Though not as orderly or thorough as some fashion history books, Winifred Gallagher does a stellar job of looking at the handbag through a pair of Tom Ford shades from a variety of perspectives.
She includes fun and thoughtful interviews with style gurus like Candy Pratts-Price and Ellen Goldstein-Lynch, asking questions that I’d personally probe given the chance. And unlike some q and a’s in fashion books today, this guide reads like a juicy novella, full of tips and tricks to finding the perfect bag.
From Chanel to Hermes, Gallagher does her insightful duty researching why ‘it’ bags are on the arms of the world’s most powerful women, and why these women choose to carry the bags they do.
The perfect pick-up read to carry in your purse.
It’s in the Bag, by: Winifred Gallagher, $15.72, amazon.ca
There are few things I enjoy as much as fashion.
Excepting, perhaps, looking through photographs that depict near-perfect examples of it.
Check this treasury of portraits, quotes, and personal style from Pascal Morche. Morche's A Year in Fashion is nothing if not inspiring.
Who knew getting dressed could be so much fun?
A Year in Fashion
From fashion historian Jonathan Walford comes a comprehensive look at the evolution of footwear through the last four centuries. An amazing history book, The Seductive Shoe features a chronological rundown of unique and relatively unknown details on how shoe design changed with world circumstances. Walford elaborates on changes in shoe production, and how certain shoe styles were originally developed.
Overflowing with vivid photographs (which I think are reminiscent of Bata Shoe Museum’s shoe calendar), this book is an essential footwear glossary and great reference work for aspiring designers and shoe collectors. It also features a fairly well documentated appendix, lisiting popular designer names, though this appendix could have catered to lesser known names.
I certainly recommend The Seductive Shoe for every female; who doesn’t love shoes? It would make an excellent coffee table book, though most readers will have a hard time putting it down.
The Seductive Shoe: Four Centuries of Fashion Footwear by Jonathan Walford, $30.24, Amazon.ca
To be blunt, there are few men I know — who aren’t gay — who would take this book and actually use it as a style dictionary; there are many men I know who need to do just that.
Mr Classic, which also could be titled How A Woman Wants Her Man to Dress, is the pictorial authority on English style for guys. Hackett explores relevant issues, like why the men of today’s generation still dress like boys with little or no thought put into their wardrobe, and more practical topics, like how long socks and suit jackets should really be.
And while Hackett’s direction for men on the ‘how-to’s’ of getting dressed is compelling, I found myself more captivated by his inspiring collection of photographs and his detailed descriptions of polo matches and picnics.
Featuring 136 illustrations and endless necessitous information, Mr Classic is both a classic read and guide for guys on how to dress to impress –
Or at least on how to dress different than the male models in an Abercrombie catalogue.
Mr Classic, designed by Jeremy Hackett, $60, Yoox.com
You know him because he’s the fashion editor at the Today show. He’s also a frequent face on E! Entertainment’s Style Network. Now you can know him for his fabulous fashion hints 365 days a year in his latest book.
Offering advice not just about the physical side of your wardrobe, but how you actually feel on the inside about yourself, Lloyd Boston presents a style book as unique as the advice it contains.
Featuring his very own illustrations, Boston takes readers from season to season, offering helpful hints from finding the perfect tailor to organizing closet space.
It’s a helpful guide for any woman working on a personal fashion resolution.
Before You Put That On, by Lloyd Boston, $23.91, Amazon.ca
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