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

CAMPBELL Naomi (Model)

Herb Ritts casts Naomi Campbell as Pan, representing eternal spring. Her athletic frame is regarded as being as near perfect as it is possible to be - even in the fashion industry. Azzedine Alaïa realized her potential early and dressed Campbell in his clothes, which are as equally demanding of perfection. She sought stardom from an early age, attending stage school in London, and has rarely been out of the news since she was hailed as a supermodel. Known for her diva-like qualities, she has a star-like ability to dominate a picture or catwalk. She was dubbed "the black Bardot" for her full lips and sexy demeanour, although she claims to have encountered prejudice, saying, "This is a business about selling - and blonde, blue-eyed girls are what sells". However, her success has contributed to a broader conception of the feminine ideal. After many decades, she is still in demand and in 2007 appeared in Dior's 60th anniversary show at Versailles.

Also look up for Crawford, Evangelista, Moss, Ritts, Schiffer

CALLOT Marie, Marthe, Regina & Joséphine (Callot Soeurs) (Designer)

This panniered lace dress represents the exotic work of the Callot Soeurs. Its sheer vest is wrapped over a bodice and caught into flowers on the hip. The laced skirt is appliquéd with more floral motifs. The sisters worked with exquisite and unusual materials, including taffeta inspired by eighteenth-century dresses, rubberized gabardine and Chinese silks, with Orientalisme as favourite theme. They are remembered for introducing the fashion for the gold and silver lamé evening dresses popular in the 1910s and 1920s. They were influential into the 1920s when Madame Marie Callot Gerber, the eldest sister, was referred to as the backbone of the fashion world of Europe. Madeleine Vionnet said of her training at Callot Soeurs, "Without the example of the Callot Soeurs, I would have continued to make Fords. It is because of them that I have been able to make Rolls-Royces". 

Also look up for Bernard, Boué, Bruyère, Dinnigan, Duff Gordon, Vionnet

BUTLER Nicky & WILSON Simon (Butler & Wilson) (Jewellery designers)

A face is framed by glittering diamanté jewellery, one eye obscured by an amusing lizard. Recognizing the potential for antique costume jewellery in the late 1960s, antique dealers Nicky Butler and Simon Wilson started selling Art Deco and Art Nouveau treasures at London's most fashionable markets. By the time they opened their first shop in 1972, Butler and Wilson had themselves started designing. Their eponymous period-inspired and often witty creations raised the profile of costume jewellery. The change in conventional attitudes towards genuine fakes, however, was never more conspicuous than in the opulently ornamental 1980s, when glamorous ambassadors of Butler & Wilson's style included Jerry Hall, Marie Helvin, Lauren Hutton and the Princess of Wales, who often wore their bejewelled designs for formal evening occasions. 

Also look up for Diana, Hutton, Lane, Winston

BURTON Sarah (Designer)

The Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress unites the old and the new. The ivory satin bodice is narrow at the waist and slightly padded at the hips, drawing upon the Victorian tradition of corsetry so beloved of Alexander McQueen. Sarah Burton's cutting technique and tactile exploration of the fabric create an elegant, streamlined, modern silhouette, while hand-cut English and Chantilly lace (another McQueen trademark) embellish the dress. Burton had not yet finished her degree at London's Central Saint Martins when she began an internship at Alexander McQueen's death in 2010. In 2011 Burton won Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards and the International Designer of the Year Award from Elle UK in 2012. Burton was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2012 for services to the British fashion industry. 

Also look up for Central Saint Martins, McCartney, McQueen, Treacy

BURROWS Stephen (Designer)

A geometrical printed jersey dress by Stephen Burrows is decorated with his trademark "lettuce" edging. Deliberately created by closely zig-zag stitching on raw seams, it is an example of how Burrows sparingly used machine techniques to decorate his fluid, sexy vision of modern feminity. The full cut of this dress will have produced a wake of rippling fabric, giving it sinuous movement. Customers who visited his store-within-a-store, Stephen Burrows' World at Henri Bendel, in the 1970s, came for simple jersey and chiffon outfits that then defined New York style. In 1971, Halston told Interview magazine that Burrows was "one of the unrecognized geniuses of the fashion world... Stephen gives the most original cut in America today. And the thing is really the cut". One of Burrows' favourite cuts is the asymmetric (where the hem is cut on the diagonal), about which he said, "There's something nice about something wrong". 

