This book displays and revels in the rich inventiveness of a designer who played a key role in fashions of the 1980s and '90s, and one who - with fashion's recent return to harder edges - has again become an inspiration for many contemporary fashion designers.

It focuses on the extraordinary new image that the Montana woman embodied: razor-sharp tailoring and strong silhouettes with dramatic proportions and masculine lines, enlivened with an astonishing mix of detail and bold hues. Materials, colours and cut were all vehicles for his effervescent genius, and it was the Lanvin period in the early 1990s that marked the absolute high point of his creativity.

Claude Montana looks at the principles and practices that underpin the Montana universe, the fundamentals of a unique style and a dazzling originality. It records many conversations with Claude Montana himself that help us to understand the essential forces that have shaped his work, while scores of catwalk images and reproductions of his sketches reveal the energy and singularity of his vision.

It is a journey punctuated with intimate comments and observations by those who have accompanied the designer at different points along the way - among others, the photographers Dominique Issermann, Tyen and Paolo Roversi, the embroiderer François Lesage, the designer Alain Mikli and the make-up artist Olivier Echaudemaison, whose moving testimonies are scattered throughout these pages.