Recommendations : Books About Fashion & Designers

[fashON]

You're a godsend!!!! Thank you

 

[blueorchid]

I've recently discovered that you can borrow books to read (for free) from archive.org and I started to make a list of the books I've been reading/want to read. I figured I might as well share the list here for anyone who is interested in any of these books, it's good to know that they are easily accessible!

I've broken it up into categories, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many hidden gems available there. Sometimes it says you can only borrow a book for 1-hour, but you can keep checking it out until you are finished!

Fashion Designers
The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History (2015) by Robin Givhan
The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris (2007) by Alicia Drake
Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the '90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion (2014) by Maureen Callahan
Chanel: Her Style and Her Life (1998) by Janet Wallach
Chanel Solitaire (1974) by Claude Delay
Charles James: Beyond Fashion (2014) by Harold Koda
Christian Dior and I (1957) by Christian Dior
Christian Dior: The Biography (2008) by Marie France Pochna
Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life (2011) by Lisa Chaney
Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (2010) by Justine Picardie
Couture: The Great Fashion Designers (1988) by Caroline Rennolds Milbank
Designs by Erté: Fashion Drawings and Illustrations from "Harper's Bazar" (1972) by Erté
Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography (2014) by Meryle Secrest
From A to Biba: The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki (2004) by Barbara Hulanicki
The Genius of Charles James (1982) by Elizabeth Anne Coleman
The Givenchy Style (1998) by Françoise Mohrt
Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano (2015) by Dana Thomas
House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed (2000) by Sara Gay Forden
House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival (2010) by Deborah Ball
Jacqueline de Ribes (2015) by Harold Koda
Jean-Paul Gaultier (1998) by Farid Chenoune
The Karl Lagerfeld Diet (2005) by Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Claude Houdret, Ingrid Sischy (for anybody who needs a laugh!!!)
Mary Quant: Autobiography (2012) by Mary Quant
The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World (2013) by Mary Blume
My Life, My Art: An Autobiography (1989) by Erté
Patou (1983) by Meredith Etherington-Smith
Quant by Quant (1966) by Mary Quant
Roger Vivier (2004) by Colombe Pringle
Simply Halston: The Untold Story (1991) by Steven Gaines
Things I Remember: An Autobiography (1975) by Erté
Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers (2001) by Susannah Frankel
Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life (2003) by Jane Mulvagh
Yves Saint Laurent (1983) -- Catalogue published to accompany his 1983 exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yves Saint Laurent (2010) by Jéromine Savignon
Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography (1996) by Alice Rawsthorn
Yves Saint Laurent: Forty Years of Creation (1998)

Fashion Editors:
A.L.T.: A Memoir (2003) by Andre Leon Talley
Blow By Blow: The Story Of Isabella Blow (2011) by Detmar Blow
Chic Savages (1989) by John Fairchild
Diana Vreeland (2002) by Eleanor Dwight
D.V. (1984) by Diana Vreeland
Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief (2005) by Jerry Oppenheimer
My Paris Dream (2015) by Kate Betts
No Time to Die (1998) by Liz Tilberis
The Vogue Factor (2013) by Kristie Clements

Fashion Photography:
American photography, 1890-1965, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1995)
Autobiography (2002) by Helmut Newton
Avedon -- Photographs, 1947-1977 (1978) by Richard Avedon
The Contact Sheet (2012)
Guy Bourdin (2006) by Alison M. Gingeras
Horst: Sixty Years of Photography (1991) by Horst
Irving Penn (1984) by John Szarkowski
Nostalgia in Vogue (2011) by Eve MacSweeney and Anna Wintour
Photographs by Norman Parkinson: Fifty Years of Portraits and Fashion (1981) by Norman Parkinson

Fashion, In General:
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster (2007) by Dana Thomas
The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing of the Clothing Business (1999) by Teri Agins
The Fashion Conspiracy: A Remarkable Journey Through the Empires of Fashion (1988) by Nicholas Coleridge
The Fashion System (1983) by Roland Barthes
Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers (2014) by Teri Agins
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012) by Elizabeth L. Cline
The Real Thing: Fashion Interviews from Index Magazine (2003) edited by Aryana Speyer
Talking Fashion: From Nick Knight to Raf Simons in Their Own Words (2013) by Jan Kedves

 

[blueorchid]

Almost forgot about the models...

Alek: Sudanese Refugee from International Supermodel (2007) by Alek Wek
Bad And Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling and Deadly World of Supermodels (2003) by Ian Halperin
Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir (2011) by Carré Otis
Becoming (2015) by Cindy Crawford
Catwalk: The Art of Model Style (1986) by Marie Helvin
Cover Girls and Supermodels, 1945-1965 (1996) by Jean-Noël Liaut
Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Life of a Desert Flower (2001) by Waris Dirie
Edie: American Girl (1994) by Jean Stein
The Face That Changed It All: A Memoir (2015) by Beverly Johnson
Lynn, Front to Back (2005) by Lynn Kohlman
Marie Helvin: The Autobiography (2008) by Marie Helvin
Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (1995) by Michael Gross
No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel (2007) by Janice Dickinson
They Still Shoot Models My Age (1991) by Susan Moncur
Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia (1994) by Stephen Fried
This Year's Model: Fashion, Media, and the Making of Glamour (2015) by Elizabeth Wissinger
The Truth About Modelling (1965) by Jean Shrimpton
Walking Girl: A Memoir (2016) by Pat Cleveland
The Way We Wore: A Life in Clothes (2016) by Daphne Selfe

For the brave...
Modelland (2011) by Tyra Banks
Swan (1994) by Naomi Campbell

 

[lovelylavender]

I've recently discovered that you can borrow books to read (for free) from archive.org and I started to make a list of the books I've been reading/want to read. I figured I might as well share the list here for anyone who is interested in any of these books, it's good to know that they are easily accessible!

