Dior (Universe of Fashion)


Marie-France Pochna - 1994
    This beautifully compact and illustrated book brings alive a great adventure, a period of dazzling rebirth led by Christian Dior, the modest, unassuming genius who made the phoenix fly again.

Christian Lacroix and the Tale of Sleeping Beauty: A Fashion Fairy Tale Memoir


Camilla Morton - 2010
    Now, spun as if by magic from the threads of the beloved Brothers Grimm fairy tale comes the enchanting memoir of fashion designer Christian Lacroix—the haute couture icon whose creations have invited millions of women to enjoy  the fairy princess fashions of their dreams. Sorcery and style combine in this enchanting new twist on a time-honored tale; re-imagined by international bestselling author Camilla Morton, and illustrated by Monsieur Lacroix himself, the spell cast by Christian Lacroix and the Tale of Sleeping Beauty will reawaken every reader’s childhood fantasies—reassuring you that dreams really do come true…

Chanel (The Universe of Fashion)


François Baudot - 1996
    Born into the French peasantry and then raised in a convent orphanage, Chanel grew up an authentic beauty with a gift for fashion, social trends, and business that enabled her literally to invent the look of the 20th century as well as its fragrance. She also had a profound effect upon both its art and culture, using her immense wealth, wit, and social access to support Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the plays of Jean Cocteau, the music of Igor Stravinsky, and the poems of Pierre Reverdy. Bit by bit, this fearless young genius stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair as well as their skirts, put them in bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, dark-toed sling pumps, the "little black dress, " quilted handbags, and the braid-trimmed, brass-buttoned two-piece suit that became her trademark. As for the fabulous costume jewelry, she piled it on mainly because of its power to make simplicity look glorious. Early in the 1920s Chanel launched the first couture perfume - No. 5 - bottled in the famous square-cut flacon, a Cubist-inspired Art Deco icon. She was the first haute-couture designer to work in ballet, theatre, and even film, beginning with a stint in Hollywood for Sam Goldwyn and moving on to Jean Renoir, Lucchino Visconti, and Alain Resnais.

How to Set Up and Run a Fashion Label


Toby Meadows - 2009
    In How to Set Up and Run a Fashion Label, Toby Meadows presents a no-nonsense guide to running your own business, whether it is within the clothing, accessories or footwear sectors. Packed with tips, case studies, and tasks to help you analyze yourself, your market and your product, the book is designed for anyone wanting to start their own fashion business.

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000


Richard Avedon - 2009
    Each carefully selected image represents an artistic collaboration with significant models, stylists, and designers. Avedon Fashion accompanies the first major exhibition to survey this body of work, at the International Center of Photography in May 2009. With critical essays by Carol Squiers, curator at the ICP, and photography critic Vince Aletti, as well as an appreciation by photo-historian Philippe Garner, Avedon Fashion chronicles an astonishing record of photographic achievement.

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life


Justine Picardie - 2009
    Picardie's unprecedented research illuminates Chanel’s path from little-known seamstress to the aristocracy of style in this stunning look at the fashion icon, illustrated with more than sixty color and black-and-white images.

House of Versace: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival


Deborah Ball - 2009
    The very name conjures up images of outrageous glamour and bold sexuality, opulence and daring. All of course true, but only half the story. Versace is also the legacy of a great creative genius from a poor, backward part of southern Italy who transformed the fashion world through his intuitive understanding of both women and how a changing culture influenced the way they wanted to dress. The first book in English about the legendary designer, House of Versace shows how Gianni Versace, with his flamboyant sister Donatella at his side, combined his virtuosic talent and extraordinary ambition to almost single-handedly create the celebrity culture we take for granted today. Gianni Versace was at the height of his creative powers when he was murdered in Miami Beach. The story was front page news around the world and the manhunt for his killer a media obsession. His beloved sister Donatella demanded no less than a funeral befitting an assassinated head-of-state to be held in Milan’s magnificent cathedral. In what was the ultimate fashion show, the world’s rich and beautiful – Princess Dianna, Elton John, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Anna Wintour and others – gathered to mourn a man already considered one of fashion’s great pioneers.         Deborah Ball, a long-time Milan correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, conducted hundreds of interviews with Versace family members, Gianni Versace’s lovers and business rivals, models such as Naomi Campbell whom he helped shoot to international stardom and fashion industry icons, including Anna Wintour, the legendary editor of Vogue. Ball vividly recounts the behind-the scenes struggles – both creative and business – of Donatella as she stepped out of her brother’s long shadow and took control of the House of Versace. The book offers the first inside look at the enormous challenges Donatella faced in living up to Gianni’s genius, her struggle with a drug habit, her battles with her brother Santo and the mystery of why Gianni left control of his house to Donatella’s young daughter, Allegra. House of Versace is a compelling, highly readable tale of rise from obscurity, a painful fall and ultimate redemption as the Versace empire returned to health – for now. Bringing together fashion, celebrity, business drama, jet-set lifestyles, and a notorious crime, House of Versace is an old-fashioned page-turner about a subject of enduring fascination.

