Recommendations based on "West of Eden: An American Place"

Based on your reading history, we think you will also enjoy the following books.

By Anne-Celine Jaeger

The book first focuses on photographers' working practices. What made the photographer start taking pictures? How did he or she develop a signature style? What is the process involved in going from concept to shoot? How important is postproduction? Then the book turns to selection. How does a picture editor decide which photographer to commission for the next fashion spread? What kind of photograph is worthy of being hung in a gallery? What advice would an art book publisher give a budding photographer? Whether it is the question of what to look for in an image, views on cropping, or the pros and cons of color versus black and white, the shapers of taste give acute and useful accounts of their methods.This updated edition includes five new interviews: Pascal Dangin, who pioneered a revolutionary digital scanning technique; Fabrice Dall'Anese, a celebrated French portrait photographer for Vanity Fair, GQ, Elle, and others; Jörg Colberg, creator of the photography blog, Conscientious; Jehad Nga, a self-taught photographer whose focus has recently shifted from photojournalism to fine art photography; and Tim Barber, who launched tinyvices.com in 2005, an online gallery and image archive.

By Patrick Mauriès

"Chanel fans rejoice: [this] book showcases every collection Karl Lagerfeld has designed for the fashion house.... and it’s as glamorous and chic as you’d expect."—The ObserverA comprehensive and captivating overview of Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel creations, featuring more than 150 collections presented through original catwalk photographyThe collections of Karl Lagerfeld have made headlines and dictated trends in the world of fashion ever since his first show for Chanel in 1983. This superbly illustrated and lavishly produced publication---with real cloth binding, irridescent foil stamping, and ribbons for bookmarking your favorite pages---depicts every Chanel collection created by Lagerfeld (more than 150 in all), providing a unique opportunity to chart the development of one of the world’s most influential fashion brands and discover some rarely seen collections.Chanel opens with a brief history and analysis of the House of Chanel from its creation to the present, followed by a biographical profile of Karl Lagerfeld. The collections are explored chronologically with short texts that highlight each collection’s influences and iconic looks, revealing Lagerfeld’s inspired reinvention of classic Chanel style elements from season to season. Each collection is illustrated with a carefully curated selection of catwalk images, showcasing hundreds of spectacular clothes, from luxurious haute couture to trendsetting ready-to-wear, accessories, beauty looks, and set designs. Moreover, top fashion models are featured, including Cara Delevingne, Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss, and Claudia Schiffer. The runway photographs offer a rare glimpse of the original styling from head to toe, and make this book a valuable resource for Chanel connoisseurs. A rich reference section concludes this essential publication for all fashionistas, designers, and admirers of Chanel.

By Prudence Peiffer

Longlisted for the National Book Award · A New York Times Notable Book of the Year · Winner of the New York City Book Award · Shortlisted for the Apollo Book of the Year Award · Shortlisted for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography · Finalist for the Gotham Book Prize · Finalist for the Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award at Interlochen The never-before-told story of an obscure little street at the lower tip of Manhattan and the remarkable artists who got their start there. For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art. Now, for the first time, Prudence Peiffer pays homage to these artists and the unsung impact their work had on the direction of late twentieth-century art and film. This remarkable biography, as transformative as the artists it illuminates, questions the very concept of a “group” or “movement,” as it spotlights the Slip’s eclectic mix of gender and sexual orientation, abstraction and Pop, experimental film, painting, and sculpture, assemblage and textile works. Brought together not by the tenets of composition or technique, nor by philosophy or politics, the artists cultivated a scene at the Slip defined by a singular spirit of community and place. They drew lasting inspiration from one another, but perhaps even more from where they called home, and the need to preserve the solitude its geography fostered. Despite Coenties Slip’s obscurity, the entire history of Manhattan was inscribed into its cobblestones—one of the first streets and central markets of the new colony, built by enslaved people, with revolutionary meetings at the tavern just down Pearl Street; named by Herman Melville in Moby Dick and site of the boom and bust of the city’s maritime industry; and, in the artists’s own time, a development battleground for Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. The Slip’s history is entwined with that of the artists and their art—eclectic and varied work that was made from the wreckage of the city’s many former lives. An ambitious and singular account of a time, a place, and a group of extraordinary people, The Slip investigates the importance of community, and makes an argument for how we are shaped by it, and how it in turns shapes our work. 

By Pamela Clarke Keogh

Everyone, it seems, is a fan of Audrey's. She was Gigi, a princess, Holly Golightly, a nun, Maid Marian, even an angel. And we believed her in every role. But Audrey Hepburn was also one of the most admired and emulated women of the twentieth century, who encouraged women to discover and highlight their own strength. By example, she not only changed the way women dress--she forever altered the way they viewed themselves.But Audrey Hepburn's beauty was more than skin deep. "You know the Audrey you saw onscreen? Audrey was like that in real life, only a million times better," says designer Jeffrey Banks. For the first time, this style biography reveals the details--fashion and otherwise--that contributed so greatly to Audrey's appeal. Drawing on original interviews with Hubert de Givenchy, Gregory Peck, Nancy Reagan, Doris Brynner, and Audrey Wilder, as well as reminiscences of professional friends like Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren, noted Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby, Steven Meisel, and Kevyn Aucoin, Audrey Style brings the Audrey her family and friends loved to life.With more than ninety color and black-and-white photographs, many of which have never before been published, and original designer sketches from Edith Head, Hubert de Givenchy, Vera Wang, Manolo Blahnik, Alexander McQueen, and others, Audrey Style gives measure to the grace, humor, intelligence, generosity, and inimitable fashion sense that was Audrey Hepburn.

