Surfers Soulies Skinheads & Skaters

Awesome book for many reasons.

By Amy De La Haye and Cathie Dingwall, it is a collection of photos and information about subcultural style from years past.  It is really informational about the style of subcultural dressing, mostly from the UK and USA from the forties to the nineties, containing pictures from the exhibition from where the clothes were from, information about the owners of the clothing, and the subculture's mindset was.  I found this really interesting because I didn't know what half of the cultures in the book represented beforehand.  It was also interesting to know about the particular influences of that culture and it provided good reference for those who want to trace back modern subcultures.  I also enjoyed the way the book had a more magazine or editorial style layout, with different fonts and colors for each type of culture.

However, it did not include real models of how the subcultures were besides clothing.  For example, the authors couldn't duplicate haircuts or slang terms.  However, this would not be a problem for someone with a purely curious interest in retro subcultural style.  It is a satisfying book to flip through and simply look at the picture.

Did you know Karl Lagerfield once designed a B-Girl look for Chanel?

Image from infibeam.com