The 12 Best Fashion Books Published in 2022 So Far – WWD

Fashion books are favorites among coffee table book collectors, and this year there are already a host of new ones to shop — covering luxury fashion labels from Dior and Fendi to Moschino and Louis Vuitton.

In May, Jeremy Scott released a volume titled “Moschino,” about his role as creative director at Moschino through the publishing company Assouline, and in the same month, Dior released a book through Rizzoli publishers titled “Dior: The Legendary 30, Avenue Montaigne,” about its legendary headquarters and atelier in Paris.

Here, WWD lists some of the most notable fashion book titles published so far in 2022. Read on for more.

“Dior by John Galliano”

Published in January, this fifth volume in a series of books highlighting Dior’s artistic directors, “Dior by John Galliano” follows the creations of British designer John Galliano, while he helmed the house from 1996 to 2011.

With striking, large-scale imagery, the book compiles all of Galliano’s creative work at Dior, including photography by Laziz Hamani, Steven Meisel and Annie Leibovitz, and text by Andrew Bolton, curator of the Costume Institute at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A student of London’s Central Saint Martins, Galliano successfully launched his namesake brand in 1984, became the creative director of ready-to-wear and haute couture at Givenchy in 1995, and dresser at the National Theater. The designer is credited with combining the art of haute-couture costume with illusion.

Assouline, $195

“Moschino”

Designed in collaboration with Jeremy Scott, the creative director of Moschino since 2013, “Moschino,” released in May, is filled with the label’s most special moments, particularly as seen through Scott’s eyes. Written with fashion journalist Alexander Fury, the coffee table book, featuring a silk hardcover, includes images of backstage shows, campaigns, editorials and parties.

Often called the “enfant terrible” of the fashion industry for his rebellious designs, Scott has been credited with revamping the more than 30-year-old Italian fashion label by combining pop-culture references with high fashion.

Assouline, $250

“Love Brings Love: A Homage to Alber Elbaz”

Published in May, “Love Brings Love: A Homage to Alber Elbaz,” pays tribute to late designer Alber Elbaz, best known for reviving Lanvin from 2001 to 2015, who died on April 24, 2021, as a result of COVID-19 complications.

In a memorial show dedicated to the late designer titled “Love Brings Love” on Oct. 5, 2021, 44 designers from France, Japan, Italy and the U.S. designed looks to close out Paris Fashion Week — an event that made history in being the first collaborative memorial fashion show to happen in Paris. Some of Elbaz’s own looks were part of the event as well, produced by his AZ Factory studio and atelier.

This coffee table book is divided into three parts, including pieces written by Elbaz; sketches from the designers and brands who participated in the 2021 memorial show, including Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Valentino; and a section of photographs, including completed dresses by Elbaz.

Rizzoli, $65

“Louis Vuitton Manufactures”

Taking a bit of a different angle than most fashion coffee table books, “Louis Vuitton Manufactures,” by author, historian and journalist Nicholas Foulkes, features the makers behind the luxury label. With more than 350 illustrations, this book, released in February, is a special issue dedicated to the skilled artisans who make up the ateliers of Louis Vuitton, those in France, Switzerland, Italy and the U.S. The silk cover hardback includes images of the label’s many warehouses, such as their low environmental impact workshop in Beaulieu-sur-Layon, France.

Exclusive images of the making of some of the brand’s most notable pieces, like monogrammed trunks and bags, as well as watches and shoes, are also included.

Assouline, $95

“Brioni: Tailoring Legends”

Released in February, “Brioni: Tailoring Legends,” showcases the fine craftsmanship of the Italian label Brioni founded in 1945 by master tailors Nazareno Fonticoli and Gaetano Savini. The menswear brand debuted the first men’s fashion show in 1952 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy, and has had a global influence on menswear since.

With more than 200 images, this book, written by fashion historian Olivier Saillard, includes original photography of archival garments as well as exclusive materials that celebrate the evolution of the house’s men’s style throughout the decades.

Assouline $195

“Dior: The Legendary 30, Avenue Montaigne”

Released on the fashion house’s 75th anniversary in May, “Dior: The Legendary 30, Avenue Montaigne,” looks at the French fashion house’s rich past through the lens of its headquarters and atelier at 30, Avenue Montaigne in Paris’ high-end Triangle d’Or neighborhood, where the finest haute couture shops are located. The iconic address is a Parisian hotel ​​that Christian Dior handpicked himself in 1946, and has since been the home of his couture collections, beginning, most notably, with his inaugural 1947 fashion show, which marked the New Look era’s debut.

