To suggest that reading and books are having a fashion moment is fast shaping up to be an understatement. This season, Valentino menswear includes suiting, shirts and jeans, emblazoned with texts from Hanya Yanagihara’s bestselling 2015 novel A Little Life.
Next season, Anna Sui’s autumn/winter 24 collection — inspired by Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and first editions of Virginia Woolf and recently shown at the Strand’s Rare Book Room in New York — is all about giving off a grungy Bloomsbury quirkiness.
During Chanel’s recent Métiers d’art show in Manchester, a panel discussion-turned-podcast included writer Jeanette Winterson and actor Kristen Stewart discussing the power of literature. The podcast series In the Library also features a smorgasbord of writers, directors and A-listers, such as actors Margot Robbie and Margaret Qualley, the latter recently opened Chanel’s couture show.
Meanwhile, interior design trend “bookshelf wealth” that appears to revolve around a sort of cluttered, artfully haphazard aesthetic of heaving bookshelves, is sweeping TikTok and prompting mixed responses. Some suggest that seeing books as design accessories is somewhat vacuous, a critique often levelled at fashion.
But this upswing in literary-related fashion is mostly less about wearing your bookishness on your sleeve and more about fashion’s celebration of books and reading. And like art, fashion’s interaction with literature and books is long-standing.
Coco Chanel was described by Roland Barthes in 1967 as a “new classical author” who he argued wrote with fabric, shape and colour. The likes of Truman Capote — the writer at the centre of the current fashiony Ryan Murphy mini series Feud: Capote vs The Swans — frequently appeared in Vogue, as did Joan Didion, who was also the star of a Céline campaign.
In Paris, perfectly timed for the Olympics tourist influx, 2024 is shaping up to be the year of the destination haute book shop. Saint Laurent’s creative director Anthony Vaccarello this month teased about a new bookstore on Instagram. Saint Laurent Babylone subsequently opened in the 7th arrondissement, offering books — including those published under their own Rive Droite Editions imprint — alongside art and music, with the idea that it will operate as a cultural hang-out.
Meanwhile, Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons, has confirmed that the next iteration of Dover Street Market, also opening in Paris this year, will include a book space called Librairie 1909.
The Chanel-owned 7L bookstore on Rue de Lille — founded in 1999 by Karl Lagerfeld and where the designer also set up his photographic studio housing his library of 33,000 tomes — began a multidisciplinary arts programme late last year. “Our aim is that this space remains a source of inspiration for artists and creative minds as well as a cool and relevant space for book lovers, friends of 7L, authors and publishing houses,” explains Laurence Delamare, global head of 7L.
“The bookstore itself is like a living projection of Karl Lagerfeld’s mind,” says Delamare. New services include relaunched ecommerce, a bespoke library curation service and a membership programme, with an annual subscription of €7,164, plus a nominative entrance fee of €3,480 that offers exclusive access to intimate monthly readings, dance performances and live music.
“Fashion loves a good story, so it’s no wonder so many designers and fashion houses are looking to books for inspiration, and as a way of sharing their ideas,” says Adélia Sabatini, commissioning editor of fashion titles at Thames & Hudson. Sabatini, who works on the publisher’s hit Catwalk series of coffee-table encyclopedias that focus on the runway collections by a singular designer, says these volumes are selling in excess of two million copies, underscoring the popularity for designer fashion books.
“By aligning with the world of literature, brands convey sophistication, creativity, and a commitment to storytelling beyond fashion and clothes,” says Arieta Mujay, a brand director and consultant. “This association not only enhances the brand’s narrative but also appeals to an increasingly discerning audience seeking multi-faceted experiences.”
Sarah Andelman, who ran influential Parisian boutique Colette for two decades from 2007-17, selling books alongside fashion, and who launched her own publishing house Just An Idea Books in 2021, unveils her latest project this week at Le Bon Marché that is entirely conceived around the act of reading. Dubbed Mise en Page, and running until April 21, Andelman’s curatorial takeover of the Left Bank department store will include artist Jean Jullien, known for “paper people” artworks creating new installations, and Martin Parr in conversation and signing new books.
A clever edit of the kinds of products you’d expect to see in a department store, but with a bookish focus, Andelman’s wit and taste will include the brilliantly ironic “cooking bookends” by Harry Nuriev, which look like kitchen appliances, such as saucepans that have been bluntly sliced in half. Other gems for the bibliophile, include Ex Libris’s personalised book stamps and bookshop merchandise from the likes of Tokyo’s Cow Books or New York’s Strand.
On her own motivation for publishing, Andelman says: “I realised there are a lot of people creating content specifically for Instagram that was only published there. I want to enjoy this work but not just through my phone.”
It is also about bringing lesser known talent or more niche projects to the book format. Her latest series of books includes the work of photographer Charles Bébert who Andelman discovered when Jane Birkin died. She recounts seeing a picture of Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg and their dog that she’d never seen before. “You know most images of Jane Birkin,” Andelman says, who turned detective to track down the picture’s author. Turns out Bébert was a press photographer in Nice, and had never had a book of his work published. He will be signing copies next month during Mise en Page.
Marc Jacobs, who has a bookshop, and posts the books and novels he is reading on Instagram also worked with Andelman on a book of photos of his Covid-era outfits, photographed by his assistant Nick Newbold.
“Fashion designers go to visual books for inspiration,” says Andelman. “But this trend for reading novels is a way to stop time. Everything goes so fast, we are producing more [fashion] collections and more [fashion] shows, and the idea to show you support reading is to show you appreciate the moment. I love the way Marc [Jacobs] shows what he is reading. It’s super inspiring. It’s something that we can all do, you don’t have to be a millionaire, we can all read the same book. We can all be part of a reading club.”
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