Also look up for Bates, Halston, Munkacsi, Torimaru 

BURBERRY Thomas (Designer)

A geometric layout illustrates all the features that have made the Burberry check as British as the Liberty print or Scottish tartan. Thomas Burberry, a country draper, developed a water and wind-proof fabric he called gabardine; his first raincoat went on sale in the 1890s. Designed for field sports, it was later used by officers in the trenches of the First World War and dubbed the "trench coat". Many of the original features, from epaulettes and storm flaps to the metal D-rings, still appear on the coat today. The coat's shape evolves to keep pace with fashion movements. The distinctive beige and red check lining was first used in the 1920s and Hollywood stars of the 1940s invested it with an aura of glamour. Given new life by the Japanese Burberry-fever of the 1980s, it has since been applied to everything from umbrellas to bags. In 2001 Christopher Bailey became creative director and in 2009 was appointed chief creative officer. 

Also look up for C. Bailey, Brooks, Creed, Hermès, Jaeger

BULGARI Sotirio (Jewellery designer)

A Bulgari collar and earrings modeled by Tatjana Patitz makes a statement worthy of a Medici, although the jewellery is a blend of traditional Italian forms and contemporary style. Warhol once called the Bulgari store on Rome's via Condotti "the best gallery of contemporary art". The company was founded in Rome by silversmith Sotirios Voulgaris (Sotirio Bulgari in Italian), who honed his skills in his native Greece before moving to Italy where he founded the now world-famous brand in 1884. His sons, Constantino and Giorgio, developed the jewel and precious stone side of the business in the early twentieth century. In the 1970s, Bulgari drew on their Art Deco themes, in particular the rectangle-cut baguette work, to develop modern, graphically spare jewellery that put diamonds in geometric settings. Precious jewellery was thus placed in the domain of young, fashionable society. The company was purchased by the LVMH group in 2011. 

Also look up for Cartier, Lalique, Warhol

BRUYÈRE Marie-Louise (Designer)

The model wears a windbreaker coat from the Bruyère salon, initially located in the Place Vendôme. It has a more feminine look than the simple, tailored styles seen in London in 1944. The shoulders have a softened, draped line, the waist is narrow and the sleeves are full as is the hemline, which has a swing to it. The original salon opened in 1937 and was decorated by Bruyère herself. Lee Miller, photographer and journalist, was one of the first people to arrive in Paris on the liberation of the city in August 1944. Recording her impressions in Vogue, she wrote that, "The French concept of civilized life has been maintained". Bruyère trained with the Callot Soeurs and worked as an apprentice with Jeanne Lanvin. 

Also look up for Callot, Von Drecoll, French, Lanvin, L. Miller

BRUNELLESCHI Umberto (Illustrator)

Around the time of this drawing, a Paris critic wrote of Brunelleschi, "His art has nothing realistic about it. He would not know how to evoke modern life its huge factories and streets full of people. But the world of fiction, which is so much more beautiful than the world of men, that he makes real". Parisian by adoption, Brunelleschi worked as a costume and set designer in the theatre, where the effects of the innovations made by Bakst and Poiret were still very much alive. The hallmarks of a Brunelleschi theatrical costume drawing are clear, strong, calligraphic lines, derived from his sound training at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, and brilliant, jewel-like colours that bring a fairy-tale world to life, the influence of Bakst and Poiret. Like Bakst and Erté, Brunelleschi was both a designer and illustrator, making him a leading figure in the history of twentieth-century fashion. 

Also look up for Bakst, Erté, Poiret

BRUCE Liza (Designer)

Lisa Lyon, bodybuilding champion of 1979 and inspiration for Liza Bruce, is the vivid image of a strongwoman and gives her name to a black Lycra swimsuit which embraces the body with futuristic and graphic shapes. From the outset, Bruce determined to make experimentation a central theme of her work, and her career has been punctuated by innovations that have found their way onto the high street. Initially a swimwear designer, she made a thick lustre crepe, designed by textile specialist Rosemary Moore, her signature material. They later developed a "crinkle" crepe fabric which was widely copied throughout the swimwear business. Bruce is also credited with introducing leggings in the 1980s. Sport has been an enduring theme for Bruce, with function conspicuously dominating the design of everything from cycling shorts in the 1980s to an evening dress in 1998. 

