Style Tribes: The Fashion of Subcultures explores the style, fashions and ideology of youth movements of the last 100 years, including flappers, swing kids, mods, rockers, surfers, hippies, punks, disco, hip hop, Harajuku and hipsters. Fully illustrated, it delves into the stories behind the styles, what sets each of them apart, and looks at the influence and legacy of each of these tribes.
The advent of industrialisation, globalisation and modernism in the twentieth century brought with it an explosion of subcultures, most of which are defined by their youthfulness. As subcultures gain media attention they are absorbed into the mainstream, and the style is often picked up by the fashion industry. The book will look at how these subcultures have been translated into fashion, from flappers and teddy boys to punk and grunge.
Subcultures inspire, influence and blend into one another: hippies were a continuation of the beat movement, combined with a surfer lifestyle influence, while Jamaica’ s rudeboys and London mods inspired the original skinheads. There’ s also a running theme of ‘ the hipster’ – a word that emerged from Harlem in the 1920s from ‘ hip’ or ‘ hep’ , meaning non-conformist and one step ahead. This concept has played a part in understanding subcultures including zoot suiters, the jazz loving hipsters of the 1940s, beatniks, the hippie and now the contemporary hipsters with their beards and skinny jeans.
Illustrated with historic and contemporary images, it colourfully details each group to give a comprehensive overview of each subculture.
Reviews
Glamour magazine, December 2016, Christmas gift guide
Review, Running in Heels, 13 October 2016
Style Tribes is a powerful read and it emphasises that fashion is far from frivolous – it’s a lifestyle choice and a badge of identity we shouldn’t take for granted.
Review, History Wardrobe, 30 January 2017
Reading Style Tribes is like wearing a pair of well-loved classic jeans – you know what you’re getting and you like it. The chronology takes us through a cavalcade of cutting-edge fashion, all of it ultra-modern in its day.
Fashion book Friday review, Fashion Savage, 4 November 2016
From Flappers and the Harlem Renaissance, to Mods, Punks, and Harajuku style, the book explores the stories behind 30 unique identities, which span across the last 100 years. Illustrated with both archival and contemporary photographs, Style Tribes documents the origins, influence, and legacies of these popular youth movements in encyclopedic form.
Review, The Fashion Subcultures, Burgundy Whispers, 6 October 2016
Just looking through the photos in Style Tribes is reminiscent to what fashion bloggers were like back then and allows us to draw the connection and analyze how these different subcultures evolved. This book is more than a coffee table book, its a conversation starter and it will have you pondering more about the art of fashion blogging.
Review, High Latitude Style, 11 October 2010
Style Tribes – The Fashion of Subcultures by Caroline Young is a well-researched must-read fashion history book for every woman who is interested in the history of fashion, style, and music. Reading it will teach you a lot about yourself.
Review, Sustainability Style, 11 August 2017
A kick-butt reference guide for style lovers
Review, Fashionable Cleveland, 2 November 2016
Serving as a fashion encyclopaedia of sorts, the book examines the history of each style, complete with vibrant photos from the time period when the style was most popular. Young’s background as a journalist benefits her readers, as she presents the cultural implications of each style in a succinct, easy-to-understand manner.
Book review, Prairie Beauty Love, 12 October 2016
this book really gets down to the nitty gritty and explores a lot of different cultures that I think a lot of us are more peripherally aware of than actually clued in on the history of. Because this book is so well researched and comprehensive, I think this is a must have for anyone interested in the history of both fashion and of subculture. I also think this makes a great coffee table book, the type that visitors will love to pick up and page through… It really does get two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me!
The Best Fashion and Style Books to Buy This Year, The Culture Trip, 30 August 2017
This sweeping book chronicles 100 years of style, investigating how fashion across the centuries has influenced and embodied culture of the time. From the Harlem Renaissance through to the Swing Kids of Nazi Germany; covering Beatniks, Disco and Neo-Rockabillies and Sapeurs in between, Young compiles a comprehensive, elegant and engaging survey of the fashions across our times.
