A Sunday Times (UK) Book of the YearShortlisted • Society of Authors' Somerset Maugham AwardA BBC Radio 4 Book of the WeekThe best-selling author of The Secret Lives of Color returns with this rollicking narrative of the 30,000-year history of fabric, briskly told through thirteen charismatic episodes.From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefi ne human civilization―from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole). She peoples her story with a motley cast of characters, including Xiling, the ancient Chinese empress credited with inventing silk, to Richard the Lionhearted and Bing Crosby. Offering insights into the economic and social dimensions of clothmaking―and countering the enduring, often demeaning, association of textiles as “merely women’s work”―The Golden Thread offers an alternative guide to our past, present, and future. 8 pages of color photographs

With pieces drawn from the extensive personal collection of Pharrell Williams, this is a stunning and unprecedented exploration of the “bling” in hip-hop culture and fashion.\\nFew recording artists have had a greater hand in incorporating the culture of hip-hop into contemporary luxury than Pharrell Williams. Collaborating with Louis Vuitton nearly two decades ago, Pharrell was the first to have his designs integrated into the haute joaillerie of the great maisons. His innovative team-ups continue through to the present day, most memorably with Tiffany and Chanel, and the watchmaker Richard Mille.\\nThe most extravagant of these chains, rings, and pendants—crafted in precious metals and studded with gems—are as much a part of Pharrell’s musical performance as they are of his personal style. His designs, which include one-off pieces such as solid-gold cases for mobile phones and handheld game consoles, have been legendary for featuring iconography of Pharrell’s own brands, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.\\nThis book was originally published with two different colored covers. Customers will be shipped either of the colors at random.\\nFeatured in the book are over 100 pieces, many of which he created in tandem with some of the most recognizable designers in the industry—such as Jacob & Co, Yoon & Verbal, and Lorraine Schwartz. With frequent collaborators such as NIGO® and Tyler the Creator, Pharrell discusses his role in the evolution of hip-hop jewelry, the processes involved in the creation of his one-of-a-kind custom pieces, and the state of connoisseurship in a growing market for the most extravagant of hip-hop collectibles.

After nearly a lifetime spent in the Industry, author and fashion insider Simon Doonan is ready to let you in on a little secret: his peers in this multibillion-dollar industry are just as nutty as the denizens of your local loony bin. In The Asylum, an unabashedly hilarious memoir-in-essays, Doonan, the creative ambassador for Barneys New York, tells the real-life stories of glamorous madness and stylish insanity.Doonan has seen it all: from dealing with models unable to work for fear of ghosts, to deep-sea fishing with a couturier pal and his jailbird companion, to watching Anna Wintour remain perfectly calm while the ceiling fell—literally—in the middle of Fashion Week. The outlandish family Doonan knew as a child has given way to alarmingly similar lunatic peers in the fashion world: style insiders see patterns and trends in everything; they suffer from outsize personality disorders and delusions of grandeur; and, of course, they have a predilection for theatrical makeup and artfully destroyed clothing. No one is more suited to the asylum than the truly die-hard fashionista—after all, eccentricity and extremism are the foundations of great style.Hailed as “a must-read for fashionistas and non-fashionistas alike,” (Michael Kors) and “raucous and revelatory” (Booklist), Doonan’s critically acclaimed collection gives us the scoop on the kooky, cutthroat—but always fabulous—fashion world, and proves the author to be one of the sharpest humorists writing today.

AS SEEN IN Vogue Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar, Stylist, Glamour, Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews, Booklist & MORE.A Harpers Bazaar Essential Fashion BookA fashion journalist unzips the revolution, influence, and controversy of the modest fashion movement.Muslim-American fashion journalist Hafsa Lodi has witnessed first-hand how the modest fashion industry has evolved from a niche segment to a powerful force that boasts a multibillion-dollar market value on the world stage. Whether they're influenced by the feminist nuances of modesty, abide by religious dress norms, or keep up with the latest social media trends, modest fashion is profoundly popular.Lodi unpacks how designer brands like Gucci have popularized conservative attire and layering as the pinnacle of chic, and high-street brands like H&M and Mango have followed. She strips back the modest fashion movement to expose its true disruptors: the faith-centric fashion labels. Bolstered by a burgeoning community of Muslim, Jewish and Christian fashion influencers, they're at the forefront of this global surge.Speaking to both the fashion industry and its consumers, Lodi explores the nuances and narratives of this fascinating movement and asks the burning question: In a world where fashion becomes a spectacle and seeks constant attention, can it ever be truly modest?

