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Fashion versus the 主播大秀

A team of fashion writers and commentators including Peter York, Colin McDowell, Ted Polhemus and Hilary Alexander looks at the relationship between British fashion and the 主播大秀.

Documentary which takes a provocative and entertaining journey through the 主播大秀's own fashion collection.

For 50 years the 主播大秀 has often treated fashion as a frivolous, decadent diversion from the serious matters of life, but now a 'style council' of fashion writers and commentators including Peter York, Colin McDowell, Ted Polhemus and Hilary Alexander turns the tables and lets British fashion take on the 主播大秀.

In the 1950s we find programmes debating whether men should decide what women wear. In the 1960s we see Alan Whicker unleashed upon the 'silly, superficial world' of French couture, while the big story of Mary Quant is almost ignored back home. In the 1970s comes the revulsion against punk style, and it is not until the 1980s that TV treats fashion with any kind of appreciation with The Clothes Show, generally held as the 主播大秀's finest hour in the world of dressing up.

The programmes concludes that British fashion is unique in that it is driven more by youth culture than by fashion houses. Through the stories of the models, the designers, the photographers and the clothes themselves, it shows how the establishment has come to terms with the transformation of post-war Britain.

1 hour

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