SETTING THE TABLE
Know a book lover with a coffee table and a passion? Then you’re good to go on a gift. Coffee-table books aren’t usually high on the self-purchase priority list, but they can make great holiday gifts if chosen carefully. Leanne Italie has these suggestion
FASHION & STYLE Russell Westbrook: Style Drivers
(Rizzoli)
Russell Westbrook, because why not? That’s the catchphrase of the NBA superstar who is one stylish guy and has put together a great book offering a glimpse into his world, celebrating trendsetters he admires along the way.
Peek at the baby photo of Westbrook in the back, gold chain on point.
Westbrook inspires in images, chunky quotes from the style drivers he has chosen and some product placement tracing his fashion collaborations.
One of the most adorable moments: then-first lady Michelle Obama hugging Westbrook after he and his fellow Team USA members took gold at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Dior: The House of Dior, Seventy Years of Haute Couture
(National Gallery of Victoria)
The House of Dior is marking 70 years in fashion and this special book for your Dior lover covers a lot of ground.
The companion to an exhibition at the gallery in Melbourne, Australia, features Christian Dior in his own words, including his passion for flowers carried over from his childhood. The book starts at the beginning, in 1947, and includes an inside look at the atelier.
Eras are broken down by creative directors, including Yves Saint Laurent from 1957 to 1960 and John Galliano from 1996 to 2011, straight on through to the first woman to head the house, Maria Grazia Chiuri, named last year.
Harper’s Bazaar 150 Years: The Greatest Moments
(Abrams)
Speaking of anniversaries, Harper’s Bazaar is marking 150 years and this book captures some of the stars in modelling, fashion design and photography who helped shape the magazine over the decades.
This book offers some muchneeded cultural context, such as editor Glenda Bailey’s letter that ran soon after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What, she mused, are we to feel for fashion right now? Her answer is the notion that the “exuberance that is fashion has its own role to play — even in (especially in) the worst of times.”
There are first ladies, supermodels and a William Wegman dog wearing a Piaget diamond necklace and looking mighty haute couture.
PHOTOGRAPHY & ART Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005-2016
(Phaidon)
Rihanna bathed in red, Havana light. A pregnant Melania Trump in a golden bikini. Neil Patrick Harris with a large snake’s tail down his pants.
Welcome to the third volume in a series by the famed photographer. The book includes 150 photographs of artists, performers, writers, athletes, politicians and scientists, including LeBron James and his “chosen” tattoo, and a stunning, stripped-down profile of Lupita Nyong’o close up.
It’s a heavy lift, weight-wise, but it pretty much defines gifty coffee-table books for culture vultures.
David LaChapelle: Lost + Found, Part I and Good News, Part II
(Taschen)
Is he the Magritte of his surreal, celebrity-fuelled world? As Richard Avedon, another famous photographer, muses in The New York Times, the potential is there. The long-awaited last two instalments in LaChapelle’s five-book anthology, are sold separately.
These are visual recordings, tableaux featuring famous figures mostly in stunning colour, including some memorable foldouts. The first volume includes a decade of unseen work. The second book has LaChapelle contemplating mortality and paradise.
Tupac Shakur, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, the entire KardashianJenner clan and Isabella Blow included.
Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power
(D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers/ Tate)
Based on an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, explores the years between 1963 and 1983 through the eyes of mostly black artists.
The meaning of black identity, debates over “black art” in pamphlets and magazines, work by Faith Ringgold and Romare Bearden, and essays detailing the lives and roles of numerous others included.
Also included is what went on during those years behind the scenes to boost the visibility of African-American artists in museum collections and exhibitions and to promote the rise of African-Americans to museum leadership roles. Key to that effort was the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, which also worked to secure funding for prison art programs in the 1970s after the 1971 uprising at Attica State Prison.
ETCETERA 200 Women Who Will Change the Way You See the World
(Chronicle Books)
A collection of the famous and unknown, celebrated and marginalized, from activists and actors to authors and everyday women. They answer the same five questions about themselves and the world, accompanied by portraits. Jane Goodall, Margaret Atwood, Ashley Judd and Alfre Woodard included.
Prince: A Private View
(St. Martin’s Press)
The late icon’s trusted photographer and videographer, Afshin Shahidi, offers up the staged, candid and in-concert moments he captured and serves them up in stories and images from their time together spanning 2001 to 2010. Few details were lost on Shahidi and he shares freely. He includes more than 100 neverbefore-seen photos.
Obama: An Intimate Portrait
(Little, Brown & Co.)
Through the lens of Pete Souza, Obama’s chief official White House photographer for eight years. The former president wrote the foreword: “Over those eight years, Pete became more than my photographer — he became a friend, a confidant and a brother.”