As senior fashion
writer for The Sunday Times, in the 1990s and 2000s he became a
familiar sight in the front row of fashion shows along with his
contemporaries Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes. He is the author of some
20 books on fashion and designers, including McDowell’s Directory
of 20th Century Fashion. In 2008 he was appointed as a Member of the
Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to fashion.
McDowell grew up in
Gloucestershire and was educated at Durham University. While teaching
in Rome, he became an assistant to Italian couturier Pino Lancetti.
In 1984 McDowell
established his reputation as a writer with McDowell’s Directory of
20th Century Fashion, which became a standard reference work for
fashion students. He became involved in teaching fashion in London
(his students included John Galliano) and began writing for
newspapers and magazines. In 1986 he became fashion writer of The
Sunday Times.
A vocal critic of
the British fashion establishment, in 2003 McDowell founded Fashion
Fringe (also known as Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden), a platform
for developing new fashion talent set up jointly with international
management agency IMG. He remains the creative director. The
competition attracts chairmen including Donatella Versace, Tom Ford
and John Galliano. Winners of the competition who have gone on to
become regular exhibitors at London Fashion Week include Erdem, Basso
& Brooke, Gavin Douglas, Aminaka Wilmont, Eun Jeong and
Jena.Theo. The 2010 winner was Corrie Nielsen.
McDowell is a former
chairman of the Costume Society of Great Britain. He is a fellow of
The Royal Society of Arts and has been awarded honorary doctorates
and professorships by five British universities.[citation needed] He
is creative director of the Audi Fashion Festival Singapore. In 2010
he was appointed Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art.
McDowell received an
Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2005
McDowell’s
Directory of 20th Century Fashion (1984)
In Royal Style
(1985)
Every Woman’s
Guide to Looking Good (1986)
Shoes: Fashion and
Fantasy (1989)
Hats: Status, Style
and Glamour (1992)
Dressed to Kill:
Sex, Power and Clothes (1992)
The Designer Scam
(1994)
The Literary
Companion to Fashion (1995)
The Man of Fashion:
Peacock Males and Perfect Gentlemen (1997)
Forties Fashion and
the New Look (1997)
John Galliano:
Romantic, Realist and Revolutionary (1997)
Manolo Blahnik
(2000)
Fashion Today (2000)
Jean Paul Gaultier
(2001)
Ralph Lauren: the
man, the vision, the style (2002)
DianaStyle (2007)
Matthew Williamson
(2010)
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