By Andy Warhol

A cultural storm swept through the 1960s - Pop Art, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, underground movies - and at its centre sat a bemused young artist with silver hair: Andy Warhol. Andy knew everybody (from the cultural commissioner of New York to drug-driven drag queens) and everybody knew Andy. His studio, the Factory, was the place: where he created the large canvases of soup cans and Pop icons that defined Pop Art, where one could listen to the Velvet Underground and rub elbows with Edie Sedgwick and where Warhol himself could observe the comings and goings of the avant-guarde.

By Alicia Drake

A comprehensive biography of the late designer, Karl Lagerfeld, and his infamous rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent.In the 1970s, Paris fashion exploded like a champagne bottle left out in the sun. Amid sequins and longing, celebrities and aspirants flocked to the heart of chic, and Paris became a hothouse of revelry, intrigue, and searing ambition. At the center of it all were fashion's most beloved luminaries - Yves Saint Laurent, the reclusive enfant terrible, and Karl Lagerfeld, the flamboyant freelancer with a talent for reinvention - and they divided Paris into two fabulous halves. Their enduring rivalry is chronicled in this dazzling exposè of an era: of social ambitions, shared obsessions, and the mesmerizing quest for beauty."Deliciously dramatic... The Beautiful Fall crackles with excitement."-New York Times Book Review"Fascinating." -New York Times"Addictive." -Philadelphia Inquirer"It's like US Weekly, 1970s style." -Gotham"A story constructed as exquisitely as a couture dress. . . . It moves stylishly forward, with frequent over-the-shoulder glances at some very dishy background." -Boston Globe

By Lauren Redniss

Lauren Redniss, acclaimed author of the brilliant biography-in-collage Radioactive, delivers a stunning visual journey through the life of the last Ziegfeld girl, Doris Eaton Travis. Now in paperback for the first time, Century Girl spans the brightest moments in early show business, the major historical landmarks of the 20th century, and the intimate milestones of one woman’s long life. Incorporating hundreds of archival photos and personal clippings with inventive line drawings and a compelling, hand-written narrative, Century Girl is a more than a biography, more than a graphic novel, and more than an art book—it is a singularly original and major work of art that Slate magazine calls “a visually dazzling mélange . . . unlike anything . . . ever seen before” (Best Books of 2006).

By Annie Leibovitz

Annie's work beautifully displayed in black and white. Pages are clean, spine is secure, and we could say "like new" if the dust jacket, which it must have had when it was new, was here.

By Aileen Ribeiro

An entirely new way of looking at the history of fashion through the eyes of artistsThere have always been important links between art and clothing. Artists have documented the ever-evolving trends in fashion, popularized certain styles of dress, and at times even designed fashions. This is the first book to explore in depth the fascinating points of contact between art and clothing, and in doing so it constructs a new and innovative history of dress in which the artist plays a central role.Aileen Ribeiro provides an illuminating account of the relationship between artists and clothing from the 17th century, when a more complex and sophisticated attitude to dress first appeared, to the early 20th century, when the boundaries between art and fashion became more fluid: haute couture could be seen as art, and art used textiles and clothes in highly imaginative ways. Her narrative encompasses such themes as the ways in which clothing has helped to define the nation state; how masquerade and dressing up were key subjects in art and life; and how, while many artists found increasing inspiration in high fashion, others became involved in designing “artistic” and reform dress. Sumptuously illustrated, Clothing Art also delves into the ways in which artists represent the clothes they depict in their work, approaches which range from photographic detail, through varying degrees of imaginative reality, to generalized drapery.

By Coleen McLoughlin

Introducing Coleen Style Queen – a fictional character inspired by the childhood of leading style icon, Coleen McLoughlin. This is a gorgeous series about boys, friendship, family and fashion.Having a style crisis? Is your wardrobe a fashion-free zone? Then maybe I can help. I'm Coleen, and I like to look stylish. Don't get me wrong, I'm no supermodel. Dream on! I guess I'm just your average girl, with annoying parents, a bratty little sis… and a crush on my best friend's big brother. (He is soooo hot!) But this term is going to be the coolest! We're putting on a charity catwalk show. Cue lights… music… and the star of the show with her unique twist on the little black dress… it's Coleen!As well as a great story this book includes top style and fashion tips, and advice on how to customise your clothes and make your own cool accessories. So there’s no excuse not to look super stylish! Born to a happy and close-knit family in Croxteth, Liverpool, Coleen was first snapped by the paparazzi on her way to the school she shared with her boyfriend, football star Wayne Rooney. Since then, Coleen has become darling of the glossy magazines and tabloids who love her for her chic and up-to-date fashion sense and her happy, grounded attitude. Coleen's adopted sister Rosie suffers from a rare genetic disorder, and in 2006 Coleen presented a Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme on the role of children's hospices in helping the families of disabled children. Coleen has also written a magazine column and is the face of many high-profile brands.