9 Heads: A Guide to Drawing Fashion


Nancy Riegelman - 2000
    This new edition of "9 Heads" is the re-statement of the author's approach to the subject of black and white drawings, incorporating the most developed thinking and views, both in terms of what the end product should look like, and how best to achieve it. "9 Heads" also presents a different style of finished drawing, one where figures are usually more fleshed-out and where garment fabrics are more rendered than in the drawings of the previous edition. This edition has been extended in scope as that together with "Colors for Modern Fashion" the two books constitute all the elements of modern fashion drawing from Beginners through to Advanced. In-depth treatment in men's fashion. More serious treatment of children's fashion. Completely revised and expanded chapter on drawing clothing on the figure. New chapter on fabrics shows how to make drawings so the fabrics can be identified from the drawing. New appendix with hundreds of flats of modern garments. Quality of the drawing is far higher than the other books on the market. Ideal for those who have no previous formal training in drawing and who have a need to learn the basics of fashion drawing quickly.

The Little Dictionary of Fashion: A Guide to Dress Sense for Every Woman


Christian Dior - 1954
    Originally published: London: Cassell, 1954.

100 Years of Fashion Illustration


Cally Blackman - 2007
    The book also offers an overview of the development of fashion, as seen through the eyes of the greatest illustrators of the day. Early in the century fashion illustration reflected new, liberating currents in art and culture, such as the exoticism of the Ballets Russes, while the postwar period saw inspiration from the great Parisian couturiers. After the dominance of the celebrity fashion photographer in the '60s, a new generation of illustrators emerged, embracing the medium of the computer, while many returned to more traditional techniques.

Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style


Susan Brown - 2012
    Tracing the evolution of fashion — from the early draped fabrics of ancient times to the catwalk couture of today — Fashion: The Definitive History of Costume and Style is a stunningly illustrated guide to more than three thousand years of shifting trends and innovative developments in the world of clothing.Containing everything you need to know about changing fashion and style — from ancient Egyptian dress to Space Age Fashion and Grunge — and information on icons like Marie Antoinette, Clara Bow, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Alexander McQueen, Fashion catalogs the history of what people wear, revealing how Western fashion has been influenced by design from around the world and celebrating costume and haute couture.Fashion will captivate anyone interested in style — whether it's the fashion-mad teen in Tokyo, the wannabe designer in college, or the fashionista intrigued by the violent origins of the stiletto and the birth of bling.

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty


Andrew Bolton - 2011
    Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art.Published to coincide with an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized by The Costume Institute, this stunning book includes a preface by Andrew Bolton; an introduction by Susannah Frankel; an interview by Tim Blanks with Sarah Burton, creative director of the house of Alexander McQueen; illuminating quotes from the designer himself; provocative and captivating new photography by renowned photographer Sølve Sundsbø; and a lenticular cover by Gary James McQueen.Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty celebrates the astounding creativity and originality of a designer who relentlessly questioned and confronted the requisites of fashion.

Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano


Dana Thomas - 2014
    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.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel


Lisa Immordino Vreeland - 2011
    Beginning in 1936, when she became a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Vreeland established herself as a controversial visionary with an astonishing ability to invent and discover fashion ideas, designers, personalities, and photographers. She was a memorable writer with a vivid personality and a talent for coining aphorisms. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel chronicles 50 years of international fashion and Vreeland’s rich life. With more than 350 illustrations, including original magazine spreads and many famous photographs, this intensely visual book shows fashion as it was being invented, and how Vreeland shaped American taste through her superb vision.Praise for Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel:“Before there was Daphne Guinness, before there was Lady Gaga, there was the original style setter. A new book takes a look at the career and influence of the woman who made fashion modern.” —Town & Country “A must-have and the perfect addition to anyone’s holiday gift list, the book begs to be displayed on a coffee table and leisurely reviewed from the corner of a comfy couch, when there is ample time to savor Vreeland's pioneering five decades in fashion.” —Publishers Weekly

Contemporary Fashion Illustration Techniques


Naoki Watanabe - 2009
    The impression given to the viewer depends on whether the fashion design drawings are good. Contemporary Fashion Illustration Techniques thoroughly describes the basics of fashion illustration, and covers the latest trends such as vivid images, sprightly movement, and garment material texture. After all, fashion drawing is not simply about sketching a body and face; only when you accurately reproduce the garments and their colors can the designs truly come to life.