Style.com, the home of Vogue and W online, has a terrific Flash presentation on British style, starting with Saville Row (men's tailoring) to Carnaby Street (Swingin' London of the 60s) to Kings Road (the birthplace of punk) to Central St. Martins, the fashion design school that produced Stella McCartney, among others.
This presentation was created to mark the opening of the Anglomania exhibit at The Costume Institute in New York City. Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune reviewed the exhibit in her article Sex and the Brits: An ode to irony. Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director of The Daily Telegraph (my favorite "old" source for fashion) covers the opening night gala in her post on Madcap Anglomania.
If you want an entertaining read about Swingin' London and its movers and shakers, pick up Ready, Steady, Go! : The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London
. Nowadays we might think of Vidal Sassoon as a tired line of hair products, but his short haircuts helped liberate women from perms and helmet dryers. Also, while sales of hosiery are falling off, it's easy to forget that miniskirts (which Mary Quant helped popularize if she didn't invent them) necessitated pantyhose and took women out of girdles and garters. The changes spawned by Swingin' London are with us still.
The cover of Ready, Steady, Go! : The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London
features model Peggy Moffett in a signature Vidal Sassoon haircut
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