery, and here Barrett has done the same from his perspective as a jewellery designer. He returns intermittently to medieval themes _he helped Karl Lagerfeld by developing silver wire so fine that it could be knitted_ and in the 1990s Barrett was responsible for the tiara's rise in popularity. In his quest to extend the realm of costume jewellery, other catwalk collaborations (including those for Chanel, Versace, Montana and Ungaro) have resulted in the creation of plated armor, waistcoats and skullcaps as vehicles for Barrett's work. In 2000 he won the De Beers Diamond International Award and his work can be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. 

Also look up for Lagerfeld, Morris, Rabanne

BARON Fabien (Art director)

Fabien Baron's clean, clear layouts, allowing tangled graphics to float luxuriantly in vast areas of space, recall the power of Alexey Brodovitch's work and have set new standards in modern design. Starting his career at New York Woman in 1982, Baron moved quickly to Italian Vogue, and a stint at Interview magazine, before he was appointed creative director at Brodovitch's old home, Harper's Bazaar. His style has been widely influential and Baron acknowledges, "the look doesn't belong to me any more". He directed Madonna's Erotica video and designed her metal-covered book, Sex. The frosted bottle for Calvin Klein's unisex CK One perfume was also his creation. 

Klein says, "We are on the same wavelength, except Fabien goes way beyond my capabilities of aestheticism". From 2003 to 2008 he was creative director at French Vogue alongside his art director and marketing agency Baron + Baron which he founded in 1990. 

Also look up for Brodovitch, C. Klein, Madonna

BARNETT Sheridan (Designer)

A cool bride is transported to the church on a Harley-Davidson. Her wedding outfit is by Sheridan Barnett, who graced the 1970s with lean, uncontrived fashion. Her cream jacket and skirt are spare of any detail other than Perspex buttons to fasten her jacket and patch pockets to carry her handkerchief. Barnett was almost architectural in his approach to clothes, demanding function and purity of line at a time when all around him were making additions _with embroidery, printing and appliqué fighting for space on dresses everywhere. Because function is more commonly found on menswear, Barnett often used it as a central theme. Although the bride's cloche hat is trimmed with net, a black pussy-cat bow is tied at her neck and her stockinged legs end in a pair of wedge sandals, that clean, masculine theme comes through in a jacket modelled on a classic, double-breasted blazer.

Also look up for Albini, Bates, Wainwright 

BARDOT Brigitte (Icon)

Actress Brigitte Bardot sits under a tree, smoking moodily, her deshabille hair and au naturel appearance the epitome of amoral French sensuality. British Vogue called her "the sensuous idol, a potent mixture of the sexy and the babyish, a seething milky bosom below a childish pout". She was known simply as "BB" (the French pronounced it "bébé" _French for "baby"), and the phrase "sex kitten" was invented to describe her. Her narrow trousers and tight black sweater reflect the nonchalant beat style. She also popularized flat ballet pumps in the 1950s, setting a trend for not wearing socks in her film And... God Created Woman (1956), and for ruffles and ringlets, petticoats and prettiness in Les Grandes Manoeuvres (1955), and for Edwardian dress in Viva Maria (1965). Jeanne Moreau wrote that Bardot "was the real modern revolutionary character for women".

Also look up for Bouquin, Esterel, Féraud, Frizon, Heim

BARBIERI Gian Paolo (Photographer)

It is a typically dramatic example of Gian Paolo Barbieri's work. In 1997, he directed Vivienne Westwood's first-ever campaign, which was based on the work of the sixteenth-century painter Holbein. For Barbieri this was more than fashion work. It was the creation of a filmic tableau that indulged all his passions: proportion, minute detail and a desire to seal the moment. In 1965 Barbieri photographed the first cover of Italian Vogue. His work for that magazine and others opened doors to advertising work for designers such as Valentino, Armani, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent. Barbieri's work continues to have influence well into the digital age, blurring the line between art and fashion. 

