98 books like The Givenchy Style

By Francoise Mohrt,

Here are 98 books that The Givenchy Style fans have personally recommended if you like The Givenchy Style. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Diana Vreeland

Meghan Friedlander Author Of Audrey Hepburn in Paris

From my list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with Audrey Hepburn formed at an early age. My mother used to regale me with stories about taking trips to her local theater to watch My Fair Lady or seeing models at mall fashion shows sporting Audrey’s mod-inspired hairstyle from How to Steal a Million. Hearing these memories made Audrey feel familiar, like a distant relative and not an untouchable  Hollywood movie star. As a child, I watched her movies, and over time, I began collecting books, vintage magazines, and photographs. In 2010, I created my website, Rare Audrey Hepburn, with the intention of sharing my discoveries with fellow Audrey fans. 

Meghan's book list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life

Meghan Friedlander Why did Meghan love this book?

When I was brainstorming the outline for my book, I knew from the outset that I wanted to explore Audrey’s noteworthy friendships, including the larger-than-life luminary Diana Vreeland. Diana transformed the way the general public saw fashion. During her time at Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue her influence was seen on every page, from the creative backdrops, to the imaginative themes, to her vibrant use of color.

This book by Eleanor Dwight beautifully captures the true essence of Vreeland. Dwight navigates Vreeland’s journey with glamorous photos that are grounded by her elegant narrative. It goes without saying that Diana was more than a footnote in Audrey’s life. She was a friend, an admirer, and a collaborator.  

By Eleanor Dwight,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Diana Vreeland as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Diana Vreeland has been called the fashion editor of the twentieth century. An epic self-mythologizer, she had an incredible aura of glamour, a great eye, and a genius for life. Diana Vreeland reveals the growth of her professional prowess and gives an account of her personal history, at the same time as it brings to life Mrs. Vreeland's pizzazz, humour, and flamboyant personality. A dynamic cast of characters accompanies Diana Vreeland's story. There are more than 300 illustrations, photographs, and drawings, many by the best fashion photographers of her time such as Louise Dahl Wolfe, Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, and…


Book cover of Dancing on the Ceiling: Stanley Donen and His Movies

Meghan Friedlander Author Of Audrey Hepburn in Paris

From my list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with Audrey Hepburn formed at an early age. My mother used to regale me with stories about taking trips to her local theater to watch My Fair Lady or seeing models at mall fashion shows sporting Audrey’s mod-inspired hairstyle from How to Steal a Million. Hearing these memories made Audrey feel familiar, like a distant relative and not an untouchable  Hollywood movie star. As a child, I watched her movies, and over time, I began collecting books, vintage magazines, and photographs. In 2010, I created my website, Rare Audrey Hepburn, with the intention of sharing my discoveries with fellow Audrey fans. 

Meghan's book list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life

Meghan Friedlander Why did Meghan love this book?

Audrey filmed seven movies in Paris, three of which were directed by the multi-talented Stanley Donen. When they first worked on Funny Face, Audrey was twenty-seven, and Donen was thirty-two.

Their five-year age gap allowed for an ease between the two colleagues, which would manifest into a friendship spanning over 30 years. In fact, Audrey wrote a touching introduction to Dancing on the Ceiling. Silverman wonderfully chronicles Donen’s life in films during the golden age of Hollywood at a time when movie musicals were still box office hits. Best of all, the book covers all three of Audrey and Donen’s collaborations: Funny Face, Charade, and Two for the Road.  

By Stephen M Silverman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dancing on the Ceiling as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

93 photographs in text


Book cover of Avedon Fashion 1944-2000

Meghan Friedlander Author Of Audrey Hepburn in Paris

From my list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with Audrey Hepburn formed at an early age. My mother used to regale me with stories about taking trips to her local theater to watch My Fair Lady or seeing models at mall fashion shows sporting Audrey’s mod-inspired hairstyle from How to Steal a Million. Hearing these memories made Audrey feel familiar, like a distant relative and not an untouchable  Hollywood movie star. As a child, I watched her movies, and over time, I began collecting books, vintage magazines, and photographs. In 2010, I created my website, Rare Audrey Hepburn, with the intention of sharing my discoveries with fellow Audrey fans. 

Meghan's book list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life

Meghan Friedlander Why did Meghan love this book?

