Traditional costuming from around the globe is a constant inspiration for the fashion industry. Culture to Catwalk: How World Cultures Influence Fashion by Kristen Knox of The Clothes Whisperer traces the roots of today’s ready-to-wear lines back to cultural styles from around the globe.

Culture to Catwalk explores the trajectory of fashion design, born as an industry around the same time that Orientalism swept Europe and colonies were established in Africa and India. Fashion incorporated these new exotic themes into its creativity and became inextricably mixed with ethnic and cultural sartorial traditions. The book’s narrative also comes full circle, going from local to global and back to local again to see what’s happening today in fashion in these countries and look at the effect the internet and globalization has had on design.