The Couture Accessory

Accessories are addictive, and the most spectacular ones- those created by the great designers-provide not only enormous pleasure but also offer a perfectly crystallized image of their creator's vision. This book celebrates the visionary hats, bags, shoes, belts, scarves, gloves, and jewels fashioned by the greatest designers of the 20th century, beginning with Poiret, Vionnet, Chanel, and Schiaparelli and continuing through to today with such inventive minds as Azzedine Alaia, Jean Paul Gaultier, Moschino, and Vivienne Westwood.

From Poiret's Scheherazade turban to Galliano's camouflage saddle bag, the couture accessory can be an evocative sign of the times. Here is a dazzling array of couture accessories-all strikingly photographed by David Corio-in a book that not only examines the contributions of the individual designers but at the same time captures pivotal moments in 20th-century fashion. This is another sumptuous, witty, sublimely stylish volume from the heralded author of Abrams' New York Fashion, hailed as "a defining book on the story of American fashion."

Caroline Rennolds Milbank, formerly the head of the costume department at Sotheby's, works in New York as a consultant and appraiser of antique and couturier clothing for museums, auction galleries, and collectors. She lives in New York. David Corio is a photographer based in New York City.