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In high school, one of my mentors was the Fashion Director and Buyer at the major department store in my hometown, so I learned quite a bit about fashion and how to dress under her tutelage. I particularly enjoyed peppering her with questions when she returned from New York fashion weeks twice a year. Each time I would wait with anticipation to see how the notes and sketches from her adventures in New York translated into what was actually ordered and sold on the sales floor. Developing fashion show concepts and casting models for them was also a favorite experience, but more than anything, I appreciated that she didn’t just allow me to have an emotional response to clothing like “Oh, that’s cute or I love that color” but rather she insisted that I understand the history of fashion and what it meant to wear clothes well. She was my fashion fairy godmother and she was tough, but thanks to her, I have a fashion IQ.

So, yes, I have some knowledge of fashion, but of course I tend to write from an emotional perspective on ZR. And I realize that I am not Suzy Menkes, Cathy Horyn, Robin Givhan, Kate Betts, Sally Singer or Bridget Foley and I won’t try to be because those women have earned their front row seats and it is not my intention to upstage them. I love fashion, enjoy musing on fashion, and I feel that as consumers of luxury goods and designer clothes, we should understand who the designers are and what role they play in the history of fashion. In a nutshell, we should not be blindly loyal to a brand, but educated consumers who spend our hard-earned dollars well.

Thanks to the editors of Women’s Wear Daily, we now have a historical record of fashion from flappers to women’s pantsuits. And while the title of their new book is 100 Years, 100 Designers notice that it does not say the “best”, but rather the editors feature the best interpreters of fashion over the past 100 years.

WWD has been reporting on fashion since 1910, so we learn about how the sinking of the Titanic impacted the fashion industry, we learn how urban style like Afros and bell-bottoms became mainstream, and of course we learn about designers like Christian Dior, Oscar de la Renta, Vivienne Westwood and Coco Chanel. There is even mention of the celebrity designer craze–thanks JLo. And even the impact of that once weekly fashion show Sex and the City is discussed.

To win a copy of WWD: 100 Years, 100 Designers, email secretsanta@zavvirodaine.com with your answer to the holiday question below:

Holiday question: What is the name of my Secret Santa mascot? [WWD]

Be sure to include the [code] in the subject line. Sign the email with your full name and include your mailing address. Only one entry per person. The deadline for this giveaway is tonight Thursday, December 23 at 11:59pm. For complete holiday giveaway rules, please read here. Good Luck!

Photos: WWD Archives and WWD: 100 Years, 100 Designers

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