Here’s our end-of-year roundup of the most stylish books to read, give and get this winter.
Chanel Haute Couture edited by filmmaker Sofia Coppola.Supplied
Chanel Haute Couture edited by Sofia Coppola (MACK Books)
Coppola, who interned at Chanel under Karl Lagerfeld in 1986 while still in her teens, sifts through the archives to unearth gems from across 110 years of couture.
The acclaimed filmmaker’s selections reflect her discerning eye and are rendered in her collage style, juxtaposing studio photography by Man Ray and Irving Penn with illustrations by artists such as Antonio Lopez, candids of tastemakers wearing the label and as-yet unseen behind-the-scenes snaps and sketches. The gold-bound scrapbook, recalling a box of chocolates, is a must-have for any fashion lover.
Michelle Obama and Meredith Koop's The Look.Supplied
The Look by Michelle Obama with Meredith Coop (Crown)
From Jackie Kennedy to Melania Trump, the FLOTUS’s fashion choices have always made headlines, studied closely for political meaning and soft diplomacy. Compiled by Obama herself, these photographs and reflections on the evolution of her personal style, from Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign through the White House years, are a meditation on identity, the power of clothes and the expectations placed on women in the public eye.
Make It Ours by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Robin Givhan.Supplied
Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil Abloh by Robin Givhan (Crown)
Before he died of cancer in 2021 at 41, visionary designer Virgil Abloh disrupted the luxury fashion industry with his bold approach. This book by Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan traces the trained architect’s evolution from hip-hop culture to customizing Ralph Lauren pieces to collaborating with Kanye West and becoming the first Black artistic director of Louis Vuitton.
It’s as much a portrait of Abloh’s maverick spirit and genre-bending work in art, fashion and design as the dramatically changing times he lived in.
Erdem by Montreal-born designer Erdem Moralioglu.Supplied
Erdem (Rizzoli)
Montreal-born, London-based designer Erdem Moralioglu quotes Emily Dickinson’s “forever is composed of nows” (also embossed on the book’s cloth-bound cover) to explain the collection of conversations, inspirations and experiences assembled in these gorgeous pages.
Rather than following a strict timeline, the book moves through thematic fragments to mark the 20th anniversary of the designer’s eponymous label. The volume touches family albums, a childhood obsession with the Anne of Green Gables miniseries (and Anne’s mutton sleeves) and finding inspiration for ballet costumes and runway looks in Adele Astaire, Maria Callas and 19th-century botanical drawings.
Marisa Meltzer's It Girl recounts Jane Birkin's impact.Supplied
It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin by Marisa Meltzer (Atria Books)
The obsession with effortless French Girl Style can arguably be traced back to the artfully dishevelled British-born actress and singer who became a cultural phenomenon in the 1960s (and, in 1984, the namesake of Hermès’s coveted, record-breaking bag).
Meltzer draws on media coverage, Birkin’s published diaries and other sources (her family and friends didn’t participate) to peel back the curtain on the style icon’s mystique. Pair the biography with Sophie Gachet’s new coffee table tome, Jane Birkin: Icon of Style.
The Bible of British Taste by Ruth Guilding.Supplied
The Bible of British Taste: Stories of Home, People and Places by Ruth Guilding (Quarto)
Armed with the mantra that “old stuff is good and perfection is boring,” art history and interiors maven Ruth Guilding visits Britain’s eclectic homes and gardens, highlighting the quirky charm that makes each one unique.
This book collects more than a decade of her idiosyncratic subjects – manors, cottages and flats representing a range of lifestyles and price points, plus a few house museums (like Bloomsbury’s Charleston House). Though the lived-in English country house look is a recurring aesthetic, there’s no one unifying principle beyond individuality, confidence and character.
In Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, The Met explores Black dandyism and its latest gala.Supplied
Superfine: Tailoring Black Style by Monica L. Miller, with Andrew Bolton, William DeGregorio and Amanda Garfinkel (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Met’s lavish catalogue distills its recent Costume Institute exhibition (and famed gala) on the cultural and historical significance of the Black dandy, examining how style is reflected in Black identities across the Atlantic diaspora.
Met guest curator Miller, professor and chair of Africana Studies at Barnard College, looks at Black representation and its complicated legacy through the facets of heritage, respectability and freedom. The book traces these ideas from their origins in Enlightenment-era European art and literature up to the latest contemporary fashion.
Claire McCardell by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson.Supplied
Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson (Simon & Schuster)
We have midcentury pioneer Claire McCardell to thank for utilitarian pockets, mix-and-match separates and ballet flats. Gracing the cover of Time and named by Life as one of the most influential Americans of the century, her clothing rebelled against Dior’s constricting New Look and quietly revolutionized the way women dressed.
You can trace that elegant, empowering DNA through to contemporary designers such as Phoebe Philo and Tory Burch. Yet while McCardell’s legacy endures, the woman herself has been largely forgotten. Probing the designer’s life, business acumen and influence, this biography restores her to fashion history.
40 years of the footwear franchise is celebrated by Adam Bradley in Air Jordan.Supplied
Air Jordan by Adam Bradley (Assouline)
Released on April 1, 1985, the sneaker created for then-unknown rookie Michael Jordan changed the licensed athletic shoe business as much as Jordan himself helped transform the game into a global preoccupation. This book celebrates forty years of the footwear franchise, from its earliest iterations to the brand’s expansion into other sports beyond basketball, as well as its social and philanthropic legacy.
Anna Sui: The Nineties explores her influence on the era's fashion.Supplied
The Nineties x Anna Sui (Rizzoli)
Just as nineties teen classic Clueless and its enduring costume design celebrate its 30th anniversary (as if!), Anna Sui’s outsized influence on the era gets its own tribute. This time capsule celebrates the consummate downtown New York designer’s defining decade.
It revels in Sui’s slip dresses and neo-baby doll looks on the runway (modelled by Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista), on stage (on Courtney Love and Kim Gordon) and on Gen X royalty (including Winona Ryder and Jennifer Jason Leigh). Adding to the nostalgic vibe, the book is a loose compilation of tear sheets, press clippings, collected Polaroids and other ephemera that give it the feel of zine.
Granny Takes a Trip by British music journalist Paul Gorman.Supplied
Granny Takes a Trip: High Fashion and High Times at the Wildest Rock ’N’ Roll Boutique by Paul Gorman (Hachette Mobius)
On the eve of its 60th anniversary comes the inside story of cult King’s Road boutique store Granny Takes a Trip. Opened by vintage clothing dealer Sheila Cohen, graphic designer Nigel Waymouth and Savile Row-trained tailor John Pearse, the influential shop was the epicentre of Swinging London counterculture. Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Marianne Faithfull, the Byrds, the Who, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were all regulars.
In this volume, British music journalist Paul Gorman gathers archival images that embody the cross-pollination of Youthquake psychedelia across clothing, music and celebrity.