Fashion

Fashion historian Valerie Steele. Her new book outlines changes in the fashion world through the past half century, noting how the economy, global climate, and sexual politics affected designers' creations as well as the styles we wore. The book is called "Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now" (Yale University). Steele is Chief Curator at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Costume designers Carol Oditz and Mark Bridges. Oditz planned the look for the film The Ice Storm, attempting to create surface tension for the movie through wardrobe. Bridges is responsible for collecting and coordinating the 70’s and 80’s styles seen throughout the movie Boogie Nights.

An inside account of the world of high-fashion. Nina Blanchard is founder of Nina Blanchard Agency which is considered one of nation’s most prestigious modeling agencies. Blanchard herself discovered supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. She’s been called The Beauty Broker. She has written a novel based on the fashion world The Look, (Dutton 1995) Blanchard talks about what it takes to be a model, the pressures they’re under and why she herself finally had enough.

Film critic Stephen Schiff has a review of "Ready To Wear," Robert Altman's ensemble film about Paris fashion shows.

Why does cross-dressing stir up so much anxiety in our culture? Harvard professor Marjorie Garber talks about where cross dressing has turned up in popular culture, and what it means to wear the clothes of the opposite sex. Garber's new book on the subject is "Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety." (It's published by Routledge).

Critic Maureen Corrigan comments on the latest women's fashion trend--a reboot of styles she grew up wearing. Corrigan never thought they were exciting, and wonders why they're so popular now.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin examines the travails of buying a something to wear to a wedding.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin (mic-LOFF-lin) tells us how to dress for Earth Day.

With winter still here, but spring hinting it's arrival, commentator Patricia McLaughlin considers the perils of winter on the mind, body, and spirit.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin blasts Ralph Lauren's citified vision of the country life, and she reflects on the "magic thinking" and escapism of some city dwellers.

Knitwear designer Kaffe Fassett (the first name rhymes with "safe," the last name rhymes with "basset"). He's elevated needlework from a simple craft to an art form. Fassett started out as a painter, but while working in England he visited a Scottish wool mill, and was dazzled by the colors and textures he discovered there. He's since made tapestries, clothes, chairs, and other objects, and authored several books that have influenced textile designers.

John Fairchild, the publisher of "Women's Wear Daily," and "W." "Women's Wear Daily" is to the fashion industry what "The Wall Street Journal" is to the financial community. "W" is a glitzy fashion magazine. Fairchild has just written an insiders exposé of the fashion world, called "Chic Savages."

Fashion expert Richard Martin. Martin's the co-author (with Harold Koda) of "Jocks and Nerds," a new book that examines what the authors call '12 persistent fashion styles;' among them the Rebel, Cowboy, Dandy, and Joe College. Martin is a professor of Art History and Dean of Graduate Studies at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

Though the garment may be a century old, fashion columnist Patricia McLaughlin says bras still have a long way to go in terms of fit and comfort.

Fashion writer Samuel Coleridge visited sweatshops in India and South Korea to learn more about the hidden side of fashion design and clothing sales. His new book explores exploitative labor, licensing, and gender dynamics within the industry.

The former teen model later pursued an acting career on stage and screen. Despite her efforts to distance herself from her early days in fashion, Twiggy says it would be untenable for her to give up her distinctive moniker. She costars in the new movie Madame Sousatzka, in which she plays an aspiring pop star.

After leaving art school, Malcolm McLaren started a clothing store called Sex, and later helped assemble the punk band the Sex Pistols. McLaren says the group's talent was secondary to its subversiveness.

New Yorker fashion reporter Kennedy Fraser has a new book of her work for the magazine, called Scenes from the Fashionable World.

Village Voice style editor Mary Peacock considers the role women's magazines play in shaping women's fashion. She talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the latest trends.