As Seen in BLITZ: Fashioning '80s Style - Hardcover

Webb, Iain R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1851497234 ISBN 13: 9781851497232

Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Dist, 2013

Synopsis

• 1980s fashion and culture, as seen on the deeply influential pages of BLITZ, the pioneering '80s style magazine • A wealth of stunning visuals, text and interviews from the time, plus new commentaries from over 100 key players • A must-have book for anyone seriously interested in 20th-century style, especially devotees of the 1980s • The Metropolitan Museum is holding the exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture from May 9 August 11, 2013 "Like the lightning in its name, it struck us in 1980 and kept us spellbound the whole decade. 'Too fast to live, too young to die', that is BLITZ for me. Every month we would run to the news stand to be 'BLITZed' with irreverent, glamorous, chic and iconic images. BLITZ was Iain R. Webb's brainchild that corresponded perfectly to the era; it was one of its best expressions. He used emblematic faces that were so inspiring, and that I used for my shows, like Martine Houghton, who later became a photographer. BLITZ, we miss you but we are ready for your attack again!" Jean Paul Gaultier In London at the start of the 1980s, three new style magazines emerged to define an era. It was a time of change: after Punk, before the digital age, and at the dawn of a hedonistic club scene that saw the birth of the New Romantics. On the pages of BLITZ, The Face and i-D, a new breed of young iconoclasts hoped to inspire revolution. As BLITZ magazine's fashion editor from 1982-87, Iain R. Webb was at the center of this world. His images manipulated fashion to explore ideas of transformation, beauty, glamor and sex. The magazine's arresting, subversive fashion pages, and its profiles of disparate designers and creative types, let the imagination run free. Lavishly presented here are over 100 BLITZ fashion stories, with previously-unseen archive content, original images and tear-sheets. A separate section features original BLITZ interviews with the key designers, and there is also a vast amount of completely new material: Iain R. Webb has gathered the memories of those involved into a gripping oral history of an under-documented time. Characters and contributors include: Leigh Bowery, Amanda Cazalet, Boy George, Princess Julia, Nick Knight, David LaChapelle, Paul Morley and Anna Piaggi. Featured designers include Bodymap, Judy Blame, Dean Bright, Comme Des Garçons, Jasper Conran, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Katharine Hamnett, Hermès, Pam Hogg, Marc Jacobs, Stephen Jones, Calvin Klein, Andrew Logan, Issey Miyake, Franco Moschino, Vivienne Westwood, and many more.

About this title

About the Author

Iain R. Webb studied fashion design at St Martin's School of Art (now Central Saint Martins), graduating in 1980. During his career he has been fashion editor/director of 'BLITZ', 'The Evening Standard', 'Harpers & Queen', 'The Times' and 'Elle', while contributing to publications including 'New Musical Express', 'New York Times', 'The Independent' and 'Vogue'. He won the Fashion Journalist of The Year Award two years running in 1995 and 1996. A respected fashion writer, he is the author of 'Bill Gibb, Fashion and Fantasy'; 'Foale and Tuffin: The Sixties. A Decade in Fashion', ISBN: 9781851496068 and 'Postcards From the Edge of the Catwalk' ISBN: 9781851496471. He acts as a consultant at the Fashion Museum, Bath and is Professor of Fashion at Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins.

Review

[The book] revisits more than 100 stories from the iconic London fashion magazine that charted the decade's image-conscious lives and sartorial inventions. I lived through it, and I'm here to tell what a fun romp it all was. . . you'll just have to acquire this tome to get the full story.

(Hamish Bowles VOGUE)

BLITZ provided a beautiful flamboyance in the '80s... When you and I met up it was an eye-opening moment for me. You showed me a life that was different to how I had perceived it.

(Nick Knight, creative consultant for the exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture)

If you’re feeling the post-Met Gala punk burnout, we’ve got just the thing for you: As Seen in BLITZ, out this month, chronicles the New Romantic period in fashion, which directly followed punk. The book, as the title suggests, gives readers an inside glimpse into the early '80s as captured in the pages of Blitz magazine.

(Tyler McCall Fashionista.com)

Love this new book BLITZ by Iain R. Webb from his days as the fashion editor of the London magazine that launched in the ’80s around the same time as The Face and i-D. Ian was their fashion editor from 1982 to 1987 and the book is packed with old shoots and articles.

(Champagne and Heels)

A compilation of the 1980s British style magazine’s greatest hits, this annotated compendium also includes interviews with the editors, photographers, makeup artists, and models who gave readers an unconventional glimpse into fashion’s innermost circles and outlandish fringes. (Out Magazine, May 30, 2013)

If you love all things and fashion and want to see what it truly meant to be cutting edge as well as being prescient in the world of fashion, As Seen in BLITZ is the book you must dash out and purchase. (New York Journal of Books, June 16, 2013)

Edition details

• Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Dist
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1851497234
• ISBN 13: 9781851497232
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272