Through his selection of 25 iconic vintage dresses, William Banks-Blaney tells the history of twentieth-century couture, the fashion designers who created the dresses and the women who wore them. Each dress is examined for its design and construction, its cut and embellishments, in order to evaluate the artistry of the couturier. With exquisite photography of arguably the finest examples of each of these landmark designers, and bolstered by fashion plates contemporary to the selected pieces, Iconic Dresses is the distillation of the knowledge and skill that William employs every day when fitting the world's most beautiful dresses to today's women.