More than two decades ago, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen arrived on the fashions scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. Both wanted to revolutionize fashion in a way no one had in decades. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs. They turned out landmark collections in mesmerizing, theatrical shows that retailers and critics still gush about and designers continue to reference.Their approach to fashion was wildly different—Galliano began as an illustrator, McQueen as a Savile Row tailor. Galliano led the way with his sensual bias-cut gowns and his voluptuous hourglass tailoring, which he presented in romantic storybook-like settings. McQueen, though nearly ten years younger than Galliano, was a brilliant technician and a visionary artist who brought a new reality to fashion, as well as an otherworldly beauty. For his first official collection at the tender age of twenty-three, McQueen did what few in fashion ever achieve: he invented a new silhouette, the Bumster.They had similar backgrounds: sensitive, shy gay men raised in tough London neighborhoods, their love of fashion nurtured by their doting mothers. Both struggled to get their businesses off the ground, despite early critical success. But by 1997, each had landed a job as creative director for couture houses owned by French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH.Galliano’s and McQueen’s work for Dior and Givenchy and beyond not only influenced fashion; their distinct styles were also reflected across the media landscape. With their help, luxury fashion evolved from a clutch of small, family-owned businesses into a $280 billion-a-year global corporate industry. Executives pushed the designers to meet increasingly rapid deadlines. For both Galliano and McQueen, the pace was unsustainable. In 2010, McQueen took his own life three weeks before his womens' wear show.The same week that Galliano was fired, Forbes named Arnault the fourth richest man in the world. Two months later, Kate Middleton wore a McQueen wedding gown, instantly making the house the world’s most famous fashion brand, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a wildly successful McQueen retrospective, cosponsored by the corporate owners of the McQueen brand. The corporations had won and the artists had lost.In her groundbreaking work Gods and Kings, acclaimed journalist Dana Thomas tells the true story of McQueen and Galliano. In so doing, she reveals the revolution in high fashion in the last two decades—and the price it demanded of the very ones who saved it.

Including successful British designers: Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and Hussein Chalayan; as well as big international names from Japan, Italy, France and the USA: Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, Tom Ford, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce & Gabbana, Donatella Versace, Sonia Rykiel and more. The interviews provide an insight into the designers' lives, comprehensive biographical detail and analysis of the way they think and work, as well as recording the cultural climate at the time. The book is illustrated with portraits and shoots by some of today's best fashion photographers - both more established and up-and-coming - among them Robert Wyatt, Juergen Teller, Donald Christie, Julie Sleaford, Mark Aleski, Justin Smith and Jane McLeish.

Rick Owens remains one of the most daring and influential fashion designers working today. This new book of photographs describes an exceptionally fertile and transformational period in his career, one that saw him experiment with new shapes, the application of new materials, and an unprecedented use of color.\\nLavishly documenting men’s and women’s collections and featuring Owens’s continuing collaboration with the photographer Danielle Levitt, this book is an unabashed love letter to one of the most devoted followings in contemporary fashion.\\nPicking up where Rizzoli’s previous monograph on Owens’s work left off, looks from his critically lauded homage to the rock-and-roll designer Larry Legaspi set a frenzied visual pace that never lets up—right through the pandemic, when Owens memorably staged shows on the Lido di Venezia.\\nHere, the continued evolution of nearly three decades of Owens’s “grunge-meets-glamour” worldview is seen close up. Grace and grit are paired with an obsession with structural transformation and movement, where diaphanous, flowing shapes contrast with sharp objects. This formal invention is matched by a mania for new and exotic materials. The use of translucent bovine leathers, brightly dyed snakeskin, and the hide of the pirarucu, a massive Amazonian fish, are applied to old and new icons of the brand. Color is now firmly part of the Owens legendarium, and a profligacy of pink, orange, blue, green, and iridescent hues now vie with trademark black, oxblood, and dust that have been part of the palette since the inception of the brand.\\nOwens’s newest provocations, grounded by the portraiture of Danielle Levitt, achieves a sublime unity in this essential volume.

In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands.Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of the year and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.”Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world.But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers.Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.

From Joan Juliet Buck, former editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue comes her dazzling, compulsively readable memoir: a fabulous account of four decades spent in the creative heart of London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, chronicling her quest to discover the difference between glitter and gold, illusion and reality, and what looks like happiness from the thing itself.Born into a world of make-believe as the daughter of a larger-than-life film producer, Joan Juliet Buck’s childhood was a whirlwind of famous faces, ever-changing home addresses, and a fascination with the shiny surfaces of things. When Joan became the first and only American woman ever to fill Paris Vogue's coveted position of Editor in Chief, a “figurehead in the cult of fashion and beauty,” she had the means to recreate for her aging father, now a widower, the life he’d enjoyed during his high-flying years, a splendid illusion of glamorous excess that could not be sustained indefinitely. Joan’s memoir tells the story of a life lived in the best places at the most interesting times: London and New York in the swinging 1960s, Rome and Milan in the dangerous 1970s, Paris in the heady 1980s and 1990s. But when her fantasy life at Vogue came to an end, she had to find out who she was after all those years of make-believe. She chronicles this journey in beautiful and at times heartbreaking prose, taking the reader through the wild parties and the fashion, the celebrities and creative geniuses as well as love, loss, and the loneliness of getting everything you thought you wanted and finding it’s not what you’d imagined. While Joan’s story is unique, her journey toward self-discovery is refreshing and universal.

