Words+Bindings - The Fashion Books Thread

[sipang]

Thanks man. So it's just a lot of editorials/shoots for each label or is there also more substantial content ?

Talking to Myself by Yohji Yamamoto & a whole host of others listed on the link.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

The edition I have is made up of two books. The larger book has lots of lookbook and behind the scenes photos spanning a huge period of Yohji's career. This is then interspersed with Yohji musing on various topics like femininity, the past, philosophy, poetry and more in the spirit of "My Dear Bomb", but pithier. The text in the book is all in Japanese with English and French translations at the end of the book.

The second book is thinner and is informally known as the 1981 - 2002 book as it contains a full retrospective of Yohji's women's collections spanning that entire period with a small thematic caption and a few photos summarising the collection for that year. This book in particular is a great resource (even though it does not have the full catwalk shots) as it helps provide some context for a lot of the older collections.

The physical objects themselves are amazing. Great paper (a kind of light card) is used for the pages themselves, each page is matte with a nice dry texture and it showcases the ink very well. Photography, text and paintings show up beautifully and each page is really a beauty to behold. For the first week I owned the book I didn't really read or study anything on the pages, just the act of turning them and looking casually at the images were enough. The thread binding is very solid and it looks like it will survive a lot of use while showing signs of aging well. The cover of the book is some sort of coated paper (I would have said it was coated with a kind of linen, but I could be wrong. I tried taking a closer shot of the cover to give you guys an idea of the texture, but it may not have turned out too well). Both books are provided in a single slipcase made from the same paper as the book covers that is also stitched closed at the top.

This book is one of the prides of my young fashion library for sure and I would recommend it to anybody interested in Yohji's work. The combination of archival photography and some insights into his mindset combined with great materials and typography make it worth it.

Pictures (hope not too many) -

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

This is really great, Ivwri. Love the apparent binding.

may be a long shot, nobody has Ideas from Massimo Osti ?

am gonna try to get a few more done tomorrow i think

I'm getting that one for sure, probably next week or so.

 

[g transistor]

Sip: that's pretty much what it is. There are some pretty cool interviews that are a little long, but most of them aren't the big big names like Dries etc. It's kinda cool, there are some poems, writings, photo essay type things, but overall not much substance for each designer. There is a cool Bless interview that I can transcribe or something since I don't think it's online... what thread would that go in?

I tried to do a top down view for it instead of the lame dof zoomed in crap but I couldn't get the book to stay put. I had to hold the pages down and that was getting difficult to get a good top-down angle, so sorry for the lack of overall view

 

[sipang]

Bless interview would go HERE most definitely, or you can xpost it

Yeah, overall view pics + scans would be ideal but it a pain ********** with all weird formats those mags and books have, also ****** scanner

 

[the shah]

i knew it would be you getting that massimo book

 

[Ivwri]

Thanks for making me aware of that book shah. Think I will pick up a copy as well. My interest in Throup put me on to Massimo Osti and I liked the few Stone Island things I owned when I was in university (dunno whether they were based on his designs by then though...).

Sipang are you picking up the LE one?

 

[sipang]

Ha I doubt it, 300 is a bit too much for me right now. I think I will hold back for the hardcover edition though.


There's also a book on Stone Island published last year for the 30th anniversary of the label. The book presents a collection of 300 of the most iconic coats and jackets produced by SI between 1982 and 2012 (from an archive of over 20,000 pieces iirc)

Pretty massive too

 

[slstr]

In terms of photography books, I have a couple great ones I could post up here soon if anyone's interested/if it's allowed in this thread.

I'll post up a few shots from Rinko Kawauchi's Illuminance, it really is a great book. Should also have Tillmans' Abstract Photos arriving in the mail from amazon soon, I had a look at it in a store and it was incredible.

Shah do you happen to know the photographer of this image?

 

[g transistor]

Illuminance is so good. I flip through it fairly often... it has a sort of childlike wonder kind of feel for me. I get all nostalgic and sad about how I don't have any real feeling of that sort anymore. Really nice stuff.

Sip what do you recommend? Can't ask and not give

 

[sipang]



Shah do you happen to know the photographer of this image?

Can't remember the name but it's from an editorial in Dutch magazine, late 90s. Pretty sure I have it saved somewhere, I'll post it in the edito thread if I find it.

 

[the shah]

In terms of photography books, I have a couple great ones I could post up here soon if anyone's interested/if it's allowed in this thread.

I'll post up a few shots from Rinko Kawauchi's Illuminance, it really is a great book. Should also have Tillmans' Abstract Photos arriving in the mail from amazon soon, I had a look at it in a store and it was incredible. 

yes please do would be nice to see

Shah do you happen to know the photographer of this image?

Can't remember the name but it's from an editorial in Dutch magazine, late 90s. Pretty sure I have it saved somewhere, I'll post it in the edito thread if I find it.

if am not mistaken, enrique badulescu, dutch magazine #12
it was audrey marnay in rtw fw97 yohji and cdg

 

[sipang]

Here

Illuminance is so good. I flip through it fairly often... it has a sort of childlike wonder kind of feel for me. I get all nostalgic and sad about how I don't have any real feeling of that sort anymore. Really nice stuff.

Sip what do you recommend? Can't ask and not give

Off the top of my head. Pretty old stuff but... Kamaitachi by Eikoh Hosoe, republished by Aperture in 2009, the first affordable edition (or you can get this ), I think I posted something about it a while ago. Bruce Davidson's Subway, Eggleston's Los Alamos. No Photographing by Timm Rautert... totally random really.

From Juergen Teller, I like Go Sees (sadly out of print). Tillmans' If one thing matters everything matters (thinking about getting Neue Welt). The Dirk Braeckman book. Recent stuff: Coexistence by Stephen Gill and Paloma al aire by [can't remember the name] look nice, I think LN-CC has them.

 

[slstr]

Thanks Sip. Coexistence is brilliant, I'll try and get my hands on it some time for some pictures... But I wouldn't want to turn this thread into a photography book thread!

Will have photos of Illuminance/a few other books tomorrow!

 

[sipang]

Good to know, post some pics when you can. It's not like anyone reads this thread anyway...

 

[g transistor]

I'll post photos of Neue Welt so you can see if you want it

 

[Urthwhyte]

got in Less is More, Minimalism in Fashion, and 50 Contemporary Designers You Should Know today. Will try and upload photos and reviews on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far, sipang, g trans, shah, and snake especially.