Also look up for Audibet, Godley, Di Sant'Angelo

BROWNE Thom (Designer)

Thom Browne has made models walk on stilts, don astronaut suits and glide across an ice rink. For his autumn/winter 2011 collection, male models seated around an exaggerated banquet table in a gilded salon picked at the elaborate dishes in front of them, intermittently rising to lap the table at a geriatric pace. As always, the clothes were a mix of the commercially viable and the outright outré: knitted wigs and crested skirts, corduroy blazers and John Lennon-style sunglasses. Despite his theatrical flair, since 2001 Browne has made a name for himself with a single, spotless silhouette: a shrunken grey flannel suit, accessorized with chunky black shoes and a clipped skinny tie. He is credited with reintroducing classicism to menswear, reimagining preppy tradition with a twist. Now also producing womenswear and eyewear lines, Browne won CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year in 2006. 

Also look up for Van Beirendonck, Lauren, Pugh, Simons

BROWN Bobbi (Cosmetics creator)

In the early 1990s, Bobbi Brown provided an antidote to the exotic colours used throughout fashion. From beige to bitter chocolate, her earthy colours reflect natural beauty. They are achieved through a whole range of cosmetic products, without camouflaging ethnicity, age or skin tone. It is a method that looks to the skin for its lead: eye shadow that does exactly that, and lipstick that accentuates rather than masks natural colour. Brown is simple, straightforward and basic. "Make-up is not rocket science", she says, downplaying the hype of make-up as an art form. With her degree in theatrical make-up and extensive catwalk and editorial work, Brown started on a small scale with ten neutral-toned lipsticks. While the beauty colourscape has radically altered, Brown remains true to her plain-spoken philosophy and has published numerous books and manuals on the subject. 

Also look up for Bourjois, Lauder, Page, Toskan & Angelo

BROOKS Daniel, John, Elisha & Edward (Brook Brothers) (Retailers)

From Wall Street to Capitol Hill, the oldest retail clothing company in America has been catering to the establishment since 1818. Brooks Brothers pioneered men's ready-to-wear, with an emphasis on soft construction and ease. Its unmistakable air of traditionalism has not prevented Brook Brothers from introducing some of the principal innovations in American men's clothing. Bermuda-length shorts and the classic pink shirt first hit the American shores through their stores. Brooks also brought over the button-down shirt collars worn by polo players in England, instituted madras fabric for shirts (originally designed for British officers in India), and introduced the Brooks Shetland sweater and their trademark Polo coat in white, camel or grey with mother-of-pearl buttons and a full belt. Ralph Lauren's early work experience for Brooks Brothers was a crucial influence in shaping his own label's style. 

Also look up for Burberry, Hilfiger, Lauren

BRODOVITCH Alexey (Art director)

Two suits are made exciting by placing them in movement on six related poses. Alexey Brodovitch, who commissioned and laid out these pictures, brought a new informality and spontaneity to magazine design. Based on European graphic modernism, his years as art director of Harper's Bazaar (1934 to 1958), brought life to fashion photography. By creating complementary typographic images to put next to a picture, producing two-page spreads and using multiple images (a single page), he invented the modern lexicon of art directors. His credo was "Astonish me!" Richard Avedon, Hiro and Lillian Bassman were a few of his favoured photographers and his Design Laboratory in Philadelphia was a workshop "for studying new materials, new ideas... in order to establish new devices for the future". 

Also look up for Avedon, Baron, Bassman, Hiro, Snow

BRANQUINHO Veronique (Designer)

Like a storyteller, Veronique Branquinho's designs play on the tension between suggestion, concealment and teasing revelation, a style embodied by these girls poised conspiratorially on a staircase. Inspired by the complex heroines and troublesome sexuality of films ranging from Story of O (1975) and Emmanuelle (1974) to Rosemary's Baby (1968) and the TV series Twin Peaks (1990), her garments create an evocative image. Launching her first collection in Paris in 1997, only two years after graduating from Antwerp's Royal Academy, Branquinho rose to rapid prominence, winning the VH1 Best Newcomer Award the following year for her impeccable tailoring. Soft layering, like the petals of a rose, hints at the moving body within; while heavy knits and tweed trenches offer a sense of protection. Branquinho offers a vision that embraces strength and fantasy, softness and sexual empowerment. 

