April Malmsteen's Recommendations for the Best Fashion Coffee Table Books

In our fast and busy digital era, having a moment to sit down in a comfy chair with a real book is something unreal - and thus, very valuable. You know what happens with books if they are placed on the coffee table or console, close to a conversation area or at the reading nook in your living room? They get noticed, looked through and read!

Here is April's round-up of essential fashion coffee table books - all of them absolutely gorgeous-looking and worth the read from cover-to-cover.

CHANEL AND HER WORLD

Edmonde Charles-Roux

Coco Chanel is a fashion icon unlike any other. She invented modern clothing for women: at the height of the Belle Époque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits, and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced slacks, costume jewelry, and the exquisitely comfortable suit. She made the first couture perfume—No. 5—which remains the most popular scent ever created.

In this beautiful volume, the glorious life of the incomparable Coco Chanel shines again through hundreds of illustrations and the lively prose of Edmonde Charles-Roux, her official biographer and close friend.

THE WOMAN I WANTED TO BE

Diane Furstenberg

One of the most influential, admired, and colorful women of our time: fashion designer and philanthropist Diane von Furstenberg tells the most personal stories from her life, about family, love, beauty and business.

Diane von Furstenberg started with a suitcase full of jersey dresses and an idea of who she wanted to be—in her words, “the kind of woman who is independent and who doesn’t rely on a man to pay her bills.” She has since become that woman, establishing herself as a major force in the fashion industry, all the while raising a family, maintaining that “my children are my greatest creation.”
 

THE LITTLE DICTIONARY OF FASHION

Christian Dior

 Christian Dior reveals the secrets of style in this charming handbook that no woman should be without. An indispensable guide that covers everything from what to wear to a wedding and how to tie a scarf to how to walk with grace, The Little Dictionary of Fashion is full of timeless tips.

From afternoon frocks and accessories to traveling and tweed, Dior's expertise ensures every girl will know the three fundamentals of fashion: simplicity, grooming, and good taste. 

VANITY FAIR: 100 YEARS

Graydon Carter

Vanity Fair: 100 Years showcases a century of personality and power, art and commerce, crisis and culture—both highbrow and low. From its inception in 1913, through the Jazz Age and the Depression, to its reincarnation in the boom-boom Reagan years, to the image-saturated Information Age, Vanity Fair has presented the modern era as it has unfolded, using wit, imagination, peerless literary narrative, and bold, groundbreaking imagery from the greatest photographers, artists, and illustrators of the day.

ESTĒE: A SUCCESS STORY

Estēe Lauder

First published in 1985 and now back in print in a beautifully designed edition, this is a book filled with the inspirations, strategies, and the well-lived instincts that led Estee Lauder from a childhood upbringing in Queens, New York, to the pinnacle of New York society and international style. Personal reminiscence, business triumphs, and high society are the ingredients of the autobiography of the doyenne of the cosmetics industry, who talks about the beginnings of her business, success, and the tension between a career and family.

VOGUE: The Editor's Eye

Conde Nast

Vogue: The Editor’s Eye celebrates the pivotal role the fashion editor has played in shaping America’s sense of style since the magazine’s launch 120 years ago. Drawing on Vogue’s exceptional archive, this book focuses on the work of eight of the magazine’s legendary fashion editors (including Polly Mellen, Babs Simpson, and Grace Coddington) who collaborated with photographers, stylists, and designers to create the images that have had an indelible impact on the fashion world and beyond. Featuring the work of world-renowned photographers such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Annie Leibovitz and model/muses, including Marilyn Monroe, Verushka, and Linda Evangelista, The Editor’s Eye is a lavishly illustrated look at the visionary editors whose works continue to reverberate in the culture today.