This book is mouthwatering! Readers might be surprised to learn that Audrey met Avedon at the very start of her career. After she was discovered by Colette in 1951, Audrey sailed to New York to begin rehearsals for Gigi. In New York, donning her Gigi costume, Audrey was photographed by Avedon for the first time. Their friendship in front and behind the camera would blossom over the years, and in 1956, Audrey would star in the movie musical Funny Face, loosely based on Avedon’s life at Harper’s Bazaar.

Avedon’s genius is brilliantly highlighted in this visual biography. Avedon Fashion chronicles Avedon’s career with stunning fashion photographs and celebrity portraits, including memorable black and white shots of Audrey. This book grabs you from the moment you set eyes on the brightly colored cover. 

By Richard Avedon, Carol Squires, Vincent Aletti

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 encompasses seven decades of extraordinary images by Richard Avedon, the most influential fashion photographer of the 20th century.This comprehensive volume offers a definitive survey, from Avedon's groundbreaking early photographs for Harper's Bazaar through his constantly inventive contributions to Vogue, Egoiste, and The New Yorker. Each carefully selected image represents an artistic collaboration with significant models, stylists, and designers. Avedon Fashion accompanies the first major exhibition to survey this body of work, at the International Center of Photography in May 2009. With critical essays by Carol Squiers, curator at the ICP, and photography critic Vince Aletti, as well…


Book cover of Audrey at Home: Memories of My Mother's Kitchen

Meghan Friedlander Author Of Audrey Hepburn in Paris

From my list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My fascination with Audrey Hepburn formed at an early age. My mother used to regale me with stories about taking trips to her local theater to watch My Fair Lady or seeing models at mall fashion shows sporting Audrey’s mod-inspired hairstyle from How to Steal a Million. Hearing these memories made Audrey feel familiar, like a distant relative and not an untouchable  Hollywood movie star. As a child, I watched her movies, and over time, I began collecting books, vintage magazines, and photographs. In 2010, I created my website, Rare Audrey Hepburn, with the intention of sharing my discoveries with fellow Audrey fans. 

Meghan's book list on Audrey Hepburn’s fashionable life

Meghan Friedlander Why did Meghan love this book?

In many ways, this book is a precursor to Audrey Hepburn in Paris. Both books were conceived by Audrey’s son, Luca Dotti. I used Audrey at Home as a guide while writing my book. I was moved by Luca’s personal anecdotes and the private photos from his family albums.

Although the two books differ in subject—one is about Audrey’s home life, and the other is about her fashionable career—one concept I borrowed was the exploration of the woman behind the actress. Luca’s book changed the field for Audrey biographies. By inviting us into the intimate setting of his mother’s kitchen, we are given access to a rarely-shown side of Audrey. This book tenderly examines the actress, the mother, the wife, and the friend. 

By Luca Dotti,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Audrey at Home as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

New York Times Bestseller Enter Audrey Hepburn's private world in this unique New York Times bestselling biography compiled by her son that combines recollections, anecdotes, excerpts from her personal correspondence, drawings, and recipes for her favorite dishes written in her own hand, and more than 250 previously unpublished personal family photographs. Audrey at Home offers fans an unprecedented look at the legendary star, bringing together the varied aspects of her life through the food she loved-from her childhood in Holland during World War II, to her time in Hollywood as an actress and in Rome as a wife and mother,…


Book cover of Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman

Julie Satow Author Of When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion

From my list on strong New York women.

Why am I passionate about this?

I moved to New York when I was 15 and fell in love with the city. I was starting high school then, and arriving in Manhattan felt like the world opened up to me. Suddenly, I could ride the subway anywhere I wanted, see the best theater in the world, and feel as if anything was possible. The female journey has also been a topic I have long been fascinated by, and when I began my journalism career and became a wife and mother, the need to explore those dynamics grew ever more pressing. I recommend these books because they combine my two favorite topics—New York and women’s history. 

Julie's book list on strong New York women

Julie Satow Why did Julie love this book?

I loved this book! It is dishy and smart and has all the glitz you would expect of the first-ever complete account of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. With a cast of characters that includes Truman Capote, Edith Head, and Audrey Hepburn, it transported me to New York in the late 1950s, one of my favorite decades.

By Sam Wasson,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"So smart and entertaining it should come with its own popcorn"-People

Coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the film version of Truman Capote's Breakast at Tiffany's, the acclaimed, New York Times bestseller that is the definitive account of Audrey Hepburn and the making of the cultural landmark film-now updated with a new introduction by the author.

In Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M., Sam Wasson goes beyond the legend to explore the woman inside the little black dress and the film that captured the imagination of the nation in 1961-when the staid propriety of the Eisenhower years gave way to the glamorous…


Book cover of The Lost Art of Dress: The Women Who Once Made America Stylish

Amanda Sullivan Author Of Organized Enough: The Anti-Perfectionist's Guide to Getting -- and Staying -- Organized

From my list on to reimagine your relationship to stuff.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a professional organizer since 1999, I’ve realized that the problem isn’t so much that we are disorganized, but that we are out-matched. We have too much stuff, it is too cheap and we are too busy and we can’t keep up. If you really want to stay organized, you have to examine your relationship to stuff. Why we want what we want and buy what we buy. Less but better! 

Amanda's book list on to reimagine your relationship to stuff

Amanda Sullivan Why did Amanda love this book?

Przybryszewski, a history professor at Notre Dame, had me from the start where she says she’s probably the only person to have spoken to the Supreme court wearing a ’suit that won a blue ribbon at a country fair.” Taking American fashion back to the Home Economics taught at Land Grant Universities and subsequently, at high schools, Przybryszewski argues that knowing how to sew was not just a practical skill, but also made us better consumers.

Making our own clothes might have seemed like drudgery, but it was empowering and now that most of us don’t have those skills, we’re literally slaves to fashion…  we can’t tell high-quality from low quality, we can’t put in pockets when we need them… and nothing, nothing is ever our exact size. This is a book that will make you want to learn to make your own clothes… or at least cast a far…

By Linda Przybyszewski,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lost Art of Dress as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

As a glance down any street in America quickly reveals, American women have forgotten how to dress. We chase fads, choose inappropriate materials and unattractive cuts, and waste energy tottering in heels when we could be moving gracefully. Quite simply, we lack the fashion know-how we need to dress professionally and flatteringly.As historian and expert dressmaker Linda Przybyszewski reveals in The Lost Art of Dress , it wasn't always like this. In the first half of the twentieth century, a remarkable group of women,the so-called Dress Doctors,taught American women how to stretch each yard of fabric and dress well on…


Book cover of The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genius, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris

Emma Baxter-Wright Author Of Chanel Paperscapes: The Book That Transforms Into a Work of Art

From my list on the provocative talents of the fashion industry.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a failed fashion designer, the history of twentieth-century fashion, represented both visually and in the form of narrative text, make up the bulk of my ever-increasing library of fashion books. In order to write about fashion, either as a biographer of one of the great designers or cutting-edge photographers, it is crucial to acknowledge what was deemed as desirable in a previous generation and a previous context. As Yves Saint Laurent famously said, "Fashion fades, Style is eternal." Fashion in its broader sense has never existed in a vacuum and an understanding of fashion history and fashion imagery, that so clearly evokes a specific era, is the very best way to appreciate the cyclical nature of this creative business.  

Emma's book list on the provocative talents of the fashion industry

Emma Baxter-Wright Why did Emma love this book?

Meticulously researched by brilliant fashion journalist Alicia Drake, this book charts the bitchy, high octane rivalry of two mega egos of the industry, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. As a journalist working today in an era of horrendous consumerism known as ‘fast fashion’ this detailed account of how both men were instrumental in shifting the established codes of a refined haute couture system into a faster-paced ready-to-wear market in the 1970s is illuminating. It also documents the evolution of couturier as a celebrity, detailing how YSL used an image of himself to promote his aftershave in 1971, a revolutionary idea of self-promotion at the time, and now a very necessary part of the ‘selfie’ obsessed generation of creatives working in fashion.  

By Alicia Drake,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Beautiful Fall as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1950s Paris, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld were friends, the rising stars of the fashion world. But by the late sixties, the city was invaded by a new mood of liberation and hedonism, and dominated by intrigue, infidelities, addiction and parties. Each designer created his own mesmerizing world, so vivid and seductive that people were drawn to the power, charisma and fame, and it was to make them bitter rivals. "The Beautiful Fall" is a dazzling expose of an era and the story of the two men who were its essence and who remain its most singular survivors.


Book cover of Seven Sisters Style: The All-American Preppy Look

Nancy Woloch Author Of The Insider: A Life of Virginia C. Gildersleeve

From my list on women’s colleges and their histories.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a teacher of US women’s history and educational history, I have long been interested in women’s colleges—in their faculties, administrators, students, alumnae, goals, and achievements. Most recently, as the biographer of a woman educator (a dean of Barnard College in the early 20th century), I became more deeply involved with the literature on single-sex schools. Major books focus on the older women’s colleges, the “Seven Sisters,” but devote attention to other colleges as well. I am impressed with the talents of historians, with their skill at asking questions of their subjects, with the intensity of mission at the women’s schools, and with changing styles of campus culture.

