Books

OMG! It’s raining pretty publications!




It’s so nice to see some genuinely creative how-to fashion books being published. I’ve already blogged about Like I Give A Frock by Michi (above and below) which isn’t really a how-to book but is very pretty and an entertaining read.

Natalie Bloom (of the Bloom beauty product empire) has published Beauty in Bloom, a gently-illustrated ode to all thing beautiful and beauty-related to appeal to those (like me) who can’t get enough of foundation splodges and lipstick scribbles.

Somehow the latest offering from Gisele Scanlon escaped my attention when it came out so I need to do some catching up. Scanlon’s Goddess Guide was an instant bestseller and the follow-up, The Goddess Experience, offers more illustration and collagy fun alongside her in-the-know tips and discoveries.
More sartorial sketches are to be admired in the form of My Wonderful World of Fashion, a colouring book with a difference from illustrator Nina Chakrabarti. As well as sketches of Vivienne Westwood shoes to be coloured in by all ages of fashionistas, there are also how-to-make-a-sari tutorials and did-you-know fashion history lessons.

*Sigh*…who needs Colleen et al when you can have all this?

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The Sartorialist – the book




I’ve just spent the last hour savouring every page of Scott Schuman’s chunky softback tome, The Sartorialist, which was gifted to me last week by the generous Mr Gentry.

This is not a book to be flicked through. It needs to be leisurely studied, preferably sitting at a table because it’s over 500 pages thick and there is no way you can casually hold it in your hands and skim through – it’s not a copy of Look. All the greats are in there including Giovanna, Emanuelle Alt, Kate Lanphear and George Cortina (above). Cortina is my personal favourite. A stylist, his look is all about how to wear clothes rather than what he wears. The rolled up sleeves, just-worn-in-enough shoes, half-tuck tee. This is how I like to dress as avoiding ‘It’ pieces inevitably means that what you wear has longevity. Despite what Schuman says in his intro, I still maintain that his commentary helps to add value to the pictures, especially when it’s a cute story relaying how the picture came about.

The book is published in the UK on 3rd September and can be preordered on Amazon. Check out Mr Gentry’s blog here, there aren’t many mens style blogs out there, this one is worth bookmarking.

PS: LAST TWO DAYS TO VOTE DISNEYROLLERGIRL IN THE DAZED/GSTAR BLOG AWARDS!

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Rocking read – the Johnsons story




Back in my dim and distant schooldays, we used to hang out every day a fair bit at Kensington Market at the tail end of Kensington High Street. This legendary place had everything a neurotic fashion outsider could want – record shops, army surplus, James Dean postcards (my teen obsession), punk T-shirts and Johnsons. I didn’t hang out at Johnsons but I used to have the odd snoop. Johnsons was the first port of call for visiting pop stars (proper pop stars wot we had in them days) staying at the Royal Garden Hotel across the road and was wall-to-wall leather jackets, Americana and biker boots. God it was cool (and expensive).

The Look has alerted me to a brilliant new book that has been published about Johnson’s and its label La Rocka! I’m especially loving the pages of airbrushed leather biker jackets making me think, hmmm, surely ripe for revival, no? The book also contains pictures of Robot shoes, another long-lost eighties London landmark and the go-to shop for a natty new pair of brothel creepers. Aside from anything else, it’s great to know there are people who have documented and archived all this amazingly important fashion ephemera and information. The book isn’t available in this country but if you’re based in Japan, you can buy it here.

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