A complete illustrated guide of style tribes and fashion subculture from 1900s-2020s

Stylepedia uncovers global styles, exploring their origins, distinct features, and the cultural and historical contexts that shaped them. From historical trends to the latest buzz on social media, it is your essential guide, providing the knowledge and inspiration needed to understand different styles at their core.

Stylepedia helps the designers to understand more about the style and facilitates the creation of meaningful design. It serves as a diverse style directory for stylists, provides a quick rundown of fashion history for fashion students, and presents a global fashion subculture panorama to all readers.

From major trends:

The book addresses the key trends that have defined global fashion, ranging from the 20s' Flappers, the New Look, Ivy League styles, Hip Hop culture, to the Y2K era. It offers a comprehensive understanding of the fashion evolution over the past century.

To lessor known subculture:

The book talks about lesser-known subcultures that have nonetheless shaped the currents of fashion evolution. From Pachucos and Leathermen, to Bogans, Takenoko Zoku, Sapeurs, and Riot Grrrl, it helps uncovering the hidden influencers of the style landscape.

Chapter 1 - The Modern Era

The early 20th century, a period of rapid modernization and social change, was marked by prosperity and optimism. Despite the economic hardship of the Great Depression, cultural milestones like the rise of jazz, women’s suffrage, and the golden age of Hollywood offered glimmers of hope and innovation amid adversity.

Chapter 2 - Transformation through War

World War II significantly reshaped fashion and style. The practical needs of wartime gave rise to new, functional trends, while the post-war period saw a surge in alternative subcultures and a return to luxury. The era left a lasting impact, fostering a future fashion landscape that was more casual, practical and diverse.

Chapter 3 - Teen Power

Post-war prosperity birthed a distinct culture of teenagers, who were eager to differentiate themselves from their parents. Influenced by mass consumerism and entertainment, they began experimenting with fashion and subcultures as a form of rebellion and identity-seeking. This pivotal shift positioned teens as influential cultural catalysts, forever reshaping the landscapes of fashion and society.

Chapter 4 - The Swinging Sixties

The 1960s were a youth-centric era of optimism driven by technological advancements and economic prosperity. Art and fashion mirrored this daring and playful spirit, serving as significant reflections of this dynamic era. Concurrently, the surge in well-educated youth emerged as a transformative societal force. Their heightened social conscience paved the way for significant political movements.

Chapter 5 - Blossoming Revolution

Amid the tumult of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, “flower power” emerged as a potent symbol of peace, unity and diversity. It intertwined fashion and sociopolitical advocacy, rejecting mainstream norms and championing inclusivity. Aligning style with civil-rights aspirations, the movement catalyzed societal shifts toward greater equity and diversity.

Chapter 6 - The Neon Era

The Neon Era, synonymous with the 1980s, was characterized by vibrant, over-the-top fashion mirroring the decade’s materialism and burgeoning economic confidence. This period, marked by the mantra “greed is good,” saw an explosion of individualistic expressions in fashion and subcultures, encapsulating the era’s cultural shifts and economic exuberance.

Chapter 7 - Alternative Goes Mainstream

Marked by the end of the Cold War and the dawn of the digital age, the 1990s ushered in a dramatic transformation in fashion. The era saw a shift toward alternative styles, the mass adoption of trends fueled by celebrity culture, and a mainstream integration of street-inspired fashion, reflecting the decade’s dynamic socio-cultural shifts.

Chapter 8 - Dot-Com Era

Marked by new millennium optimism, the 2000s brought a playful, experimental shift in fashion and subculture. The rise of the internet democratized fashion, facilitating the exchange of styles and trends, and making them instantly accessible via online platforms and social media. The result was a truly global fashion culture.

Chapter 9 - Flash Fashion

In the era of smartphones and social media, trends became short-lived “vibes” and microtrends emerged rapidly, no longer dictated by large brands but shaped by an interconnected online community. This shift, reflective of rapid technological progress, marked the dawn of truly participatory fashion.

Extensive Coverage

This book delves into the realm of style and fashion, examining how they shape and are shaped by the social, political and economic contexts in which they exist. It explores iconic styles and their origins and characteristics, tracing the threads that connect them to wider cultural narratives.

