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Elvis: The King of Fashion (Hardback)

Hobbies & Lifestyle > Music Military > Pre-WWI > American History P&S History > By Century > 20th Century P&S History > Clothing & Fashion P&S History > Social History

By Lorraine Gibson
Imprint: White Owl
Pages: 224
Illustrations: Colour Plates
ISBN: 9781399049849
Published: 30th August 2024

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A highly engaging homage to the iconic style of Elvis Presley, who shook up the world of music and fashion, triggering a cultural revolution that stopped 1950s America in its tracks.

Born into poverty, his voice of liquid gold and show-stopping appearance propelled him into a life of extreme wealth.

Elvis’s extraordinary story – told through a fashion lens – celebrates the shy, lonely boy who awakened an entire generation to forbidden fruit.

The defiant hair, the sultry good looks, the gender-ambivalent outfits – even the famous sideburns of the man who would be King – are all considered in loving detail.

From impoverished scamp and teenage antihero in pink, through Hollywood heartthrob and sensual leather-clad rock star, to caped superhero in Vegas jumpsuits, the author describes his clothes with as much joy as she does his journey through the decades.

A contemporary take on the evolution of Elvis the Showman, featuring interviews with people who knew, met and dressed him, and analysis of the 2022 hit movie, Elvis.

A rags-to-riches tale, forged in the hardship and music of the poor South, it personifies the American Dream, retold with style by an author raised on Elvis’s songs and movies and who walked in his shoes through Memphis to discover they really were two-toned.

Set in a fascinating period in time, it looks at his powerful legacy, preserved by his devoted fans, and the films and tributes still being produced in his honour today.

As featured in

Jewish News

As featured in

The Bournemouth Directory

Author interview on BBC Radio Solent.

BBC Radio Solent

About Lorraine Gibson

LORRAINE GIBSON is an award-winning journalist of more than twenty years, who cut her writing teeth on her local newspaper. She is widely published in both regional and national titles and is now a freelance writer. She is also the author of Robert Baden-Powell: A Biography (Pen & Sword History, 2022).


Elvis: The King of Fashion arises from childhood memories of her parents playing Elvis records and of watching his films through the school holidays. The films ignited Lorraine’s fascination with the colourful outfits that he wore. Who needed a Sindy doll when you had a singing, dancing Elvis in Hawaiian shirts, Latin boleros, uniforms, sharp suits and prison outfits? Later, it was the iconic fashion looks that Elvis wore through the decades that captured her imagination. So, when pressed by her family about who she would write about after Baden-Powell, she decided it had to be Elvis.


She travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis suddenly leapt to fame in the early 1950s. She soaked up its unique atmosphere, walked in Elvis’s footsteps, visited his old haunts and his homes and met endless interesting, welcoming and helpful people, many of whom contributed to her book. Elvis: The King of Fashion is the result.


Lorraine lives in Dorset with her husband, two teenage daughters and Florence, the cat.

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