A mind-bending archive of Collina Strada, the downtown New York brand that puts self-expression and honest sustainability first.\\nLaunched in 2008 by Hillary Taymour, Collina Strada has spent the last decade successfully injecting the generally colorless style of downtown New York with acid-colored dye jobs, off-kilter dresses, sparkling hair pins, and fearlessly fluid ensembles. Rooted in interconnectedness, self-expression, and thoughtful production, the brand screams nonconformity: cosmically dyed dresses, rhinestone-studded water bottles, and wildly graphic bodysuits serve as representations of the cacophony of sounds, symbols, and spirit that imbue the Collina Strada world.\\nAll of the brand’s pieces are produced in the USA using mostly reinterpreted deadstock materials: recycled t-shirts from Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana, and Rose Sylk, an organic cellulose fiber derived from rose bushes and their stems. Taymour has also shown an unwavering commitment to using the brand as a platform for social and environmental change, offering guests at her shows instructions on how to advocate for a rooftop garden in their building and ways to volunteer with vetted organizations.\\nGathered within is a collection of iconic brand imagery, runway images, core pieces, and creative collaborations with artists like Dave Mattingly, the artist behind the iconic ’90s book series Animorphs. A visual feast overseen by Collina Strada art director Charlie Engman, this volume is an exciting style compendium that offers endless inspiration on being confident, conscious, and radically individual.

“Overdressed does for T-shirts and leggings what Fast Food Nation did for burgers and fries.”—Katha PollittCheap fashion has fundamentally changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to traditional chains like JCPenney now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. And we have little reason to keep wearing and repairing the clothes we already own when styles change so fast and it’s cheaper to just buy more.Cline sets out to uncover the true nature of the cheap fashion juggernaut. What are we doing with all these cheap clothes? And more important, what are they doing to us, our society, our environment, and our economic well-being?

An exciting account of the international adventures of fashion model Pat Cleveland—one of the first black supermodels during the wild sixties and seventies.“Taking her reader through fifty years of fashion from the intersection of the Civil Rights Movement, the disco era's decadence, and the grandeur of Hollywood’s late 70s renaissance, Cleveland provides a glimpse at some of design’s most important moments—and her own personal history.” —Vogue“Pat Cleveland is to fashion what Billie Holiday is to the blues; a muse for all ages.” —EssenceChronicling of the glamorous life and adventures of Pat Cleveland—one of the first black supermodels—this compelling memoir evokes the bohemian lifestyle and creative zeitgeist of 1970s New York City and features some of today’s most prominent names in fashion, art, and entertainment as they were just gaining their creative footage.New York in the sixties and seventies was glamorous and gritty at the same time, a place where people like Warhol, Avedon, and Halston as well as their muses came to pursue their wildest ambitions, and when the well began to run dry they darted off to Paris. Though born on the very fringes of this world, Patricia Cleveland, through a combination of luck, incandescent beauty, and enviable style, soon found herself in the center of all that was creative, bohemian, and elegant. A “walking girl,” a runway fashion model whose inimitable style still turns heads on the runways of New York, Paris, Milan, and Tokyo, Cleveland was in high demand.Ranging from the streets of New York to the jet-set beaches of Mexico, from the designer drawing rooms of Paris to the offices of Vogue, here is Cleveland’s larger-than-life story. One minute she’s in a Harlem tenement making her own clothes and dreaming of something bigger, the next she’s about to walk Halston’s show alongside fellow model Anjelica Huston. One minute she’s partying with Mick Jagger and Jack Nicholson, the next she’s sharing the dance floor next to a man with stark white hair, an artist the world would later know as Warhol. In New York, she struggles to secure her first cover of a major magazine. In Paris, she’s the toast of the town. And through the whirlwind of it all, she is forever in pursuit of love, truth, and beauty in this “riveting, celeb-drenched account of her astonishing life in fashion” (Simon Doonan, author of The Asylum).

India in Fashion explores the beautiful and sophisticated history and aesthetics of traditional Indian fashion, dress, and textiles and their profound impact on European and American fashion from the eighteenth century to today.\\nThis intoxicating and visually rich volume—with texts by experts from India, Europe, and North America—is published to accompany a major exhibition that celebrates the long historical contributions that Indian dress, textiles, and embroidery have had on Western fashion. From the introduction of chintz dressmaking fabrics in the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth-century vogue for light Indian fabrics, paisleys, and chikan embroideries to larger realities of empire and cultural appropriation, this volume features paintings, fashion magazine editorials, and portraits of influential people who championed Indian style throughout history.\\nTraditional hues of brilliant royal blue, marigold, and fuchsia; intricate ikat and calico patterns; and sumptuous textiles enliven every page. Archival and contemporary fashion stories include kaleidoscopic images by photographers such as Henry Clarke in Udaipur in 1967, Arthur Elgort in Jaipur in 1999, and Mikael Jansson in Goa with Indian actress Lakshmi Menon in 2011. Traditional Indian embroidery techniques; design motifs; and dress forms such as saris, jodhpurs, and turbans are reimagined by renowned designers Paul Poiret, Elsa Schiaparelli, Pierre Balmain, Zandra Rhodes, Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Gianni Versace, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Alexander McQueen, in addition to a wealth of contemporary Indian designers.