Also look up for Demeulemeester, Margiela, Simons, Sitbon, Theyskens

BOY GEORGE (Icon)

Boy George wears a theatrical outfit from 1984. With his Hasidic Jew's hat, dreadlocks, make-up, loose-fitting Islamic-style shirt, trousers and hip-hop shoes by Adidas, George represented an eclectic, home-styled approach invented in the squats and clubs around London. It was a fashion born of necessity. Students and the unemployed spent their days making ever-more exotic outfits to wear at night. The clubs, such as Taboo, had rigorous door policies - issuing humiliating rejections for those who had not made the effort - and they became a spawning ground for designers such as Body Map, John Galliano and John Flett. George, who was a central character, had been inspired by the androgynous costumes of David Bowie. He styled himself "Boy George" to clear the confusion his dresses created amongst the wider public.

Also look up for Bowie, Dassler, Flett, Forbes, Stewart, Treacy

  

BOWIE David (Icon)

Wearing a glittering knitted unitard, David Bowie plays Aladdin Sane. He used clothes as costumes for his stage personae, each one representing a phase and an album: from Ziggy Stardust's tight metallic spacesuits and wild plastic quilted bodysuits by Kansai Yamamoto to a sleek suit and tie for his "plastic soul" disco album, Young Americans. He said of his inventions, "The important fact is that I don't have to drag up. I want to go on like this long after the fashion has finished... I've always worn my own style of clothes. I design them. I don't wear dresses all the time either. I change every day. I'm not outrageous. I'm David Bowie". At times he was a sexually ambiguous figure, using make-up and hair dye to achieve these characters and in doing so inspiring the New Romantic movement. Bowie's interest in fashion continued in the 1990s with his slightly less theatrical outfits designed by Alexander McQueen and his marriage to model Iman. 

Also look up for The Beatles, Boy George, Iman, McQueen, K. Yamamoto

BOWERY Leigh (Icon)

Leigh Bowery approached dressing as a creative, artistic act, although whether his "Redbeard with Aerosol Tops" from winter 1987 is "art" or not is a matter of opinion. Part voodoo, part clown, Bowery's surreal and often disturbing costumes were always highly creative. "I am in this odd area between fashion and art", he said. He described his work as "both serious and very funny". Bowery arrived in London in 1980 during the New Romantic era. He dressed up for the first time at an Alternative Miss World contest, and was delighted to find himself the centre of attention. Later he hosted the gay nightclub Taboo, continually reinventing himself and always trying to "improve"on his previous outfit. An expert tailor, Bowery collaborated with Rifat Ozbek, although posterity will remember him as a sitter for the painter Lucian Freud. 

Also look up for Van Beirendonck, Boy George, G. Jones, N. Knight, Ozbek

BOUSQUET Jean (Cacharel) (Designer)

In a scene created by photographer Sarah Moon, a plaid pinafore by Cacharel is worn by a doll-like figure who lies on a vast sewing machine. The designer, Jean Bousquet, founded his company Cacharel in 1958 with an aim to represent a wild, free image; rejecting the formality of clothing favoured by older generations. As such, Bousquet was part of the new ready-to-wear scene in Paris along with Christiane Bailly, Michèle Rosier and Emmanuelle Khanh. In 1961 the company produced a blouse constructed without bust darts; the result was a best-selling fitted shirt that became an icon for the brand. A collaboration with Liberty in the late 1960s also became a commercially successful and iconic partnership. Bringing the brand into the new millennium, husband and wife design team Clements Ribeiro were appointed as artistic directors in 2000, a position that is now held by Ling Liu and Dawei Sun, who took over in 2011. 