Understanding the Stories behind the Styles

Style extends beyond mere visual appeal; it represents the deliberate choices individuals make to express themselves in their interactions with the world. Our objective is to provide you with key events related to these styles for an enriched understanding.

Diving deep into each style:

To truly capture a style, you need the full picture: its history, key pieces, influencers, and the hairstyles and makeup that defined it. Not to mention the tales that make each culture unique. Our book brings all of this together in a clean, easy-to-digest layout. Dive in and swiftly become an expert on any style and its culture, all at your fingertips.

Over 1200 illustrations:

Through detailed illustrations, the book provides an instant understanding of diverse styles and subcultures. You will learn about styles and subcultures in a fun and easy way.

An in-depth overview of Ukrainian art from the dawn of Modernism in the late nineteenth century to the start of the Russian invasion in Spring 2022.

This new volume in the World of Art series provides an overview of Ukrainian art, artists and art movements from the dawn of Modernism and the 1900s to the Soviet period, to post-Soviet times and the beginning of the war with Russia in February 2022. Ukrainian art and artists are discussed within historical and political contexts as well as how they have contributed to, and interacted with, Ukrainian culture and identity. Filled with rich illustrations, each chapter explores a different art period or movement.

We are at a historical moment where Ukraine and its cultural identity are in grave danger, and author Alisa Lozhkina offers a powerful opportunity to connect curious and empathetic readers with the Ukrainian art tradition.

About the Author:

Alisa Lozhkina is a leading art historian, critic, and curator. She was the editor-in-chief of the major Ukrainian art magazine Art Ukraine and served as a deputy director and chief curator of Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, the largest museum and exhibition complex in Ukraine. Lozhkina has curated numerous art projects in Ukrainian and international museums and art centers, and published several books. She has contributed to numerous publications including Texte zur Kunst, The Art Newspaper, ARTnews, Etudes sur L'histoire de l'art, and Los Angeles Review of Books. She is also an artist.

A stunning showcase of Azzedine Alaïa’s remarkable fashion collection, most published here for the first time.

Azzedine Alaïa (1935–2017) was not only a world-renowned fashion designer but also an avid collector of vintage fashion. Now a major exhibition at the Palais Galliera, Paris, showcases the extensive collection he built up over the decades, driven by his fascination with the history of couture and his desire to conserve its heritage for future generations.

Accumulated in the utmost secrecy and never revealed during his lifetime, the sumptuous selection of garments ranges from the 19th-century elegance of Jacques Doucet and the House of Worth to the names that shaped 20th-century fashion – Chanel, Balenciaga, Dior, Schiaparelli – and on to contemporary innovators such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen.

Captured in specially taken photographs, these meticulously crafted pieces are a tribute to Alaïa’s unerring tastes, to the couturiers who inspired and influenced him, and to his endless respect for the craftspeople that created such objects of lasting beauty.

About the Authors:

Miren Arzalluz is curator and head of collections at Fundación Cristóbal Balenciaga. Olivier Saillard is a fashion historian and director of the Alaïa Foundation.

Modernist Bread at Home is an indispensable cookbook for anyone who is passionate about making homemade bread. Created by the same team behind the award-winning Modernist Bread, this new cookbook is thoughtfully tailored to the specific needs of home bakers so that you can get great results in your kitchen, regardless of how much time or experience you have.

After years of rigorous independent research and hundreds of experiments, the Modernist Cuisine team has now distilled all that wisdom down into a comprehensive, 420-page single volume that proves bread-making can be attainable and convenient, even during the workweek. You’ll discover innovative yet practical techniques, time-saving tips, helpful scientific insights, and adaptable recipes that make delicious homemade bread possible.

The first half of Modernist Bread at Home guides you through the bread-making process, from start (fermentation) to finish (cooling and serving) and everything in between. You’ll discover essential gear, tips for working bread into your weekly schedule, how to make and care for a starter, ways to optimize your home oven, practical techniques that will help you master the bread-making process, and much more.