On a hot summer night in August of 1973, DJ Kool Herc and his sister, Cindy, put on a “back to school jam” in the rec room of their apartment block at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the West Bronx. The rest is history. The birth of hip hop rippled out across the globe, influencing music and fashion for generations.\\nFresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style draws on the experiences and memories of those who were there, from a foreword by Slick Rick, to interviews with Disco Fever club owner Sal Abbatiello and designers Dapper Dan and April Walker, to chapters from Vibe stylist Emil Wilbekin and former editor of The Source Kim Osorio. Topics cover the range of hip hop’s influential style over the past half century, tracing the evolution from early hip hop style, born of aspiration, individuality, and practicality to contemporary fashion steeped in luxury brands.\\nHip hop style is a local story, told through spotlights on Times Square as an early fashion space, as well as an international phenomenon, shown in the prominence of hip hop fashion leaders on red carpets. Inventiveness, the art of the remix, and a diverse set of influences are consistent themes in sections that examine hip hop style from hair and nails to shoes and sneakers.\\nFresh Fly Fabulous is the definitive source for hip hop style, brought to life by the groundbreaking photographers who captured it firsthand, including Janette Beckman, Jamel Shabazz, and Ernie Paniccioli.

Critic and curator Jeppe Ugelvig recounts a little explored near-history of art/fashion hybridity through the genre- defying practices of Bernadette Corporation, Susan Cianciolo, BLESS and DIS, exploring their experimental approaches to fashion production between the art and fashion worlds in a time of radical societal change. Through a rich selection of rare and previously unseen photographs and ephemera, the book depicts fashion work in all its exhilarating complexity, tracing it from the atelier of the garment-maker to the post-production editing suite of the fashion photographer. Ugelvig's comprehensive account connects a mythological 1990s generation of collaborative, DIY fashion producers in New York, Paris and Berlin to the digital and increasingly corporate systems of fashion of the 2010s, where aesthetic activities such as styling and creative directing have become ubiquitous. From the dystopian brand-hacking of Bernadette Corporation to the museum pop-up stores and early sneaker collaborations of BLESS, the book shows how artists not only manage to repeatedly subvert fashion's frenzied systems, but prototype new forms of aesthetic entrepreneurship.

Brown Bō'hēmians captures the essence and voice of an underrepresented demographic: creative people of color. Influenced by a deeply held belief that stories sculpt our collective narrative, a group of authors and artists came together to create this first-of-its-kind collection. Inspired by their unique tastes and experiences in fashion, lifestyle, and art, Brown Bō'hēmians brings a vital and virtual movement, born on social media, to life and into print.People of color are the originators of all things, yet are all too often overlooked. Each of our stories is unique, but collectively they contribute to the rebuilding of community, and counter hundreds of years of colonialism, narrow minded and harmful media representation, non-inclusive and conformist beauty standards, and a systemic, historical lack of recognition for our contributions. Brown Bō'hēmians reclaims a small piece of a space that has always been rightfully ours.Created to recognize and elevate the underrepresented and the undervalued, Brown Bō'hēmians is food for the creative spirit that most needs it: you.

A comprehensive biography of the late designer, Karl Lagerfeld, and his infamous rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent.In the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and longing, celebrities and aspirants flocked to the heart of chic, and Paris became a hothouse of revelry, intrigue, and searing ambition. At the center of it all were fashion's most beloved luminaries - Yves Saint Laurent, the reclusive enfant terrible, and Karl Lagerfeld, the flamboyant freelancer with a talent for reinvention - and they divided Paris into two fabulous halves. Their enduring rivalry is chronicled in this dazzling exposè of an era: of social ambitions, shared obsessions, and the mesmerizing quest for beauty."Deliciously dramatic... The Beautiful Fall crackles with excitement."-New York Times Book Review"Fascinating." -New York Times"Addictive." -Philadelphia Inquirer"It's like US Weekly, 1970s style." -Gotham"A story constructed as exquisitely as a couture dress. . . . It moves stylishly forward, with frequent over-the-shoulder glances at some very dishy background." -Boston Globe

Inspired by the strong and full-of-fire Carolina Herrera woman, Wes Gordon partners with Elizaveta Porodina on painterly images merging bold colors and timeless beauty in a cinematic style.\\nThe sophistication and modern femininity of the American fashion house Carolina Herrera is captured in this evocative and vividly hued volume photographed by Elizaveta Porodina. A collaborative series of images, first created in 2020 and all taken over Zoom, feature Porodina’s signature blurred, painterly style—an effect achieved through complex lighting techniques and equipment—to capture the brand’s Resort and Spring 2022 collections in a dreamy, otherworldly light.\\nInspired by dance and the work of fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, this mesmerizing tome is flooded with photography of models and dancers in motion to reflect the vibrant energy and optimism of the clothing. Ethereal beauties wear ball gown skirts in graphic rose prints from Resort, a striped black and white strapless dress from Spring, and bold, jewel-toned voluminous outfits in shades of pink and red, along with close-ups of jewelry, leather goods, and eyewear.