Also look up for Bailly, Clements, Khanh, Liberty, Moon, Rosier, Troublé

BOURJOIS Alexandre Napoléon (Cosmetics creator)

The fashionably blanched face of the 1920s is given colour by one of the first cosmetics companies, Bourjois, which was launched in Paris in 1863. Alexandre Napoléon Bourjois originally created his powders with the theatre in mind, and he sold them from a barrow. The dusty texture of his Rouge Fin de Théâtre was completely different from the greasepaint available at the time, and soon he was the official supplier to the Imperial theaters. Fashionable Parisiennes, taking their cue from actresses and courtesans, began to use his cosmetics. Bourjois repackaged his rice powder, Fard Pastels, in little card pots stamped with the legend Fabrique Spéciale pour la Beauté des Dames. Bourjois set a precedent for printing phrases and quotes on the boxes; famously, in 1947 it was "Women Will Vote". One of the original colours, Cendre de Roses Brune, is still a bestseller, and the distinctive rosewater scent remains unchanged. 

Also look up for Brown, Factor, Lauder, Uemura

BOURDIN Guy (Photographer)

An exercise of self-satisfaction, stimulated by the looks of John Travolta, mirrors the 1970s obsession with sex, individuality and status. The glamour of sheer fabrics and flashing make-up serves as a canvas for Guy Bourdin's cold yet unmistakably sexual vision. Daringly showing the symbiosis between savvy disco decadence and stardom, this image is finely in tune with the psyche of Bourdin's times. A Pop-Surrealist, he began to work for French Vogue in 1960, recommended by photographer Man Ray and couturier Jacques Fath. He concentrated on editorial work for this publication alongside advertising campaigns for Charles Jourdan shoes and Bloomingdales' lingerie range. An obsessive master colourist, Bourdin is said to have left actress Ursula Andrews lying naked on a glass table for six hours while searching Paris for the right shade of rose petals to match her skin. 

Also look up for Barbieri, Fath, Jourdan, Man Ray, Mert & Marcus, Newton

BOUQUIN Jean (Designer)

"Hippie deluxe" is the phrase that will forever be linked with Jean Bouquin's clothes and lifestyle. Although he dabbled in fashion for just seven years, Bouquin captured the bohemian spirit of St Tropez's jet-set society at the end of the 1960s. This photograph from French Vogue epitomizes Bouquin's vision: a natural woman, draped with beads, who lives an ironically privileged hippie life wearing a luxurious interpretation of the nonconformist's uniform, all sold in Bouquin's boutique. Her printed panne velvet minidress uses drawstrings, borrowed from Indian pajamas, at the cuffs, and ends just shy of the bikini bottoms she might have worn underneath it. After his success in St Tropez, Bouquet opened a second shop in Paris called Mayfair, which continued his theme of relaxed "non-dressing". He retired from the fashion business in 1971 to enjoy his social life.

Also look up for Bardot, Hendrix, Hulanicki, Porter, Veruschka

BOULANGER Louise (Louiseboulanger) (Designer)

Lace and tulle is projected as the backdrop for a dress whose bodice is so fine that it appears almost gaseous. Louise Boulanger was very much influenced by the work of her contemporary, Madeleine Vionnet. She imitated with finesse Vionnet's use of the bias, cutting diagonally across the grain of the fabric to achieve a seamless, flowing movement. She was noted for launching graceful evening gowns that had skirts which knee-length in front and reaching to the ankles at the back. Another of her trademarks was elegantly tailored suits with hats designed by Caroline Reboux. Louise Boulanger learned her craft as a thirteen-year-old apprentice with Madame Chéruit. In 1923 she opened her own fashion house, whose name was an amalgam of her first and last names. With her svelte figure, she was a couturière in the manner of Coco Chanel. 

Also look up for Bernard, Chéruit, Reboux, Vionnet

BOUÉ Sylvie & Jeanne (Boué Soeurs) (Designers)

A delicate lace and embroidered lawn tea gown is caught up on the hips with a threaded silk sash. Roses decorate the shoulders and, as was customary, the hem dips either side to create the impression of swags. The Paris haute couture house of the Boué Soeurs flourished at the beginning of the twentieth century, together with those of Paul Poiret, the Callot Sours and Madame Paquin. During the First World War the Boué Soeurs moved to New York, where John Redfern and Lucile had already opened branches of their businesses. The Boué Soeurs, who contributed much to the city's high fashion, were renowned for their romantic designs, which often borrowed details from costume found in historical paintings. Their garments, sometimes reminiscent of underwear as here, were made in luscious fabrics such as paper taffetas and silk organdies and were ornately decorated. 

