The first fashion designer was Mr. Worth in the late 1800. Before him, designers at royal courts were just taylors that did what the clients said. Worth was the first to dictate to his clients what they had to wear, instead of following their thoughts. Following him, other fashion houses hired artists to design clothing, so they could present to their clients the design of a new clothes without realizing a real sample, and only if the client appreciated it, the taylor started to make a garment.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Paris was the center of fashion, Paris fashion exhibitions became very important, and all fashion magazine directors, ready to wear department store buyers, and made to measure taylors couldn't miss the Paris shows. Fashion and beauty became to have an important role in daily life all over Europe thanks also to fashion magazines such as "La Gazette du bon ton" founded in 1912.

After the war there was a great demand of luxury French fashion, but couturiers had to adopt a new style, informal clothes that had to satisfy new clients such as American actresses and wives of industrialists, and to match outdoor life needs based on cars rather than horse carriages.

In the 1920s Coco Chanel became popular to be one of the first to design a chic and informal sportswear collection for both men and women for every event, not only for dining. She introduced the "Le Petit" known as little black dress, the use of jersey and knitwear for women's clothing, high hell and double colour shoes. Jeanne Lanvin reached the success being a 360 degrees fashion house, designing sportswear, lingerie, men's clothes, and interior designs, and introducing trimmings, embroideries, and decorations in floral colours on her women's collections.

In menswear there was a great demand for informal clothes that emphasized youth and relax. In a en wardrobe you could find short suit jackets, soft wool suits, and sweaters. For evening men replaced the tail coat with short tuxedo. While Paris was the heart of women's fashion, London was the capital of men's style, thanks to the English tailor school. Because of the crack of the New York stock market of the 1929, and following depression, Fashion designers lost a lot of clients, and specialized in haute couture rediscovering women silhouettes and sophisticated elegance, and ready to wear fashion for outdoor activities.

At the end of the 1930s appeared the first pullover knitted in black and white, and Hermes, the most luxury goods manufacturer, started selling hand made printed silk scarves, till very popular today, and introduced the zip. During the second world war, most fashion houses closed including the Maison Chanel, a few moved to New York. Because of the war, Americans introduced on their market a fashion based on men's work clothes, introduced boots and sportswear clothes into women wardrobe as an elegant way to dress.

In the 1950s Balenciaga removed the waist line, and widened shoulders, changing women silhouette. Hubert de Givenchy, one of the most elegant fashion designers, opened his first couture house in 1952 in Paris, followed by boutiques in Rome, Zurich, and Argentina.

In the 1954, Coco Chanel, over 70, came back into fashion scenes (she closed her fashion house during the war) launched a new way of clothing including the famous little braided suit with gold chain, jewelry, monogrammed buttons, bags with chains, and informal evening clothes.

A dress weared by an actress in a movie, could have a terrific return in terms of visibility, more than any ad campaign in a fashion magazines. Clothes had to emphasize the luxury world of Hollywood, also a simply cut dress had to be coupled with sophisticated details, luxury fabrics and raw materials, including chiffon and fur.

The 1960s was a decade that broke with many fashion traditions of the past with several extreme trends. Paris was the center of fashion till the '60s. Then there was a change in fashion world, the era of someone that enforces his style is ended, and start the era of a fashion influenced by different styles round the world, and for the first time in the fashion history from young people, that had a great impact on the fashion industry. Single personal freedom became more important than any conventional style.

In the 1960s in contrast to their mothers, young girls began to wear short skirts with a look at the past (1920s) that slowly became mini skirts in 1965 thanks to a revolutionary designer, Mary Quant. In the 1963 also an other new item was launched, the bikini. In the '60 most of changes developed in London that began to compete with Paris in the fashion world for a few years, with a fashion street style that took place of the fashion created in a couture house.

In the '70s, we assist to the hippie look with Indian scarves, flower print shirts, and unisex look. Most described this style as the end of good taste, combining informal clothes to soul music from Africa culture. The most innovative fashion designers of the 1970s were Kenzo, and Vivienne Westwood that in 1971 opened her boutique "Sex", the temple for punks. London was the city that influenced fashion of the '70s round the world. Laura Ashley that re introduced long skirts looking to the past fashions of the 1920s and '30s. In America, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren began to design unstructured style clothes for both men and women, and tailors tried to match made to measure suits for dining with comfort, and relaxation. In 1977 the most famous disco opened in New York, the Studio 54.

In the 1970s, Italy began to be important for international fashion, Milan for ready to wear collections, second only to Paris, and Rome for high hand made fashion thanks to Valentino and Capucci. While London was the capital of no fashion style, Italian fashion developed luxury easy to wear collections including Giorgio Armani and Nino Cerruti in Milan. Giorgio Armani produced his first collection for women in 1975 and opened his first boutique Emporio Armani in 1981. In 1957 Nino Cerruti opened the boutique for men, and a few years later a collection for women.

At the end of the century, Western fashion was adopted all over the world, the '80s was very good for the fashion industry. To appear became more important than to be, appearance in whole aspects, from good shape to well dressing, was all for young urban professionals (yuppies took place of hippies of the '70s). Fashion shows influenced every day life of a lot of people, and several magazines began to write about fashion.

Some new designers redefined the look of the period, combining retro and futurism, with unstructured silhouettes and wider shoulders. Japanese designers became to inflence fashion world offering a complete different image of the woman.

In America Ralph Lauren after the opening in 1971 of his boutique for both men and women in Beverly Hills, became in the '80s, the the number one of American ready to wear sportswear clothes. In 1984, Donna Karan launched a collection of luxury clothes for New York professional women who was immediately appreciated from all urban women, not only in New York. Manolo Blahnik trend shoes became a dream for all urban women.

An other Italian old brand became popular in the '90s: Prada was established in 1923 in Milan, and thanks to Miuccia Prada the old high quality shoes manufacturer changed into the most appreciated ready to wear fashion house for young women, the number one in Japan. The 1990s were the golden age for Italian designers, Gianni Versace launched sexy and coloured clothes for young women, Dolce & Gabbana with a total black look, Moschino.

In America we noticed Marc Jacobs, a young talented designmer that Louis Vuitton group hired for the new collections, and Calvin Klein that was the first designer to develop fashion clothes and acccessories for a global markets, from USA to Asia.

Fashion designers looked to the past for inspiration, not only for clothes, re launching cars and motorcycles famous in the '60s: Vespa scooter, Mini car BMW, Fiat 500 and vintage clothing. In the early 2000s money became more important than talent, and designers had to join investment groups to have survive.

The sportswear brand Nike took place of Adidas in popularity and sales of sports clothes and shoes.