Fashion

6 Great Fashion Reads

Happy Fashion Week, everyone! In honor of the sartorial peak of the year, we’ve rounded up our favorite fashion reads. Worry not, we’ve skipped over the vacuous chick-lit books in exchange for some intriguing reads covering history, art, and style.

by Heba Hasan

Happy Fashion Week, everyone! In honor of the sartorial peak of the year, we’ve rounded up our favorite fashion reads. Worry not, we’ve skipped over the vacuous chick-lit books in exchange for some intriguing reads covering history, art, and style.

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

‘The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris’ by Alicia Drake

So what’s exactly in this book that made Karl Lagerfeld sue Alicia Drake for revealing details of his highly secretive life to the mass public? Filled with drama, intrigue, and revelry, the book chronicles the rivalry of two fashion legends: Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. An exposé that perfectly captures the decadences of the '70s, this book is so entertaining you almost won’t believe it’s true.

‘Nostalgia in Vogue’ by Eve MacSweeney

One of my favorite sections in Vogue, the Nostalgia column features essays from prominent writers, photographers, and artists as they reflect on experiences that have been particularly influential. This beautiful volume complies a great selection of Nostalgia columns from the likes of Joan Didion, Margaret Atwood, Patti Smith, Edmund White, Karl Lagerfeld, Carly Simon and Nora Ephron. Filled with beautiful photographs, this volume also doubles as a wonderful coffee table book, and is a must for any connoisseur of art, fashion, pop culture, and literature.

‘Grace: A Memoir’ by Grace Coddington

The creative director of Vogue, Grace Coddington offers us an up-close and insightful look on the fashion industry, her innovative vision, and her interesting, fast-paced life. From her days as a model, to her life-changing accident, to her relationship with Anna Wintour, Coddington injects her memoir with her signature wit and gives us a revealing lesson in fashion history.

‘Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster’ by Dana Thomas

Written by award-winning journalist Dana Thomas, this book knocks down the glossy façade of the luxury industry, spilling the secrets of some of the biggest fashion companies. Easy to read and entertaining, the book wraps fashion, finance, and culture all in one, and gives the reader an understanding of counterfeiting and manufacturing, as well.

‘The Vogue Factor’ by Kirstie Clements

Unceremoniously fired after 25 years of being the editor-in-chief of Australian Vogue, Clements recounts how she worked her way up from being a receptionist to an EIC. The book covers all the mishaps and triumphs in between and offers a behind-the-scenes look on one of most influential magazine franchises.

‘DV’ by Diana Vreeland

As fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and EIC of Vogue, Vreeland is inarguably one of the most influential fashion editors ever. This autobiography tracks Vreeland’s life for 50 years, giving us a front row seat to her artistic genius, her high and low cultural omnivorism, and those witty quotes she’s so well known for.

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