This coffee table book written by Pietro Beccari and published in May features exclusive imagery of Christian Dior working in his design studio, backstage fashion shoes, fitting sessions, archival documents and a portfolio of Dior’s designs.

Rizzoli, $45

“The Joy of Movement”

Released in May, “The Joy of Movement,” outlines the extensive 70-year history of skiwear brand Fusalp. Founded in the Alps of eastern France in 1852, the brand is most known for introducing mountain apparel to the mainstream fashion scene, inspired by both alpine skiing and its French roots.

Authored by 2019 Grand Prix de Littérature Dramatique winner, stage director Mohamed El Khatib, the work includes never-before-seen archival material and firsthand accounts of the figures behind the brand.

Abrams, $35

“Hermès: Straight From the Horse’s Mouth”

Published by Abrams in May, “Hermès Straight From the Horse’s Mouth,” combines anecdotes, profiles and testimonies from the label’s saddlers, sales assistants, window dressers and gardeners, that tell the story of Hermès since its founding by Thierry Hermès in 1837. To accompany the text, written by Luc Charbin, the 96-page work includes playful illustrations by Parisian illustrator Alice Charbin.

Amazon, $25.49

“The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese”

“The Fendi Set: From Bloomsbury to Borghese,” published in May, follows Fendi’s head of couture and womenswear Kim Jones, and his inspirational connection to the Bloomsbury Set: an early 20th-century group of British authors, scholars and artists including Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.

The book, with text by Jones, serves to reveal the historical connection between the Bloomsbury Set and the Fendi house through enriched photography by Nikolai von Bismarck of landmarks, sites and scenes in Europe, like the Sissinghurst Castle in England, Rome’s Villa Medici and the Villa Borghese in Rome.

Included in the volume are diary entries, letters and excerpts from Bloomsbury members, with artistic photography designed to bring Jones’ creations to life, and imagery of what Rizzoli called his “eternal muses” — Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Demi Moore, among them — bringing things into the present.

Rizzoli, $135

“Street Unicorns”

Released in May, “Street Unicorns” by award-winning New York-based photographer Robbie Quinn, includes more than 250 images of the city’s “style rebels and bold expressionists.”

A commercial photographer with a focus on environmental portraits, Quinn, as the coffee table book’s title suggests, calls his fashionable subjects “Street Unicorns” and includes their testimonials, aspirations and perspectives as well as their outfits.

Abrams publishing describes the book as: “A vibrant declaration against ageism, racism, homophobia and all other discriminations, this book is a love letter to those who aren’t afraid to stand out, embrace nonconformity and share who they are with the world.”

 Abrams, $29.99

“Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks”

Published in June, “Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks,” reveals some of the most innovative processes today’s shoe industry uses to design footwear, like 3D printing, to sustainable material innovation, like using “leather” made from mushrooms to soles made from recycled ocean plastics.

Written by Elizabeth Semmelhack, the curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Ontario, Canada, the book features in-depth interviews conducted by Semmelhack with well-known designers, including Iris Van Herpen, Steven Smith and the team at virtual shoe company RTFKT, among others. This 224-page collection of footwear innovation is designed to inspire the creative processes for the future of shoes.

Rizzoli, $55

“Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion”

“Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion,” published in February, delves deep into the life of the late and legendary designer, perhaps best known for leading creative direction at Chanel, though even before that he lent his creativity to Fendi and Chloé. And, of course, he had his own namesake label.

Lagerfeld, who died at 85 years old in February 2019, served as the creative director of Chanel from 1983 up until his death and launched Karl Lagerfeld the label in 1984, which he also operated through the end of his life. Written by German editor Alfons Kaiser, a close friend of Lagerfeld, the biography encompasses all eras of the designer’s life, from his adolescence in the “North German flatlands” to his adulthood as the “disciplined Prussian workaholic.”

Abrams publishing said this about the biography: “Drawing from many previously untapped sources, this biography investigates the man behind the persona: the precocious boy who preferred to draw in the attic than play with his peers; the son who quarreled with his parents but never got away from them; Yves Saint Laurent’s competitor, whom he outshone in the end; the brother, uncle, friend — and finally the partner of Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life.”

Abrams, $30