cover image International Design Year Book 1, the

International Design Year Book 1, the

R. Stern. Abbeville Press, $75 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-89659-573-6

As art form and social force, black leather garmentry is considered to have it alladolescent armor, fascist exhibitionism, a uniform for social revolt and sexual depravity, plus a thumb in the eye of once-basic conventions. Former London rock singer Farren, with merciless irony and a wealth of black-and-white photos, traces in fast-running prose leather's role as protective cover for Germany's Red Baron and Desert Fox, on-again-off-againwow! U.S. police wear, cowboy accoutrement (once worn even by Ronald Reagan) and, above all, the indispensable identity garb for social revisionism personified by Marlon Brando, James Dean, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley et al., along with the street-smart folk of London and Liverpool. Eventually, as we see here, black leather made its way to the fashion salons. It's a shame that this well-written, legitimate study of a social phenomenon has been trivialized by being bound in black leatherette. January 13