I love fashion, which comes as a shock to no one. Photograph-laden fashion books are fabulous but the stories behind the clothes can be just as intriguing.
IM: A Memoir. Isaac Mizrahi is an award-winning fashion designer. If you’ve seen Isaac on TV, you know that he is enthusiastic, witty, and tells it as it is. These qualities are evident in his memoir, as we discover Isaac is also an engaging storyteller. Along with celebrity encounters and the challenges of the fashion business, we get a glimpse of Isaac as a person: his struggles with depression and insomnia, growing up gay in a sheltered family, and finding love with his husband. (Full disclosure: Isaac complimented me on my dress at a library conference, so I fully admit I may be biased!)
Empress of Fashion: A Life of Diana Vreeland. Diana Vreeland’s influence completely changed fashion journalism. After paying her dues as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Vreeland embraced people like Richard Avedon, and the youthquake of the 1960s, as the editor-in-chief at Vogue. A complicated and divisive figure, Vreeland’s story often mirrors the social and political changes of the 20th century.
Bloom: A Story of Fashion Designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Elsa Schiaparelli loved color and patterns and letting her mind run free. Her bold and unique designs took Paris and the fashion world by storm in the 1930s. This colorful picture book starts with Elsa’s childhood in Rome and shows her influence on the fashion world today.
-Megan C.
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