Decades of Fashion. GettyImages

Twentieth-century fashion began in one particular city - Paris - ant it was towards this city and to French designers like Charles Frederick Worth, Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel that Western woman looked to direct their taste in clothes. During the Second World War, when Paris was isolated by German occupation, Britain and America found that necessity proved to be the mother of invention and they developed their own fashion styles. Post-war prosperity created a youth culture that spawned what is now called street-lever or underground fashion.