Also look up for Bourdin, Valentino, Westwood

BARBIER George (Illustrator)

George Barbier was, together with Paul Iribe and Georges Lepape, one of the great fashion artists of his day. Commissioned by designer Paul Poiret to illustrate his fashions, Barbier here portrays two of Poiret's models in a moonlit rose garden. The evening coat on the right has a long train that falls from the shoulders and drops back at the sides like huge wings. It has an intricate Art Deco design of a stylized tree. A similar coat designed by Paul Poiret and called "Battick" was photographed by Edward Steichen and appeared in Art et Décoration in April 1911. The required headwear to be worn with the coat and equally exotic dress (with its high waistline reminiscent of the "Directoire" line of late eighteenth-century France) was the turban, trimmed with pearls and surmounted by an aigrette. Barbier has united Poiret's simple classical line with the bold colours and design elements of his oriental style. 

Also look up for Bakst, Drian, Iribe, Lepape, Poiret, Steichen

BANTON Travis (Designer)

Travis Banton's costume for Marlene Dietrich is from the film Shanghai Express (1932). He disguised her as a black swan in a costume of feathers, veiled and hung with ropes of crystal beads. Her handbag and gloves were specially made for her by Hermès; the hat was a John P. John creation. Banton regularly visited Paris; on one occasion, he bought up an entire stock of bugle beads and fish-scale paillettes reserved for Schiaparelli. In reparation, he sent her enough trim to complete her line for the season. Banton worked in couture in New York; his break came when he designed the costumes for Paramount's The Dressmaker from Paris (1925), after which he became Paramount's head designer. He designed for Dietrich, Mae West, Claudette Colbert and Carole Lombard. One of his signatures was dressing women in men's clothes. He continued to run his successful couture business alongside costume designing. 

Also look up for Carnegie, Hermès, John, Schiaparelli, Trigère

BANDY Way (Make-up artist)

Model Gia wears the perfect work of Way Bandy. Her light, translucent make-up was delivered with very few products. Usually working with liquid cosmetics, Bandy would mix his colours at home and tie them up in two small Japanese baskets. He was visionary in the formulations he used: his foundations were blended with eye drops that would tighten the pores, promoting the flawlessness he worked for. Blending was also very important to his work and Bandy named his dog Smudge after his refining technique. He was always perfectly made-up himself, turning up for fashion shoots wearing inconspicuous base and powder. For one night, however, Bandy demonstrated his skill by arriving at a Halloween party thrown by his friend Halston wearing the full, traditional kabuki face. As a friend remembered, "He loved beauty and from those little bottles could come perfection in the form of lightness or the bizarre". 

Also look up for Halston, Saint Laurent, Uemura

BALMAIN Pierre (Designer)

Mlle Laure de Noailles wears her debutante gown, with foaming tulle skirt, by Pierre Balmain. Vogue declared that "eventful skirts" were his speciality; they were often embellished with embroidered motifs such as leaves, cherries or scrolls. Trained as an architect, Balmain believed that both professions worked to beautify the world, declaring haute couture to be "the architecture of movement". In 1931 he was appointed junior designer at Molyneux. He then worked at Lucien Lelong where he was joined by Christian Dior; they collaborated for four years, nearly going into partnership together, but in 1945 Balmain left to establish his own house. Like Dior's New Look of 1947, Balmain's full-skirted silhouette was part of the new postwar luxury. Upon the designer's death in 1982, Balmain's assistant and close friend Erik Mortensen took over the brand, which today, helmed by Olivier Rousteing, continues to have contemporary relevance.

Also look up for Cavanagh, Dior, Lelong, Molyneux, Piguet, De la Renta 

BALLY Carl Franz (Shoe designer)

The continuity of fashion is illustrated by two examples of Bally's "Mary Jane" shoes, separated by fifty years: the delicacy of red suede, gold leather trim and diamond button was replaced by serviceable leather for the 1990s. Carl Franz Bally decided to mass-produce high-quality footwear after falling in love with a pair of shoes he found for his wife in Paris. The son of a silk ribbon weaver, Franz had taken over the family business, expanding the company to include an elastic tape that was used by shoemakers. While visiting one of his clients in Paris, he saw the inspirational shoes and bought the entire stock, and began manufacturing his own shoe collections in his factory. Today the house of Bally remains a classic one, albeit expanded into a global company. Graeme Fidler and Michael Herz, creative directors since 2010, maintain the traditional craftsmanship and Swiss luxury heritage that the brand was founded on. 

