The Century's Style File

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

It isn't easy to sum up 100 years of fashion, but if we dared to, we might say that 20th century women's wear amounted to a war over the waist. It was constrained in the late 19th century, but designers loosened it in the teens and '20s; cinched it again in the '30s, '40s and '50s; and symbolically set it free once more in the '60s. From that point on, formality disappeared from daily dress. In the end, freedom conquered constriction.

--By Ginia Bellafante

PAUL POIRET Just before World War I, Frenchman Poiret set about revolutionizing fashion with his introduction of the "straight line" dress. It would become the trademark of '20s flappers.

CHRISTIAN DIOR The hold-your-breath waists and long, flared skirts launched by Dior in Paris in 1947 came to be known as the New Look. De rigueur in the '50s, the style wound up as an Enduring Look.

MARY QUANT With bright, geometric designs, hemlines pioneeringly economical in length and a silhouette breezily loose, Londoner Quant set off the Youthquake look of the '60s.

GIORGIO ARMANI Deconstructed but never lax looking, suits from the Italian master came to signify spare elegance in the '80s and '90s, not to mention a quiet, confident sense of power.

NIKE Moguls make deals in them and we all run errands in them, even if we don't actually run. Nike's chief designer, Tinker Hatfield, gave us running-shoe chic--the ultimate in informality.