I've broken it up into categories, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many hidden gems available there. Sometimes it says you can only borrow a book for 1-hour, but you can keep checking it out until you are finished!

Fashion Designers
The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History (2015) by Robin Givhan
The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris (2007) by Alicia Drake
Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the '90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion (2014) by Maureen Callahan
Chanel: Her Style and Her Life (1998) by Janet Wallach
Chanel Solitaire (1974) by Claude Delay
Charles James: Beyond Fashion (2014) by Harold Koda
Christian Dior and I (1957) by Christian Dior
Christian Dior: The Biography (2008) by Marie France Pochna
Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life (2011) by Lisa Chaney
Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (2010) by Justine Picardie
Couture: The Great Fashion Designers (1988) by Caroline Rennolds Milbank
Designs by Erté: Fashion Drawings and Illustrations from "Harper's Bazar" (1972) by Erté
Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography (2014) by Meryle Secrest
From A to Biba: The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki (2004) by Barbara Hulanicki
The Genius of Charles James (1982) by Elizabeth Anne Coleman
The Givenchy Style (1998) by Françoise Mohrt
Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano (2015) by Dana Thomas
House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed (2000) by Sara Gay Forden
House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival (2010) by Deborah Ball
Jacqueline de Ribes (2015) by Harold Koda
Jean-Paul Gaultier (1998) by Farid Chenoune
The Karl Lagerfeld Diet (2005) by Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Claude Houdret, Ingrid Sischy (for anybody who needs a laugh!!!)
Mary Quant: Autobiography (2012) by Mary Quant
The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World (2013) by Mary Blume
My Life, My Art: An Autobiography (1989) by Erté
Patou (1983) by Meredith Etherington-Smith
Quant by Quant (1966) by Mary Quant
Roger Vivier (2004) by Colombe Pringle
Simply Halston: The Untold Story (1991) by Steven Gaines
Things I Remember: An Autobiography (1975) by Erté
Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers (2001) by Susannah Frankel
Vivienne Westwood: An Unfashionable Life (2003) by Jane Mulvagh
Yves Saint Laurent (1983) -- Catalogue published to accompany his 1983 exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Yves Saint Laurent (2010) by Jéromine Savignon
Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography (1996) by Alice Rawsthorn
Yves Saint Laurent: Forty Years of Creation (1998)

Fashion Editors:
A.L.T.: A Memoir (2003) by Andre Leon Talley
Blow By Blow: The Story Of Isabella Blow (2011) by Detmar Blow
Chic Savages (1989) by John Fairchild
Diana Vreeland (2002) by Eleanor Dwight
D.V. (1984) by Diana Vreeland
Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief (2005) by Jerry Oppenheimer
My Paris Dream (2015) by Kate Betts
No Time to Die (1998) by Liz Tilberis
The Vogue Factor (2013) by Kristie Clements

Fashion Photography:
American photography, 1890-1965, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1995)
Autobiography (2002) by Helmut Newton
Avedon -- Photographs, 1947-1977 (1978) by Richard Avedon
The Contact Sheet (2012)
Guy Bourdin (2006) by Alison M. Gingeras
Horst: Sixty Years of Photography (1991) by Horst
Irving Penn (1984) by John Szarkowski
Nostalgia in Vogue (2011) by Eve MacSweeney and Anna Wintour
Photographs by Norman Parkinson: Fifty Years of Portraits and Fashion (1981) by Norman Parkinson

Fashion, In General:
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster (2007) by Dana Thomas
The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing of the Clothing Business (1999) by Teri Agins
The Fashion Conspiracy: A Remarkable Journey Through the Empires of Fashion (1988) by Nicholas Coleridge
The Fashion System (1983) by Roland Barthes
Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers (2014) by Teri Agins
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012) by Elizabeth L. Cline
The Real Thing: Fashion Interviews from Index Magazine (2003) edited by Aryana Speyer
Talking Fashion: From Nick Knight to Raf Simons in Their Own Words (2013) by Jan Kedves

Thank you! This is super helpful

 

[blueorchid]

Which biography about Chanel is supposed to be the best/most definitive one?

I'm just finishing up The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World by Mary Blume, which is great. I think I have to venture into Chanel territory next, but there are just so many about her (and half of them just sound... not great).

us.macmillan.com

 

[axiomatic]

I've recently discovered that you can borrow books to read (for free) from archive.org and I started to make a list of the books I've been reading/want to read. I figured I might as well share the list here for anyone who is interested in any of these books, it's good to know that they are easily accessible!