Also look up for Chéruit, Hermès, Steiger, Vivier

BALLA Giacomo (Designer)

Although flat on the surface, this suit fuses movement, line and colour in a representation of the excitement of speed. Intrinsically forceful, the jagged strokes on the jacket, like storm-strewn palm leaves, mark high velocity and transmit energy. It gives us an image of an experimentalist at work. Balla, like fellow Futurists Severini and Boccioni, felt a positive need to extend his interests from the canvas to his environment, in this case exploring the subject of dress as a medium for expressing his Futurist ideas. Focusing more on male clothing, he stated the tenets of modernity in his "Manifesto of Anti-Neutral Clothing", which aimed to bring disorder to the logic and communication of clothing. His ideas were based on asymmetry, clashing colours and juxtaposed forms that opposed tradition and convention. "The past I so fiercely reject", he said, embracing the industrial dynamics of modern art in his perception of fashion. 

Also look up for Delaunay, Exter, Warhol

BALENCIAGA Cristóbal (Designer)

Layered bells form the sleeves of this cape, worn over a matching dress. They exemplify the shapely simplicity that made Cristóbal Balenciaga a great couturier. His genius lay in cut. The sack dress, the balloon dress, the kimono-sleeve coat and a collar cut to elongate the neck were a few of his fashion innovations, although his clothes also came with a disclaimer: "No woman can make herself chic if she is not chic herself", Balenciaga once said. His Spanish severity contrasted with the light femininity of French designers; his favourite fabric was silk bazar, diaphanous but stiff, which satisfied his instinct for the sculptural. As early as 1938, Balenciaga's modern vision was influential, explained by Harper's Bazaar thus, "Balenciaga abides by the law that elimination is the secret of chic". In 1968, after a battle against what he saw as the tide of vulgarity flowing through fashion, Balenciaga bowed out with the words, "It's a dog's life".

Also look up for Chow, Ghesquière, Penn, Rabanne, Saint Laurent, Snow 

BAKST Léon (Illustrator/Designer)

The overall effect of this costume is both classical and oriental. It reflects the current fashionable silhouette in its long, columnar shape. However, this severe line is softened by the lavish surface decoration, reminiscent of the East. Léon Bakst's contribution to the history of fashion came through the theatre. He collaborated with Sergei Diaghilev in the creation of the Ballets Russes, which came to Paris in 1909. As its artistic director, Bakst designed the vibrantly coloured and exotic costumes. It was his designs for Schéhérazade that caused a sensation when it was performed in Paris in 1910. Orientalism in haute couture had already been successfully promoted by Paul Poiret. It was given further impetus by Bakst's sensual costumes, which had an extraordinary impact on Parisian fashion houses such as Worth and Paquin, who used his designs from 1912 to 1915. Bakst, like Erté, was a designer and an illustrator.

Also look up for Barbier, Brunelleschi, Doeuillet, Erté, Iribe, Poiret

BAILLY Christiane (Designer)

Christiane Bailly was part of the prêt-à-porter revolution of the 1960s. Her radical methods included experimenting with synthetic fabrics such as silver plastic and "cigarette paper". She took the stiff interlinings out of jackets for a suppler silhouette, and cut close-fitting clothes from black ciré in 1962. Bailly began her career as a model for Balenciaga, Chanel and Dior in 1957. Her interest in fashion developed and she entered design, working on more approachable clothes than those she had been modelling at the grand haute couture houses. In 1961 she started designing for Chloé and, after two years, moved on to work with Michèle Rosier. In 1962 Bailly formed a company with Emmanuelle Khanh, and both were assisted by a young Paco Rabanne. Their label, Emma Christie, produced revolutionary designs to critical acclaim and poor commercial success, but their role in the birth of French prêt was an important one. 

