BOOKS Lives of designers brought to life in style

Words and pictures provide insight into the fashion world.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The fashion world loves petite things, skinny things, colorful things -- except when it comes to its books.
Among the season's fashion-themed, coffee-table, gift-worthy books the trends are big, thick and black-and-white.
The mammoth "Louis Vuitton" (Abrams, $125) by Paul-Gerard Pasols features a monogrammed leather handle on the cover, inviting readers to pull open the lid on the luxury brand's 151-year history.
The first image isn't a now-ubiquitous LV logo or a runway shot of toast-of-the-town designer Marc Jacobs' latest collection; it's a portrait of Louis Vuitton himself, a mustached Frenchman born in a mountainous region in 1821.
He had a yearning for adventure and found it in the lively, gossipy city of Paris; even then he understood about the power of publicity.
The book devotes many pages to explaining what life was like in France in the mid-19th century so readers will understand how special Vuitton's life story of luxury and success really is.
A more modern master of his craft is "shoemaker" Manolo Blahnik. Women covet his shoes like no others (though Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin are nipping at his heels). His shoes are status symbols. They're sex symbols. They're on the feet of every celebrity and socialite worth noting.
Standing tall
However, "Blahnik by Boman: Shoes, Photographs, Conversations" (Chronicle, $85), a collaboration between Blahnik and photographer Eric Boman, focuses on the artistry and handicraft of the shoes themselves. There's no Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City," no Amazonian Brazilian model in a bikini and stilettos. The only sexy thing on these pages are the curvy heels that often stand four (or more) inches tall.
"Beene by Beene" (Vendome, $65) was indeed conceived by designer Geoffrey Beene but it was still in the works when he died last year. Marylou Luther, James Wolcott and Pamela A. Parmal are credited in the final version as contributors.
The book traces Beene's 40 years in fashion through words and fashion photos.
Beene is considered one of the godfathers of sophisticated sportswear, making the link early on between comfort and luxury. He also embraced bold graphics, especially black and white with splashes of color, yet was classic enough to be a favorite designer to first ladies and first daughters.
Long-running
Pierre Cardin claims even a longer fashion history in "Pierre Cardin: Fifty Years of Fashion and Design" (Vendome, $55) by Elisabeth Langle. Langle is a personal friend of Cardin, one of the first couturiers to create a ready-to-wear collection, back in 1959.
The book is arranged chronologically, with the first two-thirds resembling a newsreel, marking changes in style trends.
But Cardin is also known as a restaurateur, furniture designer and sculptor, and those accomplishments dominate the last third of the book.
"Madeleine Vionnet" (Chronicle, $100) by costume restorer Betty Kirke with a foreword by Issey Miyake is back in print after 14 years with a new cover photograph of her white crepe romaine pajamas and short cape of rose velvet from 1931.
Vionnet might not be as well known nowadays as her contemporaries Jeanne Lanvin or Coco Chanel, who both have lived on through their brand names, but Vionnet was equally influential and her stamp is still seen in modern styles such as the bias cut and double-sided fabrics.
This book boasts photographs and Vionnet's own sketches as well as actual patterns dating back to a 1918 silk crepe dress that was rectangle-based, cut on the grain, finished with a jabot, cowl neck and rolled hem.
Personal diary
In "Blood, Sweat and Tears or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Fashion" (teNeues, $150), photographer Bruce Weber writes in a diary style about the friends, fun and late nights he's enjoyed after what sounds like a lifetime in the business.
He shares memories of the late legendary editor Liz Tilberis and fondly recalls an assignment lugging a giant Galliano gown through Vietnam with Kate Moss in search of a man with a beard who would pose with her.
Of course there are tons of photos. Most are black and white and a few are not by Weber. Most of the big names in modeling over the past 30 years are found somewhere in the almost-450 pages.
Late photographer Helmet Newton's work is chronicled in "A Gun For Hire" (Taschen, $39.99) with a particular emphasis on collaborations with Yves Saint Laurent in the 1980s-90s.
Newton coined himself a "gun for hire" because, he said, he didn't consider his work "art" even though some of his photos hung in museums and galleries.