“An evening with D.V. is almost as marvelous as an evening with D.V. herself—same magic, same spontaneity and, above all, never a boring moment. —Bill BlassBrilliant, funny, charming, imperious, Diana Vreeland—the fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue—was a woman whose passion and genius for style helped define the world of high fashion for fifty years. Among her eclectic circle of friends were some of the most renowned and famous figures of the twentieth century—artists and princes, movie stars and international legends, including Chanel, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Isak Dinesen, Clark Gable, and Swifty Lazar.Moving from English palaces to the nightclubs of 1930s Paris, the wilds of Wyoming to the exclusive venues of New York high society, D.V. takes readers into this iconic woman's dazzling life, evoking the luxury and brio of an era that encompassed Josephine Baker, England's Queen Mary, Buffalo Bill, and Diaghilev.Vibrant with the vivid, irresistible voice that elevated every tête-à-tête and dinner party, D.V. brings this renowned and uninhibited raconteur alive, whether recalling herself as a young girl, her search for the perfect red, her piquant observations about her world, or her abhorrence for nostalgia. Like her legacy, Vreeland's story, told in her own words, is a classic to be celebrated by both loyal admirers and a new generation of culture mavens and style savants.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this “captivating” (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments.“The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo BlahnikNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Fortune • Garden & Gun • New York PostDuring André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella.There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion.The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion.Woven throughout the book are also André’s own personal struggles that impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Fürstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and faith, which guided him since childhood.The result is a highly compelling read that captures the essence of a world few of us will ever have real access to, but one that we all want to know oh so much more about.

With this book Giorgio Armani—the “king” of Italian fashion and one of the most recognized designers in the world—retraces, in his own words, his life, work, and thoughts.\\nThis is the only autobiographical text written by designer Giorgio Armani, in which he speaks about himself, his youth, his early career, and the people close to him, and shares his ideas about creativity and what fascinates him in today’s world.\\nBased on the official illustrated book released by Rizzoli in 2015, this unfiltered text has been revised and updated by the author and is accompanied by personal photos. The book tells an intimate story and chronicles the beginning of a great era for Italian fashion. Starting from Milan’s extraordinary energy in the 1960s up until the most recent events for which Armani has taken a stand through his work, his thinking has always been, and continues to be, consistent and straightforward.

A fascinating chronicle of how celebrity has inundated the world of fashion, realigning the forces that drive both the styles we covet and the bottom lines of the biggest names in luxury apparel.From Coco Chanel’s iconic tweed suits to the miniskirt’s surprising comeback in the late 1980s, fashion houses reigned for decades as the arbiters of style and dictators of trends. Hollywood stars have always furthered fashion’s cause of seducing the masses into buying designers’ clothes, acting as living billboards. Now, forced by the explosion of social media and the accelerating worship of fame, red carpet celebrities are no longer content to just advertise and are putting their names on labels that reflect the image they—or their stylists—created.Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sean Combs, and a host of pop, sports, and reality-show stars of the moment are leveraging the power of their celebrity to become the face of their own fashion brands, embracing lucrative contracts that keep their images on our screens and their hands on the wheel of a multi-billion dollar industry. And a few celebrities—like the Olsen Twins and Victoria Beckham—have gone all the way and reinvented themselves as bonafide designers. Not all celebrities succeed, but in an ever more crowded and clamorous marketplace, it’s increasingly unlikely that any fashion brand will succeed without celebrity involvement—even if designers, like Michael Kors, have to become celebrities themselves.Agins charts this strange new terrain with wit and insight and an insider’s access to the fascinating struggles of the bold-type names and their jealousies, insecurities, and triumphs. Everyone from industry insiders to fans of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model will want to read Agins’s take on the glitter and stardust transforming the fashion industry, and where it is likely to take us next.

Roland Barthes, widely regarded as one of the most subtle and perceptive critics of the 20th Century, was particularly fascinated by fashion and clothing. The Language of Fashion brings together all Barthes' untranslated writings on fashion.The Language of Fashion presents a set of remarkable essays, revealing the breadth and insight of Barthes' long engagement with the history of clothes. The essays range from closely argued essays laying down the foundations for a structural and semiological analysis of clothing to a critical analysis of the significance of gemstones and jewellery, from an exploration of how the contrasting styles of Courrges and Chanel replayed the clash between ancient and modern to a discussion of the meaning of hippy style in Morocco, and from the nature of desire to the role of the dandy and colour in fashion.Constantly questioning, always changing, Barthes' ideas about clothes and fashion remain to provoke another generation of readers seeking to understand not only the culture of fashion but the fashion of culture.

