When beautiful heiress Nicky Samuel (1951-2019) left school at the age of 16, she was caught up in the world of Sixties London. Her first job was with Yoko Ono, and she soon fell in love with the owner of the fashionable hippy boutique ‘Granny Takes a Trip’, Nigel Waymouth, whom she married and with whom she later attended the legendary Isle of Wight Pop Concert. She spent time with celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, Roger Vadim, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, and Robert Mapplethorpe. At n...
In Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon is born into a family of perfumers and soon becomes apprenticed to his father's modest perfumerie. But he dreams of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette. His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and wellpatronised in France. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility, Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. Af...
A charming and insightful memoir about coming of age as a fashion journalist in 1980s Paris, by former Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar editor Kate Betts, the author of Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style “You can always come back,” my mother said. “Just go.” As a young woman, Kate Betts nursed a dream of striking out on her own in a faraway place and becoming a glamorous foreign correspondent. After college—and not without trepidation—she took off for Paris, renting a room in the a...
The wardrobe of Queen Elizabeth II, as befits any monarch, is one of exquisite and sumptuous occasion frocks, dignified hats and coats for state visits and national walkabouts and practical clothes for off-duty pursuits. At every appearance, her public watch her closely and her outfits always come in for scrutiny and comment. Published to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee year, this remarkable book takes a fond look back at the days when her Majesty led the way in terms of fashion, showcasing t...
Brought to you by Penguin.Susannah Constantine, our loved style guru and one half of the outrageously popular television programme, What Not to Wear, spent her youth entangled in glitz and glamour. Susannah's very first memoir is filled to the brim with scandalous stories, jaw-dropping royal relationships and star-studded encounters from pop stars to the fashion greats. But beneath it all is a woman who is still getting to know herself, even after falling in love at first sight, presenting one o...
Christian Dior pulled off a coup that would revolutionise the international fashion scene when he showed his first collection on 12 February 1947. Thus was the 'New Look' born, which made his Paris fashion house world-famous overnight. Today Dior's early collections symbolise the rebirth of Paris haute couture after 1945. Within only a few years Christian Dior rose to rule over a flourishing luxury empire and was celebrated throughout the world as the monarch of fashion until his sudden death in...
In this sparkling new vision of the notorious French queen, dynamic young historian Caroline Weber reveals how Marie Antoinette's bold attempts to reshape royal fashion changed the future of the French nation. Marie Antoinette has always been recognised as a style icon, but none of her biographers has paid sustained attention to her clothes. Drawing on new research to illuminate each phase of the queen's tumultuous life, Weber surveys her 'Revolution in Dress', beginning with the young girl accu...
War Paint: Madame Helena Rubinstein and Miss Elizabeth Arden, Their Lives, Their Times, Their Rivalry
by Lindy Woodhead
This “empowering and inspirational” (People) memoir of struggle and perseverance offers new ways of envisioning economic equality for everyone—from a leading activist and fashion pioneer. “With community and sisterhood at its center, Wildflower teaches us that against all odds, we can overcome.”—Rupi Kaur, New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey A BLOOMBERG AND HARPER’S BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Aurora James’s life is a great American “success story”—precisely because it looks...
More than two decades after his death, the name of Spanish couturier Cristobal Balenciaga remains a byword for clothes executed to the highest standards and characterized by their sculptural quality and dramatic use of colour. Yet little has been written about the man renowned as "the Picasso of fashion". This study rectifies that position, and places Balenciaga within the context of French and Spanish fashion of the period. The book unravels some of the mystery surrounding Balenciaga, examining...
Gabrielle Coco Chanel (18831971) is a fashion icon unlike any other. She invented modern clothing for women: at the height of the Belle Ipoque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, costume jewelry, and the exquisitely comfortable suit. She made the first couture perfume, No. 5, which remains the most popular scent ever created. In this beautiful volume, the glorious life...
NEW DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION, AUTHORISED BY CHANEL "Chanel is France's greatest figure... the most impetuous, the most brilliantly insufferable woman there ever was." Paul Morand Paul Morand's last book, one of the most appealing of his oeuvre, brings together around the figure of Chanel, portraits of Misia Sert, Erik Satie, Serge Lifar, Georges Auric, Raymond Radiguet, Jean Cocteau, Picasso and Churchill, among others. Based on a series of intimate conversations between Morand and Coco Chanel, w...