If you're in the US, you can get most any print book from your library through inter-library loan. Libraries can borrow books they don't have in their system from other libraries. Most of the books I get come from university libraries. It's a good way to read out-of-print books. It's free at my library.

 

[vogue28]

I'm almost half way through Anna by Amy Odell and can 100% recommend it to anyone who's interested in fashion and Vogue. I thought it would just echo Jerry Oppenheimer's Front Row but does nothing of the sort. A fab and insightful read, also presented very beautifully and looks nice on a shelf.

 

[KoV]

I'm almost half way through Anna by Amy Odell and can 100% recommend it to anyone who's interested in fashion and Vogue. I thought it would just echo Jerry Oppenheimer's Front Row but does nothing of the sort. A fab and insightful read, also presented very beautifully and looks nice on a shelf.

I'm really enjoying it as well! It's less salacious than I expected, and I love that Amy seemingly has a truly neutral perspective. Very little editorializing.

 

[Evega]

1. The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sarah Gay Forden.
2. The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World by Mary Blume.
3. Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie.

Expect for reading books, I also take online courses, you can find a lot of free ones here www.skillcourses.com/free-online-nail-technician-courses. It's important to pay proper attention to self-development.

 

[axiomatic]

I'm really enjoying it as well! It's less salacious than I expected, and I love that Amy seemingly has a truly neutral perspective. Very little editorializing.

I liked it also. I wish it had been a little longer. It seemed like O'Dell jumped through some of the events in the Vogue era.

I thought the book was somewhat sympathetic to AW, but the Asma al-Assad Vogue train wreck is even worse after reading the book. AW ignoring the author, Joan Juliet Buck, and others at Vogue who told her not to run the story and then cutting off Buck after all of the backlash is pretty gross.

and lol at airbrushing a baby's neck roll fat

 

[IraBrad]

The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Christian Dior is one of my favorites.

 

[vogue28]

Anyone bought themselves the catwalk book series by Thames & Hudson? I've got the Chanel and Christian Dior volumes which are an absolute MUST. They're huge, look gorgeous if you're wanting them for display and are littered with HQ pictures from each collection.

T&H have recently brought out Louis Vuitton and Prada versions and I'm wanting the Yves Saint Laurent edition... which I fawn over every time I see it in the book store. Such fabulous books for any lover of fashion.

 

[perhydrol]

^ I got the Chloé one for Christmas and while it's a fantastic visual resource, the reviews, especially for the collections presented in the '10s and '20s, feel extremely lazy, as if taken straight from Vogue Runway (and I believe that's their source). However, I would still recommend it as a great archive, especially for all the shows which are harder to find online.

 

[blueorchid]

Anyone bought themselves the catwalk book series by Thames & Hudson? I've got the Chanel and Christian Dior volumes which are an absolute MUST. They're huge, look gorgeous if you're wanting them for display and are littered with HQ pictures from each collection.

T&H have recently brought out Louis Vuitton and Prada versions and I'm wanting the Yves Saint Laurent edition... which I fawn over every time I see it in the book store. Such fabulous books for any lover of fashion.

I have the Yves Saint Laurent one, it's pretty good! It's not totally exhaustive (can you imagine), but it's a good resource. I grabbed mine off the shelf just now and I'd say there's about 10 to 35 photos representing each collection, with the collections after 1975/1976 having a ton more photos. I can take some photos of the inside if you're curious.

I'm tempted to get the Chloé one, but I'm having a hard time actually adding it to the cart because I don't care about where the brand is at currently. Meh.

 

[vogue28]

I have the Yves Saint Laurent one, it's pretty good! It's not totally exhaustive (can you imagine), but it's a good resource. I grabbed mine off the shelf just now and I'd say there's about 10 to 35 photos representing each collection, with the collections after 1975/1976 having a ton more photos. I can take some photos of the inside if you're curious.

I'm tempted to get the Chloé one, but I'm having a hard time actually adding it to the cart because I don't care about where the brand is at currently. Meh.

You're absolutely fine, but thank you ever so much for offering to take photos. Very kind of you. I will admit that I've leafed through the YSL edition a fair few times - every single time I've came across it in person. My local store was out of stock over the Christmas period, but I must must must get it.

It was love at first sight for me, especially with the inclusion of all those fabulous YSL couture shows during the 80s. There were so many references I was picking up on from current Vaccarello shows. A totally sublime book!

 

[blueorchid]

Oh my god, @vogue28. I can't read apparently!!

 

[velvetandsilk]

Chanel, Dior, YSL and Vivien Westwood are the best. I have all except Chloe.

 

[Drusilla_]

Fashion at the Edge by Caroline Evans - it's old but quite good.

 

[Conbothsides]

Could anyone who has the Franca: Chaos & Creation book let me know if it's any interesting?

 

[whatdoyoumean]

Fashion at the Edge by Caroline Evans - it's old but quite good.

This book is amazing, in my opinion. Real masterpiece that for sure I'll read again at some point.