One of the most influential, admired, and colorful women of our time: fashion designer and philanthropist Diane von Furstenberg tells the most personal stories from her life, about family, love, beauty and business: “It’s so good, you’ll want to take notes” (People).Diane von Furstenberg started with a suitcase full of jersey dresses and an idea of who she wanted to be—in her words, “the kind of woman who is independent and who doesn’t rely on a man to pay her bills.” She has since become that woman, establishing herself as a major force in the fashion industry, all the while raising a family, maintaining that “my children are my greatest creation.”In The Woman I Wanted to Be, “an intriguing page-turner filled with revelations” (More), von Furstenberg reflects on her extraordinary life—from her childhood in Brussels to her days as a young, jet-set princess, to creating the dress that came to symbolize independence and power for generations of women. With remarkable honesty and wisdom, von Furstenberg mines the rich territory of what it means to be a woman. She opens up about her family and career, overcoming cancer, building a global brand, and devoting herself to empowering other women. This “inspiring, compelling, deliciously detailed celebrity autobiography…is as much of a smashing success as the determined, savvy, well-intentioned woman who wrote it” (Chicago Tribune).

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Dapper Dan is a legend, an icon, a beacon of inspiration to many in the Black community. His story isn’t just about fashion. It’s about tenacity, curiosity, artistry, hustle, love, and a singular determination to live our dreams out loud.”—Ava DuVernay, director of Selma, 13th, and A Wrinkle in TimeNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VANITY FAIR • DAPPER DAN NAMED ONE OF TIME’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLDWith his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes, a teen who daringly gambled drug dealers out of their money, and a young man in a prison cell who found nourishment in books. In this remarkable memoir, he tells his full story for the first time.Decade after decade, Dapper Dan discovered creative ways to flourish in a country designed to privilege certain Americans over others. He witnessed, profited from, and despised the rise of two drug epidemics. He invented stunningly bold credit card frauds that took him around the world. He paid neighborhood kids to jog with him in an effort to keep them out of the drug game. And when he turned his attention to fashion, he did so with the energy and curiosity with which he approaches all things: learning how to treat fur himself when no one would sell finished fur coats to a Black man; finding the best dressed hustler in the neighborhood and converting him into a customer; staying open twenty-four hours a day for nine years straight to meet demand; and, finally, emerging as a world-famous designer whose looks went on to define an era, dressing cultural icons including Eric B. and Rakim, Salt-N-Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Mike Tyson, Alpo Martinez, LL Cool J, Jam Master Jay, Diddy, Naomi Campbell, and Jay-Z.By turns playful, poignant, thrilling, and inspiring, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem is a high-stakes coming-of-age story spanning more than seventy years and set against the backdrop of an America where, as in the life of its narrator, the only constant is change.Praise for Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem“Dapper Dan is a true one of a kind, self-made, self-liberated, and the sharpest man you will ever see. He is couture himself.”—Marcus Samuelsson, New York Times bestselling author of Yes, Chef“What James Baldwin is to American literature, Dapper Dan is to American fashion. He is the ultimate success saga, an iconic fashion hero to multiple generations, fusing street with high sartorial elegance. He is pure American style.”—André Leon Talley, Vogue contributing editor and author

Originally published in 1966, Quant by Quant is the hugely entertaining story of fashion designer Mary Quant’s early career and life with her husband and business partner, Alexander Plunket Greene. After opening the groundbreaking Bazaar boutique on London’s King’s Road in 1955, Quant soared to international fame with her brand of witty style that fitted perfectly with modern life. Just as her signature styles have become synonymous with the pop culture of the Swinging Sixties, her joyful, evocative autobiography captures the world in which she found inspiration—and which she ultimately helped to define and change.

A sparkling life of the monumental fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga\nOne of the most innovative and admired figures in the history of haute couture, Cristóbal Balenciaga was, said Christian Dior, "the master of us all."\nDespite his extraordinary impact, Balenciaga was a man hidden from view. He saw to it that little was known about him, to the point that some French journalists wondered if he existed at all. Even his most devoted clients―Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Hutton, a clutch of Rothschilds―never met him.\nBut one woman knew Balenciaga very well indeed. The first person he hired when he opened his Paris house was Florette Chelot, who became his top vendeuse. She witnessed the spectacular success of his first collection, and they worked closely for more than thirty years, until 1968, when Balenciaga abruptly closed his house without telling any of his staff. Youth-oriented fashion was taking over, Paris was in upheaval, and the elder statesman wanted no part of it.\nIn The Master of Us All, Mary Blume tells the remarkable story of the man and his world. Intimate and revealing, this is an unprecedented portrait of a designer whose vision transformed an industry but whose story has never been told until now.