Also look up for Callot, Duff Gordon, De Meyer, Paquin, Redfern

BOUCHÉ René (Illustrator)

Working in pen and ink, Bouché was a master at blending fashion and society. Two figures are silhouetted against a sophisticated background like a tableau vivant. They are linked by their fur muffs. With his vivacious and witty line, Bouché has revealed these fashionable women and their elegant clothes and has expressed their elegant clothes and has expressed their character, their manner and a sense of occasion. It is a throwaway style but the informal virtuosity of Bouché as a fashion illustrator was combined with a skillful training in painting, drawing and portraiture. Bouché illustrated the pages of Vogue during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s, and had a particular flair for communicating the relationship between clothes and wearers with accuracy and humour. The prestige of Vogue was due in large measure to the revival of fashion illustration by artists of the calibre of Benito, Eric, Christian Bérard, René Gruau and René Bouché.

Also look up for Balmain, Benito, Bérard, Eric, Gruau   

BOHAN Marc (Designer)

In the preamble to Marc Bohan's show for Christian Dior, the designer and his model, wearing a slim cardigan jacket over a belted dress, pose for American Vogue. Bohan won plaudits for restoring haute couture to the tradition set by the grand couturiers, when he was appointed chief designer and artistic director of the house of Dior in succession to Yves Saint Laurent in 1960. He was of his time, however, and was able to communicate a youthful spirit. His collection for winter 1966, influenced by the film Doctor Zhivago (1965), started the craze for fur-trimmed, belted tweed coats worn with long, black boots. Marc Bohan gained valuable practical experience in fashion from his mother, who was a milliner. Between 1945 and 1958 he worked for the fashion houses of Piguet, Molyneux and Patou. Having left Dior in 1989, he moved to London where he was enlisted in an attempt to revive the house of Norman Hartnell. 

Also look up for Blair, Dior, Ghesquière, Hartnell, Molyneux, Patou

BLUMENFELD Erwin (Photographer)

Legs are wrapped in damp muslin; this is not a fashion image but a beauty one. This photograph by Erwin Blumenfeld is reminiscent of his first art success, a suite of collages and altered images in the style of Berlin Dada. His late work in New York was equally cryptic, often obscuring the nude with smoke, mirrors and shadows, and implying spiritual forms through reference to the body. In between, in a series of photographs in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar in the 1930s through to the 1960s, he addressed fashion, but often subjected icons of beauty to his own obscurities and emendations. He allowed body parts to stand for the whole (most famously in a cover image of lips and eye for Vogue in January 1950), rendering fashion misty and mystical. Blumenfeld came to fashion at the age of forty-one. He was an experimenter who reserved his admiration, and film, for the work of great designers such as Balenciaga and Charles James. 

Also look up for Dalí, Hoyningen-Huene, Man Ray

BLOW Isabella (Editor)

With her passion for emerging talent and fostering creative potential, fashion icon Isabella Blow launched the careers of some of the biggest names in the industry. She purchased Alexander McQueen's entire graduate collection in 1992, and championed Philip Treacy's work from 1986 when he brought his hats to the officer of Tatler, where she was style editor. Renowned for her personal style and flair for dress up, Blow was rarely seen with a bare head. Originally a student of ancient Chinese art in New York, she went on to a career in fashion after working for the house Guy Laroche. She returned to London in the mid-1980s to take up a position at Tatler and from 1997 she continued to influence the industry as fashion director of the Sunday Times Style magazine, before leaving the position in 2001 to focus on her styling and consulting work. Throughout her career Blow remained a style icon as well as being a rue creative talent in her own right. 

