Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Flurry of Fashion Books

There are a raft of fabulous fashion books which have made it onto the bookshelves just in time for Christmas.

My Favourite Dress, for one, is such a wonderful concept; 120 designers and fashion types select their favourite dress and talk about why they love it. Everyone knows that a truly beautiful dress is beautiful forever, and many dresses in my own closet have the power to evoke feelings and memories. I would imagine that the selections here might be entirely different were the designers to be asked for their picks again in another twelve months, but as of now they have a special emotional attachment to the frock they selected. I look forward to finding out what that is.

I've also got to say that Jessica Stam in Dior Haute Couture on the cover is to die for. You can read more about the book here.


I have a collection of Vogue photographic books, published from the British archives, and they make for endlessly entertaining browing. Now American Vogue have released a lavish book - People Parties Places - featuring 300 photographs of celebrities including actors, artists, models, politicians and more. I'm not entirely sure about the use of Gisele Bundchen and her husband on the cover, but by the looks of the internals that are available online, there will be plenty of images, both retro and recent, to inspire

I also stumbled upon this book recently, which is part of a That Changed the World series, that includes the fifty top shoes too. This title looks at fifty dresses that have made a lasting impact on the fashion landscape, and includes the Vionnet goddess gown, Liz Hurley's fame making Versace safety-pin dress (which I've seen up close and personal in a Versace exhibition some years ago), Marilyn's sexy white halter-neck from The Seven Year Itch, YSL's 1965 Mondrian shift dress, Cher in see through Bob Mackie when she accepted her Academy Award and 45 more legendary frocks. You can read more about the book, and the London Design Museum who published it, here.




My Christmas wish-list is almost entirely made up of books already. Now I think it just got a wee bit longer.

1 comment:

BaronessVonVintage said...

I know what you mean....I have a mile-long list, too. Books about Vionnet, Chanel, Vintage Fashion and Vintage Shoes....the list goes on. It's gonna get longer now I've read your lovely list!