Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2002 - 72

pened during this time. The youth movement
spearheaded a more non-conformist ideal
which became even more influential as the
century wore on. As the global economy became increasingly important in the 1950s, so
did the rise of couture clothing.
During the 1960s "street fashion" was extremely popular and the couture houses, thought
of as being elitist, were under attack .
The Peacock Revolution and rock and
roll made this one of the most revolutionary
times for men's clothing. Ms. Steele highlights
major fashion trends such as the "mod" and
the "baby doll" styles as options for the decade. The "flower power" fashions of the early
sixties were replaced with a more futurist look
later in the decade. The author mentions influences such as the exploration of space and
other scientific advances as the impetus for the
experimentation with non-traditional materials
like plastic, metal and paper.
Ms. Steele calls the 1970s "The Decade
That Taste Forgot." As young people became
disenchanted with the establishment, they
chose to illustrate their discontent by wearing
outrageous fashions. These reflected retro fantasies, ethnic influences and the hippie revolution.
This freedom of expression led them to adopt diverse fashions such as granny dresses, hot pants,
micro minis, platform shoes and boots, punk
fashion, androgyny and deliberately ripped tee
shirts.
The excess of the 1980s is brought to light
in the following chapter. Designer clothing
reached its peak during the 1980s and a new
body consciousness had begun. Ms. Steele points
out that many man-made fabrics were developed
and that women's fashions became increasingly
masculine as women entered the work force in
greater numbers than ever before. She mentions
Calvin Klein, MTV, Gaultier and Madonna as major fashion influences of the eighties.
With the advent of the 1990s cultural influences played a greater role and racially diverse
and ultrathin fashion models were prevalent.
Grunge and goth were two of the more deviant
styles that surfaced during this decade along with
retro fifties and retro seventies styles . Rap music,
the Far East and techno styles are all important influences for the later part of this decade. The author states that in the 1990s fashion has come
from the street up instead of from high fashion
down.
The over leaf of this book states: "From
haute couture to hot pants, from glamour to
grunge the past fifty years have witnessed some

startling revolutions in fashion. This lively survey
of postwar fashion not only describes the great
designers and their creations but also places
trends in clothing within their social and cultural
contexts." I am pleased to report the author does
this, and more, with lively anecdotes to bring her
theories to light.
Reviewed by Martha A. Marking,
Appalachian State University

Designer Drafting for the
Entertainment World
By Patricia Woodbridge
Boston: Focal Press, 2000, ISBN:
0240804244, 372 pages, $44.95 (softcover).
Like many others, I have experienced the frustration of dealing with students who are convinced that the computer can substitute for the
acquisition of time-honored visualization
skills. The computer, for all its usefulness, is
not human. Even as an interpretive tool-
working from traditional hand renderings-it
prefers geometric solidity over expressive ir-

regularity. This provides a partial explanation
for the many depressingly similar computerbased designs we've encountered-and I'm
speaking as someone who relies greatly on his
computer for all of his design work. Even as
digital technology becomes more accessible,
enabling the average scenic designer to produce images of tremendous subtlety, the human being at the keyboard still requires
trained eyes and hands to produce work with
the gentle nuances and /or curvilinear whimsy
we associate with the best designs. Designer
Drafting for the Entertainment World ad-

DePaul University / The
Theatre School; b/w; p/u

TD & T

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2002