Also look up for Baron, Guinness, McQueen, Tennant, Treacy, Wintour

BLASS Bill (Designer)

Three distinctly American graces capture the essence of Blass's high-style sportswear. Urbane and Europe-aware, but definitely easy to wear and pared-down in ornament, Blass's separates for day and evening, and his dresses for the "cocktail hour" captured the American spirit in functional, elegant clothing. Blass perpetuated the traditions of Norman Norell and Hattie Carnegie in providing smart sophistication for American women. Sweater dressing, even for evening gowns, was a Blass signature; layering and the harmony of rich materials, from silk to cashmere, are favored. Witty references to menswear or vernacular dress were also frequent in Blass. Often referred to as the "dean of American designers", Blass was one of the last of the designers consistently delivering classic good taste, filtering fashion's fluctuations through a fine sieve. He finished his autobiography Bare Blass in 2002 but died before it was published. 

Also look up for Alfaro, Beene, Roehm, Sieff, Underwood

BLAHNIK Manolo (Shoe designer)

Rude and nude, but executed with as much refinement as a queen's coronation slipper, Manolo Blahnik's sexy sandal is made out of black leather. The transforming powers of Blahnik's shoes are legendary. They are said to lengthen the leg from the hip all the way to the toe. The secret lies in balance and taste; neither proportion nor degree of fashionability ever stray into vulgarity, thereby upsetting Blahnik's careful blend of style and function. He left the Canary Islands to study at the University of Geneva and at the École du Louvre in Paris. During a trip to New York in 1973, an appointment with American Vogue editor Diana Vreeland inspired him to settle in London and open his first shop. Blahnik's influential shoe designs are the sole choice for catwalk collections for many designers. His shoes were immortalized in TV's Sex and the City and in 2012 he received the Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Fashion Awards. 

Also look up for Coddington, Field, Galliano, Hardy, Vreeland

BIRTWELL Celia (Textile designer)

Actress Jane Asher sits amidst the jumble of accessories and kooky paraphernalia of a London boutique in 1966. She wears a printed paper minidress by Ossie Clark, another variation of which hangs on the wall behind her. The print is by Celia Birtwell, who decorated the fabric used by her husband Clark, and the "paper" is a prototype of that used by Johnson & Johnson for J-cloths. Birtwell's stylized, sometimes psychedelic, florals with striped borders were also used for flowing fabrics resurrected from the 1930s, such as crepe and satin. Her lavish, two-dimensional style, which suited the fantastical and semi-historical explosion. Birtwell's bohemian mixture of Indian and traditional English themes was an expression of the wealthy, young Chelsea society around her, which was exploring the trail to Goa at the same time as inheriting the English countryside. 

Also look up for Clark, Gibb, Pollock

BIKKEMBERGS Dirk (Designer)

These muscular sportsmen present a very different image from the moody and conceptual menswear that made Dirk Bikkembergs' name as one of the "Antwerp Six" in the 1990s. In 1999 Bikkembergs changed his approach to fashion. After seeing a teenage boy's bedroom plastered with posters of footballers, he was inspired to take a new direction, focusing his entire output and brand image around sport, and football in particular. In 2000, Bikkembergs started using FC Fossombrone, the local football team, as a testing ground for his high-performance designs. In 2006 Bikkembergs purchased a majority stake in the team, dressing the players on and off the field, from boots to suits, making them a walking advertisement for the world's first "sports couture" brand. Since then, the Bikkembergs label has evolved along the axes of luxury and athleticism, reflecting the ever-increasing status of sports stars as icons of contemporary style. 

Also look up for D. Beckham, Demeulemeester, Fonticoli, Van Noten

BIAGIOTTI Laura (Designer)

The fluid spirit of Italy's "Queen of Cashmere" is illustrated by René Gruau in 1976. His easy lines imitate the composed chic for which Laura Biagiotti is known: the sweater worn with lean tailoring and open-necked shirt. Biagiotti read archaeology at university in Rome and worked in her mother's small clothing company after graduation. In 1965 she founded her company, with partner Gianni Cigna. It manufactured and exported clothing for the eminent Italian fashion designers Roberto Capucci and Emilio Schuberth. As the company grew, so did Biagiotti's aspiration to design. She presented a small but successful womenswear collection for the first time in 1972. Designing with comfort as a priority, Biagiotti became known for working with fabrics of exceptional quality, especially cashmere in the most subtle colours - a blueprint later used by Rebecca Moses. 