Nancy's book list on women’s colleges and their histories

Nancy Woloch Why did Nancy love this book?

A landmark in fashion history, this riveting book captures the way that generations of young women shaped campus style at elite women’s colleges, the significance of clothes among women collegians, and the impact that women college students had on style in general. Photos and text suggest the semiotics of saddle shoes and Shetland sweaters, of blazers and Bermuda shorts. Clothes on campus, the book reveals, embody status and aspiration. Cool and savvy, college women steadily affected trends in the fashion industry.

By Rebecca C. Tuite,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Seven Sisters Style as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Elite and prestigious, the Seven Sisters Style is synonymous with a collective sheen of exclusivity, intelligence, and a way of dressing that would become a marker of national pride and status all over the world. From jeans and baggy shirts, bermuda shorts to blazers, soft Shetland sweaters to saddle shoes, not to mention sleek suiting, pearls, elegant suitcases and kidskin gloves for weekend trips to neighboring Ivies and crinolines, kitten heels and cashmere for parties and dances, the women of the Seven Sisters perfected a flair that spoke to a splendidly aspirational lifestyle, filled with travel and excitement. Recently, it…


Book cover of Pleating for Mercy

Susie Black Author Of Death by Sample Size

From my list on humorous cozy mysteries set in the fashion industry.

Why am I passionate about this?

Like the protagonist in my Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, I am a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. I love solving puzzles, asking a lot of questions, and am naturally curious (some narrow-minded people say I am nosy…go figure…LOL). So, writing mysteries set in the fashion industry was the natural next step for me to take. From the beginning of my career, I have kept a daily journal chronicling the interesting, quirky, and sometimes quite challenging people I have encountered as well as the crazy situations I’ve gotten myself into and out of. My daily journal entries are the foundation of everything I write.

Susie's book list on humorous cozy mysteries set in the fashion industry

Susie Black Why did Susie love this book?

Because I never stop asking what if, I am drawn to cozy mysteries with a plot that weaves a ribbon of fantasy through the stories. I love the added dimension of an inexplicable “presence” when Harlow Jane Cassidy leaves a successful Manhattan fashion design career and opens a dressmaking boutique in the turn-of-the-century Texas farmhouse she inherits from her grandmother.

By Melissa Bourbon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pleating for Mercy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When her great-grandmother passes away, Harlow Jane Cassidy leaves her job as a Manhattan fashion designer and moves back to Bliss, Texas. But when she opens a dressmaking boutique in the turn-of-the-century farmhouse she inherited, Harlow senses an inexplicable "presence". Is Meemaw really gone, or she now Harlow's ghostly roommate?

Her old friend Josie orders a gown for her upcoming wedding, but when Josie's boss turns up dead, Harlow has to find the killer-with a little help from beyond.


Book cover of Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress

Richard Thompson Ford Author Of Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History

From my list on how fashion shaped our history.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a law professor and the son of a very well-dressed man. My father was a university Dean, a community organizer, a Presbyterian minister, and a social worker. But he also trained as a tailor and knew clothing—both how it is (or should be) constructed and also how it communicates. I became interested in the importance of clothing because of his influence. Then, in law, I noticed a lot of disputes that involved clothing: high school dress codes, workplace dress codes, dress codes used on public transportation. I wanted bring these two together to give a better idea of why we still fight and struggle over clothing.

Richard's book list on how fashion shaped our history

Richard Thompson Ford Why did Richard love this book?

I’ve long felt more powerful, confident, and chic wearing a well-cut suit. But why? Sex and Suits expressed and explained my own vague intuitions about the power of significance of clothing. Hollander explains that the suit is perhaps the most ubiquitous symbol of modernity. Discussing the evolution of fashion—particularly men’s fashion—she shows how the suit is both a practical, streamlined, and unassuming garment and the ultimate status symbol.

By Anne Hollander,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sex and Suits as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since the dawn of western fashion in the Middle Ages, women's dress has never stopped evolving, yet menswear has seen far fewer style revolutions. At the centre of the male wardrobe is the suit: relatively unchanged since the 17th century, its cut and cloth suggest athleticism, seriousness, sexuality and strength - qualities which contrasted with the perceived superficiality and frivolity of female dress, and eventually led to the adoption of the suit into the female wardrobe where it remains to this day.

In Sex and Suits brilliant essayist and art critic Anne Hollander charts the development of men's and women's…


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