New Zealand fashion and lifestyle blog

Books en vogue

I love fashion, that goes without saying. I love its newness and nowness and the creativity behind inventing something new for the gloriousness of enjoying creating it and seeing it on others who share your vision. I also love books…

I love fashion, that goes without saying. I love its newness and nowness and the creativity behind inventing something new for the gloriousness of enjoying creating it and seeing it on others who share your vision. I also love books.

So, the meeting of these two worlds comes together in savouring fashion books – either non-fiction on fashion, or biographies of famous designers themselves.

Some glorious fashion books I have come across lately are pictured here below – photographed against some of my own dresses I felt matched each book – to give you a taster of what’s inside. Why not collect the set? You definitely need a wardrobe of fashion books.

VOGUE ON… is a series of classic iconic fashion designers in exquisite, hardcover books the perfect size for reading in bed. Sized as small as a novel rather than a weighty, coffe table tome, the biographies are written by different fashion historians experts in their own fields. They retail for $34.99 from Quadrille Publishing distributed through Bookreps, available from October 2012.

VOGUE ON Elsa Schiaparelli by Judith Watt takes you far beyond the colour pink Schiaparelli is known for – and that lobster dress – and into the world of the innovative and daring 1930s designer who wa a rival to Coco Chanel and inspiration to many of fashion’s big names in later decades including Yves Saint Laurent, Gaultier, and Alexander McQueen.

VOGUE ON Coco Chanel by Bronwyn Cosgrave has the unenviable task of writing on someone so famous she’s a household name and probably has more books on her than she made dresses! This starts at 1917 and follows her career until her death in 1971, through the little black dresses, the Chanel suits, and the strings of pearls. I learned something I didn’t know – that there was a musical in 1969 called Coco based on her life starring Katharine Hepburn with costumes by Cecil Beaton. Coco Chanel never got to New York from Paris to see it herself.

VOGUE ON Christian Dior by Charlotte Sinclair follows the incredibly influential designer who transformed the way women dressed in 1947 with his New Look and revived Paris Couture and created a commercial empire that included perfume to hosiery, bringing French fashion to Every Woman.

VOGUE ON Alexander McQueen by Chloe Fox tells the modern tale of the fashion outsider who became fashion’s visionary artist, until his tragic death. His label has been taken on by assistant Sarah Burton and a year after his death, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum showcased his creativity. He made a spectacle of fashion, but also clothes than powerful women wanted to wear.

So much has been said and written about the LBD that it’s hard to imagine what one could add to the conversation. Putting its two cents in is this cute pink hardcover The Little Black Dress: How to dress perfectly for any occasion by Tracy Martin, with illustrations by Lord Dunsby. It attempts to solve the eternal what to wear question that Gok Wan and Trinny and Susannah also face head on, along with solving body type dilemmas and fashion faux pas. It has lots of good, old-fashioned common sense, nothing too earth-shattering, and goes beyond little black dresses to cover casual attire as well. The Little Black Dress is $24.99 distributed by Bookreps, released 11th November 2012.

How to be Adored: A Girl’s Guide to Hollywood Glamour by Caroline Cox has a flocked cover and I’m always quite a sucker for flocked velvet on things. This is a little book – it’s priced at $14.95 – and at under $15 it’s incredibly good value. It’s a style guide drawing upon the glamour of Hollywood movie stars to be basically adorable in every facet of life; charm, conversation, dress sense and glamorous make-up. Caroline Cox is a Professor of fashion – what a fabulous career title – and an authority on fashion. It feel well-researched and packed to the brim with tasty tidbits and no filler. How to be Adored is released by Bookreps on 16th October 2012.

Words and photos, Megan Robinson 14 October 2012
Candlestick by The Aromatherapy Co.


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