Also look up for Capucci, Gruau, Moses, Schuberth, Tarlazzi

BETTINA (Model)

Wearing a sharply constructed black dress by Christian Dior, the French model gives a pose of polished froideur. Bettina's gamine beauty is unique in having inspired three designers over two generations. Born in Brittany, the daughter of a railway worker, Simone dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. She took her drawings to the couturier Jacques Costet, who took her on as his model and assistant. When the house closed, she moved to Lucien Lelong, employer of Christian Dior, who then invited her to join him in his own house. She refused, choosing to work for Jacques Fath instead. He renamed her Bettina and made her "the face" of his scent Canasta, which was launched in 1950. Her name took her to America where Vogue loved her "Gigi" looks, and 20th Century Fox offered her a seven-year contract, which she declined. In 1955 she left modelling, returning three decades later as muse (and best friend) of Azzedine Alaïa.

Also look up for Alaïa, Dior, Fath, Lelong
  

BERTHOUD François (Illustrator)

François Berthoud's startling illustration presents a woman in a stovepipe hat, her demonic eyes watching from the shadows. Berthoud uses linocuts and woodcuts for his melodramatic work. They are brave and unusual methods for fashion illustration, which usually demands flowing lines. But these approaches can often suit the sharp contours of contemporary fashion, lending strength and drama to the simplest garment. Berthoud studied illustration in Lausanne and, after receiving his diploma in 1982, moved straight to Milan where he worked for Condé Nast. He later became heavily involved in the visual appearance of Vanity magazine, a publication that showcased illustration, designing many of their covers. In the 1990s Berthoud's enduring illustrations have appeared in the New York-based style quarterly Visionnaire. 

Also look up for Delhomme, Eric, Gustafson, S. Jones

BERNARD Augusta (Augustabernard) (Designer)

During the 1930s there was a revival of interest in classical art and an evening gown was an especially suitable garment for re-creating the flowing movement of the draperies of Ancient Greek statues. It is this sculptural form and the long, floating line billowing out at the bottom that Man Ray captures in his photograph. 

Augusta Bernard enjoyed a successful career during the first half of the 1930s. A neoclassical evening gown she designed in 1932 was chosen by Vogue as the most beautiful dress of that year. Augusta Bernard belonged to that eminent band of couturières between the two World Wars, which included Chanel, Vionnet, Schiaparelli, Louiseboulanger and the Callot Soeurs. Like Vionnet, she was a technician with a mastery of the bias cut. By cutting the fabric of the dress on the cross-grain, she achieved a fluidity that gave the evening gown great elasticity and a refined, draping quality. 

Also look up for Boulanger, Callot, Chanel, Man Ray, Schiaparelli, Vionnet  

BERGÈRE Eric (Designer)

These spare wrap dresses represent the self-assured work of Eric Bergère. Briefly apprenticed to Thierry Mugler, he arrived at Hermès aged just seventeen. It was Bergère who gave modernity to Hermès' luxury, using the then passé snaffle and H logo to add wit. In doing so, he famously created a camp, mink jogging suit. Bergère blends European humour and respect for tradition with the Americans, like Anne Klein... very simple clothes, very elegant", and he keeps detail to a minimum, using a thin tie belt or a tiny bow on a knitted camisole top. His first collection under the Bergère label was tightly edited: twelve pieces of knitwear in three colours and one jacket in three different lengths. "I want the jackets to be like cardigans, I try to make everything lighter _the finishings, the linings, the foundations_ but they must still have a definite shoulder". 

Also look up for Evangelista, Von Fürstenberg, Hermès, A. Klein, Testino   

BERETTA Anne-Marie (Designer)

In an abstract, graphic, red, white and black scheme, two leather coats are trimmed with B to signify the work of Anne-Marie Beretta. Her trademark is a play on proportions, from wide-collared coats to mid-calf-length trousers and asymmetrical lines, used here to break the conformity of these coats. The upper part of each letter is larger, throwing the emphasis onto the shoulders and thereby minimizing the widths of the model's hips. Beretta has used these techniques for many different collections, including ski-wear, but when she opened her own boutique in 1975 it was with business-like tailoring, similar in style to those collections she has since designed for the Italian label MaxMara. Beretta wanted to pursue a career in fashion from an early age - by the time she was eighteen she was designing for Esterel and Antonio Castillo. In 1974 she established her own label. 

Also look up for Castillo, Esterel, Maramotti