In the wildly popular The Little Black Book of Style , fashion authority Nina Garcia showed women how to think about personal style in an entirely new way. Encouraging readers to creatively assert their style identities, Nina showed women of all ages how to hone and self-edit a distinct fashion voice. With her style philosophy firmly out in the world, Nina decided to address the most popular question readers consistently ask Exactly what are fashion's timeless pieces? The One Hundred answers this question and provides women with a tangible style map to follow when planning a shopping trip and stocking one's closet. With illustrations from world-renowned fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, The One Hundred contains the 100 items that Nina believes will never go out of style and that have become absolutely indispensable for any woman attaining her own eternal fashion look.

The acerbic wit of the publisher of "Women's Wear Daily" is ever present in this no-holds-barred tome, which reveals the inner working of the world of haute couture

Gorgeously repackaged, this reissue of the classic book presents the iconic photographer’s expert and witty reminiscences of the personalities who inspired fashion’s golden eras, and left an indelible mark on his own sense of taste and style. "The camera will never be invented that could capture or encompass all that he actually sees," Truman Capote once said of Cecil Beaton. Though known for his portraits, Beaton was as incisive a writer as he was a photographer. First published in 1954, The Glass of Fashion is a classic—an invaluable primer on the history and highlights of fashion from a man who was a chronicler of taste, and an intimate compendium of the people who inspired his legendary eye. Across eighteen chapters, complemented by more than 150 of his own line drawings, Beaton writes with great wit about the influence of luminaries such as Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior, as well as relatively unknown muses like his Aunt Jessie, who gave him his first glimpse of "the grown-up world of fashion." Out of print for decades but recognized and sought after as a touchstone text, The Glass of Fashion will be irresistible to a new generation of fashion enthusiasts and a seminal book in any Beaton library. It is both a treasury and a treasure.

A luxurious book that showcases the spirit and essence of Chanel's iconic style through the medium of fashion photography"Jérôme Gautier's text is excellent."—The Wall Street JournalGabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) was undoubtedly the most influential fashion designer of the 20th century. Her clothes and accessories have remained perennially chic, and her legendary fashion house continues to exert a powerful sway over today's designers. Jérôme Gautier tells the story of Chanel's iconic style through hundreds of images, many taken by the leading lights of fashion photography, including Richard Avedon, Gilles Bensimon, Patrick Demarchelier, Horst P. Horst, Annie Leibovitz, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, and Ellen von Unwerth. This innovative volume pairs classic and contemporary photographs, placing fashion plates from Chanel's time alongside those by the house's designer-in-chief, Karl Lagerfeld. For instance, Cecil Beaton's portrait of Chanel appears alongside Lagerfeld's image of Cate Blanchett emulating her, and a classic plate by Henry Clarke flanks an arresting shot by Juergen Teller.Through these dazzling photographs, Chanel: The Vocabulary of Style identifies key elements that have defined Chanel's style for generations, such as jersey and tweed, formerly considered menswear fabrics, and the little black dress, which transformed a hue previously reserved for mourning into a statement of elegance. Pearls were her staple, and she often embellished outfits with her signature camellia. Eleven chapters compare the original forms of these enduring trademarks with their later expressions over the years and to the present day, letting the vocabulary of Chanel's style speak for itself.

In The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, curator and critic Antwaun Sargent addresses a radical transformation taking place in fashion and art today.The featuring of the Black figure and Black runway and cover models in the media and art has been one marker of increasingly inclusive fashion and art communities. More critically, however, the contemporary visual vocabulary around beauty and the body has been reinfused with new vitality and substance thanks to an increase in powerful images authored by an international community of Black photographers.In a richly illustrated essay, Sargent opens up the conversation around the role of the Black body in the marketplace; the cross-pollination between art, fashion, and culture in constructing an image; and the institutional barriers that have historically been an impediment to Black photographers participating more fully in the fashion (and art) industries.Fifteen artist portfolios feature the brightest contemporary fashion photographers, including Tyler Mitchell, the first Black photographer hired to shoot a cover story for American Vogue; Campbell Addy, founder of the Nii Agency and journal; and Nadine Ijewere, whose early series title, The Misrepresentation of Representation, says it all. Alongside a series of conversations between generations, their images and stories chart the history of inclusion, and exclusion, in the creation of the commercial Black image, while simultaneously proposing a brilliantly reenvisioned future.Photographs by Campbell Addy, Arielle Bobb-Willis, Micaiah Carter, Awol Erizku, Nadine Ijewere, Quil Lemons, Namsa Leuba, Renell Medrano, Tyler Mitchell, Jamal Nxedlana, Daniel Obasi, Ruth Ossai, Adrienne Raquel, Dana Scruggs, and Stephen TayoAnd including conversations with Shaniqwa Jarvis, Mickalene Thomas, and Deborah Willis

