The 1930s was a turbulent decade for the world at large - a decade framed by two world-changing events, the economic crash of 1929 and the outbreak of the Second World War ten years later. This book reveals a world of revolutionary changes in fashion, and demonstrates the remarkable ingenuity and inventiveness of designers and home-seamstresses who managed to thrive despite economic constraints and turmoil in Europe. This is decade of the skirt suit, of sportswear-as-daywear and jersey fabrics.

But it was the Thirties that also saw the rise of the glamorous Hollywood fashions, with silver-screen goddesses wearing slinky satin gowns that marked a new and overtly sensual direction within women's fashion design. Many of the images in this fabulous collection have been selected from popular fashion publications of the day, mail-order catalogues, and Hollywood studio press shots, including material from Chic Parisien, Harper's Bazaar, Sears, La Femme Chic and top film studios Metro-Golwyn-Mayer, RKO and Paramount.