Here are a list of some books I’ve enjoyed over the past year (there were plenty I didn’t care for) and thought they’d make good gifts for anyone interested in culture, art, vapid socialites, decor, history, and so forth.
The Louboutin monograph. Jesus! It’s huge, and covers all of his collections. It has a photo spread done by David Lynch, and is a piece of work itself. It weighs a ton!
If you can get a used copy of his full diaries, do it, but if you are a foodie and like history, this slim little book will do just fine. Mr. Pepys has a habit of over eating and being hungover quite often, it’s amazing he was able to do the amount of work he did!
Debra Shriver does what I wish I could do: lives part-time in New Orleans. This is a charming travel guide as much as it is a photographic journey through the restoration and decoration of her French Quarter home. There are some recipes in there, too!
A bit of a biography on Vreeland and all of her cohorts, and full layouts of Harper’s Bazaar they were scanned directly from the books.
A monster of a book with a brief bio of just about everyone! It is divided into categories like the old money, new money, patrons, artists, fashion designers, models, and so on. Famous photos, places they lived, and even scrap books.
Detailing the lives and rivalry between Karl Lagerfeld and Yves St. Laurent (although it goes into YSL a lot more), includes afterword and reaction from Kaaarl.
I bought this thinking it was a catalog for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This massive tome is a history of the wealthy collecting art and antiquities; but mostly those who built their own museums in America, and the process of acquiring: Huntington, Frick, Barnes, and so on.
Told by the current heir and holder of Knole, the largest great house in England. It goes into the history and geneology of this family and their circles; Samuel Pepys and Virginia Woolf make appearances among other famous scribes. Really it illustrates the decline of the British aristocracy, the problems primogeneture causes, and how holding on to a birthright is not a sustainable business.
Arty Farty 
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