The Art of Ruth E Carter: Costuming Black History and the Afrofuture, from Do the Right Thing to Black Panther
By Ruth E Carter
In an interview with The Guardian, Ruth E Carter said: “When we made [Do the Right Thing, in 1989], we were seeing a future of Black people in storytelling.” That future is here. Carter is the first Black woman to pick up two Oscars — for costume design for the superhero film Black Panther in 2019 and its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last month. She is using her creations to celebrate Black heroes and shape the story of their experience on screen. Through ’80s streetwear like the black leather or gold metallic fringe mini dresses Tina Turner sizzled in on stage, chunky jewellery, clashing leopard prints and neon jumpsuits, and royal regalia for a mythical family in Wakanda, Carter has brought Afrofuturism to the mainstream. She talks about her origins and three decades of work in this book, which also packs film stills, sketches and mood boards. It is available from May 23.
Paradise Now: The Extraordinary Life of Karl Lagerfeld
By William Middleton
In 1954, 21-year-old Karl Lagerfeld wrote to his mother, saying that being noticed “is the only thing that matters to me … I don’t care what people say as long as they say something”. Lots have been said since about the German designer who was the creative director of French maison Chanel for 35 years. Lagerfeld died in 2019 at the age of 85. William Middleton, who first met him in 1995 while working in Paris, wrote Paradise Now to document his public image — sharp suits, dark sunglasses, powdered white ponytail, acerbic remarks — and also look behind it to “see how Karl became Karl”. The journalist-cum-author takes readers from the catwalk to exclusive rooms to meet stars, socialites and artists, some of whom Lagerfeld fell out with. He presents another perspective of the man whose “basic premise is to make fashion easier for a woman. Because a woman, especially one who is active and involved and for whom I especially enjoy designing, has to live with her clothes just as easily as she lives with her skin”.
Kimono Style: Edo Traditions to Modern Design
By Monikaa Bincsik, Karen Van Godtsenhoven + Masanao Arai
At the time when Western clothing was being introduced to Japan during the Meiji period (1868–1912), Japanese women began to gain more access to silk kimonos because of modernisation and social change. Around the 1920s, affordable meisen or ready-to-wear kimono became very popular, reflecting a more Westernised lifestyle. Department stores sold them following marketing strategies used in the West. With the influx of Western culture and art, the traditional kimono slowly changed from a garment denoting the wearer’s social position and wealth to one that proclaimed emancipation and the “new woman”. Conversely, the garment’s rectangular shape inspired Western designers to pick up fabrics from Japan and break away from traditional forms and silhouettes. Juxtaposing never-before-published Japanese textiles from the John C Weber Collection with Western couture, the authors trace the modern history of the kimono and its relationship with Western culture.
See also: 8 books that look at fashion from different angles
René Hubert: The Man Who Dressed Film Stars and Airplanes
Edited by Andres Janser
If actors stay in our minds because of what they wear on screen, then many a big star owes his or her fame to Swiss costume designer René Hubert (1895–1976), a two-time Academy Award nominee for his work on Désirée (1954) and The Visit (1964). “Opulence was his style,” film historian Andres Janser said of Hubert, whom Gloria Swanson hired to design and tailor all her clothes for theatre, film and personal wardrobe. They met in Paris in 1924 and on her advice, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he began dressing stars such as Tallulah Bankhead, Ingrid Bergman, Laurence Olivier, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe in films by René Clair, Alfred Hitchcock and Otto Preminger. Hubert also “demilitarised” Swissair’s staff uniforms and defined the shade of blue for its costumes. “Swissair Blue” became part of the airline’s brand identity from 1950.
Queen Elizabeth II: A Lifetime Dressing for the World Stage
By Jane Eastoe
Whether she was standing tall in her coronation gown decorated with embroidered latticework, stepping out in a tailored suit on her North American tour, or flashing that beloved smile beneath a hatful of flowers, Her Late Majesty’s dress choices showed a strong sense of style, developed and refined throughout her life, Hazel Clark, a professor of design and fashion studies at Parsons, said in Time magazine. “That consistency creates a sense of confidence and continuity.” Here, Eastoe looks at how practicality and the finest fabrics stitched the wardrobe of the queen, who always dressed with poise and diplomacy when carrying out her duties. With her “rare understanding of the value of impeccable dressing”, she influenced style and left a legacy of clothes created by some of the world’s best designers.
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The Rebel’s Wardrobe: The Untold Story of Menswear’s Renegade Past
By Bryan Szabo
Remember how screen rebels James Dean and Marlon Brando flaunted rough-edged masculinity and bulging biceps in a white tee, turning it into a symbol of cool? What fans may not know is that, more often than not, it was the working-class heroes who pushed utilitarian menswear to the forefront of fashion. Szabo pulls out 40 iconic pieces from the male wardrobe and traces who first produced them and how they became an indispensable part of our lifestyle. From everyday wear such as denim trousers to polo shirts, five-pocket pants, cable-knit sweaters, engineer boots, bomber jackets and competition sweaters, he reveals the stories behind each rebel style so the renegade brigade will better understand the clothes we wear and why we wear them.
Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style
By Elena Romero + Elizabeth Way
Hip hop started after DJ Kool Herc and his sister Cindy put on a “back to school jam” at their apartment in the West Bronx, New York, in 1973 and created the style that became the blueprint for a genre that exploded into a culture. Driven by aspiration, individuality and imagination, hip hop influenced music and fashion as B-boys and B-girls applied fly touches — a permanent crease in their jeans and shoelaces ironed flat and fat — to their dance uniforms. Aerosol artists added graphic designs; rappers, fans and brands mixed luxury pieces with casual sportswear; and different cities and regions began creating their own contemporary looks. Journalists who were there when hip-hop style began and photographers such as Janette Beckman, Jamel Shabazz and Ernie Paniccioli who captured how it evolved and spread from hair to nails, shoes, sneakers and apparel, share their stories.
Food & Fashion
Edited by Melissa Marra-Alvarez, Elizabeth Way
Food and fashion, an unenticing pairing for those who wrongly equate sustenance with size, go back 250 years in this book, which accompanies an upcoming exhibition of the same name at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, scheduled to be held in September this year. FIT is New York’s only museum dedicated solely to the art of fashion. Food culture has found expression in fashion and it connects to socio-cultural changes across centuries. From haute couture and cuisine to fast food chic; the restaurant as a fashionable, feminine space; protest fashion and farm workers; and eating with the eye, with art being more than dressing; and dieting and disorder; the editors examine how food meets fashion on the table, along runways and in the streets. Chapters on Chinese, African and Japanese fare, transcultural transformations, and fashion and food on Instagram take dressing and dining to a different level.
Italian Textile Design: From Art Deco to the Contemporary
Italy’s textile sector reportedly represents 6.7% of the global textile and clothing trade. The country has been producing fabrics since the 11th century and it is natural that they contribute to its reputation for high-quality fashion and design. Italian artists, product designers, companies and fashion designers use local fabrics and innovative techniques before proudly stitching the “Made in Italy” label onto swirling kaftans, shirts, skirts, scarves, bags, wallpaper, upholstery and shoes. This volume, available from June 18, documents the history of Italian textiles from the early 1900s until today and shows how they have evolved in relation to dominant styles of various periods. Designers featured include Dolce & Gabbana, Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Franco Moschino, Prada, Emilio Pucci, Ken Scott, Valentino and Versace.
Pat in the City: My Life of Fashion, Style, and Breaking All the Rules
By Patricia Field
Her name may not be familiar but her work certainly is, from Carrie Bradshaw’s tutu and tank top combo in Sex and the City to the iconic dress-for-success outfits in The Devil Wears Prada. Avant-garde New York designer-cum-stylist Field, 82, started out peddling men’s pants and ran a small store in the East Village that served as a haven for drag queens, club kids and starving artists. She has seen them all, from Chanel-influenced fashion of the ’50s to grunge downtown attire of the electric ’80s to renegade fashion. She talks about love, passion and culture in this memoir and how she disdains formulas, preferring to challenge convention and be inspired by timelessness and quality as fashion evolved or went round in cycles.
Abloh tribute and a Work in Progress
Before he died at the age of 41 in November 2021, Virgil Abloh had been working on a book for several years about his process and practice, together with Anja Aronowsky Cronberg, the founder and editor-in-chief of Paris-based academic fashion publication Vestoj.
One World will publish Work in Progress posthumously, taking the book’s title from a phrase the late founder and CEO of Off-White used to describe his [work] process.
“My investigation, my work, my trajectory speak, I hope, to a generation of young black people who need to know that there’s an open space for them to occupy too. But it’s a work in progress,” Abloh said in an interview Vestoj published a month after he succumbed to angiosarcoma, a rare, aggressive form of cancer. He had been diagnosed in 2019.
One World, a Penguin Random House imprint, announced its intention to Vogue last year but has not set a publication date for the book, “a hybrid work that combines cultural criticism, theory, art and personal narrative”.
Aronowsky Cronberg said the book will be based on conversations she had with Abloh about his “process and ‘logic’, ideas central to his practice: irony and earnestness, hybridity, paradox, the value of originality and the policing of ‘good’ taste”.
At the time of his death, Abloh, who often spoke about his belief that art has the power to inspire future generations, was the men’s artistic director for Louis Vuitton, the first African American to lead the French luxury label, from 2018, after succeeding Kim Jones.
For those who cannot wait until Work in Progress sees print, there is Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh, the first book to be released since the death of the fashion visionary who was also an architect, engineer, deejay and musician.
Written by Anders Christian Madsen and released last September, it captures the relationship between him and the maison and how, together, they broke boundaries and used menswear to draw attention to Black culture and Black talent.
The limited-edition book has more than 320 images from Abloh’s time at the maison. It is a salute to his life, influence and career as he pushed for change through his designs.
There are quotes from the man himself and personal reflections by close friends, among them Kendall Jenner, Luka Sabbat, Kid Cudi and Nigo. A complete catalogue of sneakers by the designer who reimagined 10 of Nike’s top sneakers in 2016 is included in this 359-page tribute.
This son of Ghanaian immigrants collaborated with many brands, wowing fans by merging streetwear with high fashion and winning followers by using Off-White to help communities in need.
Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh is published by Assouline and available in two collectible covers. One cover features a cartoon artwork by artist Reggieknow who illustrated Abloh’s SS21 menswear show.
The other shows the emblematic red balloon that flew across Louis Vuitton’s SS22 spinoff show in Miami, the last one designed by the icon.
Assouline was founded in Paris in 1994 by Prosper and Martine Assouline, for whom “books are a matter of intellect and emotion, of heritage and innovation”. Led by an eye for visually rich stories and compelling narratives, they aim to create a new, contemporary style of book. The pair also offer a curated library service whereby they work with clients to visualise, design and develop bespoke, one-of-a-kind libraries.
