Fashion books make stylish Christmas gifts

This holiday season a fashion book just might be the perfect present for that finicky fashionista on your gift list. After all, fashion shouldn’t just belong in one’s closet. It also looks good on a shelf or best of all, a coffee table.

Here are 10 suggestions with some sartorial sass. Best of all, one size fits all.

"Harper’s Bazaar Models" by Derek Blasberg

Style synopsis: For generations, the pages of Harper’s Bazaar has been home to supermodels Suzy Parker, Jean Shrimpton, Iman, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen. In this book, author Blasberg interviews models for their stories behind the famous images.

Quick read/page 222: "Assuming that the definition of a model is a real-life mannequin, Christy Turlington could be classified as the perfect example. Or so says the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which, in 1993, used Christy’s bone structure as the basis for the official mannequins of the Costume Institute. ‘We wanted beauty that transcends time, like the faces on ancient Egyptian carvings,’ Costume Institute curator Harold Koda explained to People magazine. ‘Christy’s face is the most elegant I’ve seen, all in perfect balance.’"

"Creating The Illusion: A Fashionable History of Hollywood Costume Designers" by Jay Jorgensen and?Donald L. Scoggins

Style synopsis: For that someone who loves movies, costumes and fashion, here’s a great photo-filled book that explores all three. The authors have profiled renowned costumers — Sophie Wachner, Adrian, Edith Head, Cecil Beaton, Theadora Van Runkle and more — who have worked in film from the silent era to the present.

Quick read/page 127: "For a designer trained in the couture houses of Europe, Elois Jenssen had a surprisingly irreverent attitude toward fashion. Although her costumes for?Hedy Lamar were as elegant as any Dior or Chanel creation, Jenssen believed that an actress should dress as she pleased offscreen, no matter how tasteless or over-the-top. ‘If she wants to wear beaded dresses and marabou and ostrich feathers, let her. It’s going to make her a lot happier than the latest creation, and will get her the attention she wants. I don’t know who started all this business about a star being well dressed anyhow.’"

"Rowing Blazers," by Jack Carlson

Style synopsis: Featuring photographs by F. E. Castleberry, this book looks at the authentic striped, piped, trimmed and badged blazers still worn by oarsmen and women at elite schools and universities, and the historic races associated with them.

Quick read/page 9: "There is no article of clothing that can quite match the blazer in both pedigree and street cred. The now-ubiquitous dark blue blazer is inexorably British but has become a permanent icon of American style … it is no wonder that the famous ‘Official Preppy Handbook’ referred to the blazer simply as ‘the exoskeleton.’"

photo: black formal dresses

"Iconic Dresses: 25 Moments in Twentieth Century Fashion," by William Banks-Blaney

Style synopsis: Through his selection of 25 iconic vintage dresses Banks-Blaney tells the history of 20th century couture from such designers as Chanel, Lanvin, Vionnet, Balenciaga, Dior, Halston and more.

Quick read/page 123: "When thinking of Chanel it is more often the iconic, tailored suit that enters our mind rather than the earlier glories of a fashion house that was first mentioned in Vogue in 1913. To understand the impact of the Chanel suit, it is vital to remember the dark period of Chanel’s life and career that surrounded its birth and led her to fall from being a source of national pride to becoming the most hated woman in France."

"Timeless Beauty," by Christie Brinkley

Style synopsis: Drawing on her years of experience as a supermodel, Brinkley, 61, shares more than 100 tips, secrets and shortcuts to looking great with an emphasis on health and wellness. She also offers advice on what to eat, makeup tips for a more youthful face and fashion advice on necklines and hemlines.

Quick read/page 158: "Trends come and go, but certain timeless items are always in style. Build a wardrobe of these go-to pieces (in go-with-everything colors like black, gray, white, khaki and navy), and you’ll never be left with that ‘I have nothing to wear’ feeling. And it’s worth it to spend a little more on classics that will last through the years."

"Before Marilyn: The Blue Book Modeling Years" by Astrid Franse and Michelle Morgan

Style synopsis: Featuring an archive of 200 photographs, Monroe is captured lounging in swimsuits, posing in pigtails as the girl next door, modeling in fashion shows and appearing in clothing store and airline print ads. That’s when she was a model at Hollywood’s Blue Book Agency. The archive was purchased by Franse and with Morgan, the two chart almost every modeling job Monroe did.

Quick Read/page 111: "Marilyn later remembered that most of the photos used of her were for men’s magazines. ‘Magazines with cover girls who are not flat-chested. I was on ‘See’ four or five months in a row. Each time they changed my name. One month I was Norma Jeane Dougherty; the second month I was Jean Norman. I don’t know what all the names they used were but I must have looked different each time. There were different poses — outdoors, indoors, but mostly just sitting, looking over the Pacific. You looked at those pictures and you didn’t see much ocean, but you saw a lot of me.’"

"Pret-A-Party: Great Ideas for Good Times and Creative Entertaining," by Lela Rose

Style synopsis: Fashion designer Lela Rose presents an inspiring manifesto for creative and stylish entertaining. From the spirited couples’ cook-off to a kid-friendly "Primp Your Ride" bike picnic to an elegant silver-and-white Christmas dinner, Rose presents dozens of fresh takes on entertaining.

Quick Read/page 66: "I love to entertain at a friend’s house because it gives me the chance to root around in their cabinets and closets for things to put together a table with. It is such fun to see what friends have bought and collected over the years, and put those to use in a way that feels fresh and new — usually for both of us."

"The Sartorialist X," by Scott Schuman

Style synopsis: Ten years ago Schuman pioneered a unique genre of street fashion photography with his Sartorialist blog. Now his third book shares the world’s visual and cultural diversity with street style images from Marrakesh to Milan, from Pennsylvania to Paris and 17 other stops along the way.

Quick Read/page 264: "One of the things I love most about street photography is that it requires patience, often hours of it, with little hope of success. However the fact that at any given moment you could take the best photo of your career is the thing that keeps most photographers on the hunt."

"Fifty Fashion Designers That Changed The World," by Lauren Cochrane

Style synopsis: Fashion trends come and go, but the work of designers such as Coco Chanel, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen and Phoebe Philo, among others, stand the test of time as illustrated in this collection of era-defining taste makers.

Quick Read/page 70: "If one aspect of 1980s fashion was all bodycon dressing and party frocks, the emergence of Japanese design on the international stage worked as a counterpoint to that. Along with Rei Kawakubo, of Comme des Garcons, and Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake presented clothes that put concept over sex appeal, and function over glamour."

"Tattoo Street Style," by Nicolas Brulez

Style synopsis: Tattoos, once the domain of underground subculture, are now ubiquitous with one in five Americans proud owners of something inked on their person, so says?Nicolas Brulez. The author spent the past three years documenting the tattoos of hundreds of people worldwide, from composers to artists to circus performers.

Quick Read/page 90: "Writing is done everywhere, and always has been: on stone, marble, terracotta, paper, cardboard, and plastic, as well as on screens, in sand, even in the air — and on the body. The tattoo machine is a writing tool just like the stylus or nib, acting as an extension of the hand so that it can fulfill the ancient act of transferring the spoken word to written form on the skin, entering the realm of ‘graphic reason,’ to use the seminal description of British anthropologist Jack Goody."

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