Also look up for Bousquet, Betsey Johnson, Khanh, Lenoir, Rabanne 

BAILEY David (Photographer)

Jean Shrimpton, the face of the early 1960s, shares a confidence with Cecil Beaton, photographer, illustrator, costume designer and writer, whose influence on fashion spanned forty years. The photograph is by David Bailey. His shots of Jean Shrimpton, who he first met in 1960 and with whom he had a relationship for four years, let the world into an intimate bond between photographer and model. Bailey, who was regarded as a bad boy, used few models and developed long working relationships with them. His reluctance to be categorized as a fashion photographer is justified by time: those fashion shots now stand as legendary portraits in themselves. As Marie Helvin, model and former wife, put it, "...the very essence of Bailey's style is his refusal to allow his models to be simply clothes hangers or his pictures moments of fashion. He photographs women wearing clothes". 

Also look up for Beaton, French, Horvat, Shrimpton, Twiggy

BAILEY Christopher (Designer)

Christopher Bailey's brilliance at Burberry lies in his ability not only to respect the brand's traditions but also to respect the brand's traditions but also to update them with an understanding of modern dressing. The iconic trench, always represented in the collections, retains original features _epaulettes, D-ring buckles and gun flaps_ but has a tighter, sharper silhouette. Bailey has made the Burberry name synonymous with cool, British style, whilst creating innovative collections without losing Burberry's distinctive heritage. A graduate from London's Royal College of Art in 1994, he immediately stepped into a role at Donna Karan womenswear. From there he moved to Gucci, before joining Burberry as creative director in 2001, and becoming chief creative officer in 2009. In 2005 and 2009 he won Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to the British Fashion Industry in 2009.

Also look up for Brooks, Burberry, Gucci, Kane, Karan 

AVEDON Richard (Photographer)

Penelope Tree is suspended in space, frozen in a joyful leap by Richard Avedon. It is an image that epitomizes the motion and emotion Avedon introduced into fashion photography, resisting the prevailing tradition of static poses. Instead he preferred the mood of street reality; a woman glimpsed on a busy pavement or the unexpectedness of his famous "Dovima With Elephants". Influenced by photographer Martin Munkácsi, who explored the principle of the fashion figure in motion, Avedon established his images of dancing and swinging frenzy, which have retained their freshness to this day. Avedon joined Harper's Bazaar in 1945, moving to Vogue in 1965. He never deserted fashion but, through his keen political convictions and intense interest in subcultures, Avedon became a photographer in service to a vision larger than fashion per se. His work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2002. 

Also look up for D. Bailey, Brodovitch, Dovima, Moss, Parker, Tree, Ungaro  

AUDIBET Marc (Designer)

This design is entirely about "stretch". There are no hooks, no eyes, no buttons and no zippers. It is a seamless, asymmetrical creation that clings to the body, following the lines of the model's figure. Audibet is both a fashion designer and a industrial designer, and is celebrated in the fashion world for his research into sketch fabrics. His expertise was acquired working as an assistant for Emanuel Ungaro and then as a designer for Pierre Balmain, Madame Grès and Nino Cerruti. An admirer of the work of Madame Vionnet and Claire McCardell, Audibet believes that fashion is a matter of anatomy and that innovation starts with fabrics. In 1987 he became textile adviser to the fabric and fibre company DuPont and together they created and launched single _and two-way stretch fabrics made from DuPont's "Lycra"_ the most important development in fashion in the 1980s. 

Also look up for Alaïa, Bruce, Godley, Grès, Ungaro, Zoran 

ASHLEY Laura (Designer)

A Victorian-inspired, white cotton dress worn under a floral pinafore sums up the mood of romantic rural idyll that made Laura Ashley a household name. She once said that she designed for women who wanted to look "sweet": "I sensed that most people wanted to raise families, have gardens and live as nicely as they can. "She used puffed sleeves, sprig prints, pin-tucking, lace trims and high collars to make romantic references to a pastoral lifestyle, which in reality was a hard one for most. In a way that only fashion can, the look reinvented history and enabled women to dress for a role. It precipitated a movement known as "milkmaidism". In 1953, Ashley and husband Bernard began silk-screen printing textiles by hand in a small workshop in Pimlico, making table mats and napkins. In 1968 they opened their first shop, selling the basic Laura Ashley dress for £5. By the 1970s, it had become a symbol of femininity.

