Chic Reads

As someone who collects design books, I am very much looking forward to the release of these titles come September and November.

I have one of David Downton's sketches, the one used for the cover of 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. This new book, Master of Fashion Illustration, which he penned/edited/curated lists all the greatest fashion illustrators, as well as discusses the time when magazines only had illustrated covers.

More fashion sketches with Manolo's New Shoes

I love Cecil Beaton's work especially his photography. This tome Cecil Beaton: The Art of the Scrapbook should let us into the mind of the creative genius.

Christian Dior's love for America is chronicled in this book by Kate Betts

I am waiting with bated breath for this book: American Fashion Designers at Home

because it is sure to be lush and inspirational. I saw previews of it on the Assouline website and it looks fabulous. I have all the American Fashion books and I can't wait to add this to my collection.

Thierry Mugler: Galaxy Glamour for all the futuristic fashion

These two books on Isabella Blow — Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion and Isabella Blow — are sure you to be filled with amazing photographs of Isabella Blow and her extensive fashion collection. They would also give us an insight on the life of this tortured fashion maverick.

Chic Reads: New York Magazine Home Design Issue

Get your hands a copy of the latest issue of New York magazine, or go to the website www.nymag.com The issue's theme is home design and the banner headline is The New Old. Inside are feature stories on interiors that are updated remake of classic interior design style such as Parisian, Victorian, Country and English. The photo below is the bedroom of Carolina Herrera's creative director, Pierre Herve, and it is done in Parisian/Versailles-esque style. I love the gingham canopy (the fabric was a gift from Herrera) and the trompe l'oeil panels (painted by the Herve) flanking the bed.

Herve also had the chic and clever idea of stuffing a Balmain glove and

using it as a curtain tie-back.

The photo above is a modern take on country home style

Also in the issue is a story on bedbug infestation on the Upper East Side and a new male mannequin with a 27-inch waist. The last time I had a 27-inch waist I was in fifth grade!

Chic Reads: My First New York

Photo courtesy of: New York Magazine and Amazon.com

I miss the launched of this book by two days when I was in New York last week. I saw it advertised in a new issue of New York Magazine and ran to Barnes & Noble to buy it but was told it wasn't in yet.

It is a collection of essays about people's early experiences in the Big Apple and contributors include Graydon Carter, Naomi Campbell, Harold Evans, Rufuf Wainwright, Diane von Furstenberg, Liz Smith, Lauren Hutton and many other personalities - famous and infamous.

Judging from the excerpt from Nora Ephron's piece published in New York Magazine, it seems like it will be an excellent read.

However, this is the kind of book that will not be distributed widely in Asia. So, I kindly ask my local bookstore in Hong Kong to order it for me. Now, I just have to wait for two weeks until I can finally devour the essays. I am most especially looking forward to Andre Aciman's piece as I loved his book Call Me By Your Name.

Chic Reads

I am obsessed with design books and I have a compulsion to buy them whenever I am at bookstores. Whenever we go on trips, I always come back with an overweight luggage filled with heavy tomes. When it came time to look for inspiration and references for the apartment, I only needed to go to my bookshelf as you can see from the Post-it filled book Hue by Kelly Wearstler (above). I love her Domicilium Decoratus and Modern Glamour books.

Orlando Diaz Azcuy and Elle Decor's So Chic (opened to Candace Bushnell's apartment)

These books really helped me set the tone for our apartment: Metropolitan Home's Glamour, Elle Decor's Style and Substance and Jan Showers' Glamorous Rooms

I know this one is old but I leaf through it all the time and I always find or learn something new. Bright Young Things by Brooke de Ocampo

Chic Reads - Model As Muse and Avedon Fashion 1944-2000

Models are everywhere right now especially with the Model As Muse exhibition at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum and the Richard Avedon exhibition at the International Center of Photography. The two exhibitions couldn't be anymore better timed as both supplement each other. The books from the exhibition are equally divine.

Avedon photograph many of the fashion legends like Dovima and Dorian Leigh (pictured below).

Chic Hunters is in eager anticipation of the delivery of these books from Amazon.com.

Chic Reads - Thad Hayes and The Cultivated Life

In eager anticipation of an Amazon.com delivery:

Thad Hayes: The Tailored Interior 

Published by Rizzoli

Hayes interiors are handsome and timeless. They are an oxymoron actually as they are classic and contemporary at the same time. His clientele includes 10021 habitues and this book offers a rare glimpse into the rarefied world of the moneyed set.

The Cultivated Life: Artistic, Literary and Decorative Dramas 

by Jean Philippe Delhomme 

Published by Rizzoli

One of the foremost fashion illustrators, Delhomme captures the nuances, the drama, the glamor of living a fashionable life. His illustrations in this book also poke fun at our obsession with appearances and fashion labels. A delight to read and look at.