As it’s World Book Day, we thought we’d take the chance to show off some of our latest aquisitions from the Chelsea Library fashion collection…any excuse really!
From Vogue: the Editor’s Eye, (edited by Eva MacSweeney, 2012), a glossy new purchase full of fantastic images. This photograph is by Annie Leibovitz, from December 2003.
This image is from Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! (edited by Alistair O’Neill, 2013), a publication that accompanied her fabulous collection, photographed by Nick Knight at Blow’s ancestral home.
Another new purchase… Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000, a book encompassing seven decades of extraordinary images by phographer Richard Avedon. This black-and-white shot was taken in 1959.
Naomi Campbell races a cheetah in Hair: Fashion and Fantasy by Laurent Philippon, 2013. Photographed by Jean Paul Goude, another striking image found on our shelves.
Looking through the large scale images in these books is a great way to appreciate some amazing work. As well as our shiny new books, our costume collection also contains some treasures from a bygone age… fashion from before the birth of photography even. The contrast between fashion images then and now is astonishing.
These old volumes are really tactile things that we love to pore over. Do come along to the library to have a look! Happy World Book Day!
Bibliography
Hair: Fashion and Fantasy by Laurent Philippon, 2013
Avedon Fashion, 1944-2000 by Richard Avedo
Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! edited by Alistair O’Neill, 2013. (page 98-99.)
Vogue: the Editor’s Eye edited by Eva MacSweeney, 2012. (page 190-191.)
rbkc libraries blog 