Also look up for Ettedgui, Fratini, Kenzo, Liberty

ASCHER Zika (Textile designer)

In the long tradition of artists turning fabric designers, such as Dufy and Cocteau, the unmistakable sketches of Henry Moore are applied to silk by Zika Ascher. This design, which combines screen printing with batik painting, was selected for use by Nina Ricci. When Vogue asked in 1962, "Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The fabric or the fashion?", it could have had Ascher in mind. His innovative approach to fabrics revolutionized fashion from the 1940s. He started his own production company and silk-screen print works in London in 1942. In 1948 he approached artists such as Moore and Henri Matisse to design prints. His own inventive approach to textiles acted as a catalyst for fashion designers of that time: in 1952 his highly original large-scale floral prints were used by Dior and Schiaparelli, and in 1957 his shaggy mohair inspired Castillo to create huge enveloping coats.

Also look up for Castillo, Etro, Pucci, Ricci, Schiaparelli

ARNOLD Eve (Photographer)

Eve Arnold's camera captured the gold beaded skullcap, glossed lips and lacquered nails of a model backstage at a Lanvin show in 1977. Arnold rarely used studios; relying instead on natural light and her hand-held Nikon. Her work was always respectful and sympathetic to its subject, background details were never an afterthought _Arnold insisted, "You have to take advantage of the variables. It might be the smile, the gesture, the light. None of which you can predict". She took pictures of black women modelling in Harlem fashion shows in 1948 and continued the project for two years, until Picture Post published her story. As a result, she was offered a job as the first female stringer for the Magnum Photos agency. A long friendship with Marilyn Monroe produced some of her best-known images. But Arnold's work covered a broad spectrum_ "everything from serious disaster to Hollywood hoop-la".

Also look up for Lanvin, Lapidus, L. Miller, Stern

ARMANI Giorgio (Designer)

A man and a woman wear the hallmarks of a great modernist: tailoring that trades stiff formality for assured relaxation. Giorgio Armani laid the groundwork for the easy, minimalist working uniform od emancipated 1980s women and blazed the trail for designers such as Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. His menswear was equally mould-breaking: taking the stuffing and stiffness out of the suit, he made the laid-back style of southern Europe coveted around the world. Armani was assistant to Nino Cerruti before starting his own business in 1973. His name came to the fore when he dressed Richard Gere for the film American Gigolo (1980). Every scene was choreographed to work for Armani's clothes, prompting Gere to ask, "Who's acting in this scene, me or the jacket?" In 2005 Armani made his debut in haute couture with his Giorgio Armani Privé collection. The same year the Guggenheim Museum, New York, dedicated an exhibition to him. 

Also look up for Abboud, Cerruti, Dominguez, Klein, Prada, Valentino

ARDEN Elizabeth (Cosmetics creator)

In one of Baron de Meyer's famous advertisements for Elizabeth Arden, a model resembling a figure from a Modigliani painting wears the Arden face. The name behind one of the century's greatest cosmetic houses was inspired by Tennyson's poem "Enoch Arden" and a love of the name Elizabeth. Her real name was Florence Nightingale Graham and she worked as a beauty treatment girl for Eleanor Adair in New York where, in 1910, she opened her own salon on Fifth Avenue with her signature red door. One of the first gurus to encourage exercise, she opened a spa and health retreat in Maine in 1934, and was passionate about horses. Arden developed a range of make-up for Hollywood that would not melt under the lights and was later used by women when they were out dancing. In 1935 she launched the legendary Eight Hour Cream, which remains to this day a cult beauty product.

Also look up for Bourjois, C. James, De Meyer, Revson, Uemura