Christian Dior reveals the secrets of style in The Little Dictionary of Fashion, a charming, indispensable guide that covers everything from what to wear to a wedding and how to tie a scarf to how to walk with grace. These are timeless tips with something special for every woman.“Much has been written about fashion, in all its aspects, but I do not think any couturier has ever before attempted to compile a dictionary on the subject. Of course, it would take volumes to cover the entire field of Fashion, but I have compiled a book which I think is neither too long, so that it becomes tedious, nor too short so that it seems insufficient. . . . I think it should be of great practical use to the women of today.” —from the introductionChristian Dior’s taste, style, and expertise ensures every girl and woman will know the three fundamentals of fashion: simplicity, grooming, and good taste. This A to Z provides thoughtful advice and background on each topic. In “A” alone you will find advice about Accent, Accessories, Adaptation, Afternoon Frocks, Age, and more!Some things never go out of style: beauty and style among them. Here you will find advice that is as useful today as it was when first put on paper by one of the greatest names in French fashion, the master designer himself. First published in the 1950s, and filled with timeless advice, this landmark edition was published for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Golden Age of Couture exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of Dior’s “New Look,” and illustrated with delightful photographs and drawings. This handbag-size classic is the perfect gift book for any style-conscious woman.

Peter York.

All We Know is one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10 Best Books of 2012A revelatory biography of three glamorous, complex modern women\nEsther Murphy was a brilliant New York intellectual who dazzled friends and strangers with an unstoppable flow of conversation. But she never finished the books she was contracted to write―a painful failure, and yet a kind of achievement. The quintessential fan, Mercedes de Acosta had intimate friendships with the legendary actresses and dancers of the twentieth century. Her ephemeral legacy is the thousands of objects she collected to preserve the memory of those performers and to document her own feelings. An icon of haute couture and an editor of British Vogue, Madge Garland held influential views on fashion that drew on her feminism, her ideas about modernity, and her love of women. Existing both vividly and invisibly at the center of culture, she―like Murphy and de Acosta―is now almost completely forgotten. In All We Know, Lisa Cohen describes these women's glamorous choices, complicated failures, and controversial personal lives with lyricism and empathy. At once a series of intimate portraits and a startling investigation into style, celebrity, sexuality, and the genre of biography itself, All We Know explores a hidden history of modernism and pays tribute to three compelling lives.

Perfect for readers of Women in Clothes, this beautifully designed philosophical guide to fashion explores art, literature, and film to uncover the hidden meaning of a well-chosen wardrobe. We all get dressed. But how often do we pause to think about what our clothes say? When we dress ourselves, we are presenting to the world an essence of who we are, who we want to be. Dressed ranges freely from suits to suitcases, from Marx's coat to Madame X's gown. Through art and literature, film and philosophy, philosopher Shahidha Bari unveils the surprising personal implications of what we choose to wear. The impeccable cut of Cary Grant's suit projects masculine confidence, just as Madonna's oversized denim jacket and her armful of orange bangles loudly announces big ambition. How others dress tells us something fundamental about them -- we can better understand how people live and what they think through their garments. Clothes tell our stories. Dressed is the thinking person's fashion book. In baring the hidden power of clothes in our culture and our daily lives, Bari reveals how our outfits not only cover our bodies but also reflect our minds.

This collection of conversations on the subject of time between a legendary couturier and leaders in the worlds of art, design, and popular culture will inspire readers to take greater control over their life and develop their creativity.\\nOne of the characteristics of modern-day life seems to be that we are doing more and more at an ever-increasing rate. Uncompromising couturier Azzedine Alaïa hosted salon-style discussions between creative luminaries on this subject. The result is a collection of never-before-published conversations between some of the most famous minds of our generation about time--an increasingly valuable commodity in twenty-first-century society. Taking Time presents musings from some of the world's most respected figures in cinema, music, and design: Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson discuss time as the first ergonomic product; Julian Schnabel and Jean-Claude Carrière consider it in respect to art and film; and Robert Wilson and Isabelle Huppert speak about the importance of time in theater and acting. You will discover ways of appreciating and managing time that are helpful and will embolden you to manifest your creativity and enjoy life to the fullest...and truly to take your time.

Chris Moore is the undisputed king of catwalk photography. His six-decade career includes images of all the iconic catwalk shows because he was at them all. This is the ultimate and only edit of Moore's work throughout his career and covering the changing face of the catwalk. Covering each of the decades images are accompanied with essays by award-winning fashion critic Alexander Fury, based on extensive interviews with Moore, exploring Moore's career along with key catwalk moments. From Coco Chanel's final show to Galliano's graduation, supermodels to showstoppers, McQueen to Versace and more Catwalking presents the definitive catwalk highlights captured by the man who has seen and shot it all.

Chronicles the life story of Roy Halston Frowick, a poor midwesterner whose middle name became synonymous in the 1960s and 1970s with high-fashion and high-society, but who experienced business setbacks in the 1980s, then succumbed to the AIDS virus