Recipes spanning the world of bread can be found in the second part of the book, starting with traditional French lean breads. From there you’ll learn how to make beautiful loaves with a depth of flavor beyond what you find in the store: rustic sourdoughs, lighter-than-air sandwich breads, decadent brioches, and beautifully textured ryes, as well as challah, focaccia, bagels, bao, unbelievable gluten-free loaves, and more

New Discoveries and Techniques

A time-saving sourdough. A way to rescue overproofed dough. An aha moment that transformed our ryes. Modernist Bread at Home is the culmination of over four years of nonstop research, photography, experiments, writing, and baking. These are just some of the new insights and techniques that will surprise and delight you—and help you make better bread.

Time-Saving Techniques

- How to Rescue Overproofed Dough
- Second-Chance Levain
- Pressure-Caramelized Inclusions
- How to Optimize Your Home Oven
- Our Starch Slurry for Bagel Toppings
- Easy high-hydration doughs
- Challah braiding made easy with fruit juice

Innovative Recipes

- Sablée Brioche
- 100% High-Ryes
- Two-Step Sandwich Bread
- Second-Chance Sourdough
- Gluten-Free Brioche
- Compleat Wheat
- Sourfaux

Helpful Illustrated Guides

- How to Read the Recipes
- Where to Start with the Recipes
- Essential Gear
- How to Make a Bread Schedule
- Scoring Patterns
- Troubleshooting Common Problems
- The Science of Cold Proofing

About the Authors:

Nathan Myhrvold is founder of The Cooking Lab and lead author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, Modernist Cuisine at Home, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine, and the forthcoming book Modernist Bread: The Art and Science. He routinely pushes the boundaries of culinary science as a chef, scientist, photographer, and writer. He has had a passion for food and photography since he was a boy. At a young age, he consumed cooking books and invested in new cameras and lenses-even while doing postdoctoral cosmology work with Stephen Hawking. While working as the chief technology officer of Microsoft, he took a leave of absence to earn his culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne in France. Nathan retired from Microsoft in 1999 to found Intellectual Ventures and pursue several interests, including his lifelong interest in photography, cooking, and food science. Inspired by the void in literature about culinary science and the cutting-edge techniques used in the world's best restaurants, Myhrvold assembled the Modernist Cuisine team to share the art and science of cooking with others.

Francisco Migoya leads the Modernist Cuisine culinary team as head chef. Together with Nathan Myhrvold, he directs culinary research and the development of new techniques and recipes for the team's next book Modernist Bread: The Art and Science, on-sale Spring 2017. An innovative pastry chef, his most recent book, The Elements of Dessert (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), won a 2014 International Association of Culinary Professional Cookbook Award in the Professional Kitchens category. He has been recognized as a top U.S. pastry chef and chocolatier, with accolades that include the Medal of Master Artisan Pastry Chef (2013) from Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona. Migoya owned Hudson Chocolates in New York and worked at both The French Laundry and Bouchon Bakery as an executive pastry chef. Prior to joining the Modernist Cuisine team, Migoya was a professor at The Culinary Institute of America, where his areas of instruction included bread, viennoiserie, pastry, and culinary science.

With nearly two million followers on social media, the go-to street style authority  —known as “The People’s Paparazzi” — Watching New York’s first book highlights the best in NYC street fashion.

Watching New York is an A-Z visual exploration capturing the best street style New York City has to offer. Dubbed the “The People’s Paparazzi,” Johnny Cirillo has been making a name for himself with his candid shots of everyday people walking the streets of NYC— from Williamsburg to Soho — and capturing their creative, one-of-a-kind looks on his popular Instagram and TikTok accounts @watchingnewyork, where he has amassed millions of dedicated followers.

The book is a continuation of Johnny’s mission of highlighting the best, quirkiest, and most authentic looks and the incredibly creative minds behind them. A combination of Humans of New York meets The Sartorialist, Watching New York includes new and old photos and is organized by look or style from A to Z (from accessories to zebra stripes) with a heavy emphasis on interviews and quotes appearing throughout to showcase the people who make NYC the fashion capital of the world.

About the Author:

Johnny Cirillo was born in Jackson Heights, Queens, in 1980 to a father who delivered UPS packages in the Garment District of Manhattan and a very creative stay-at-home mom. During high school on Long Island, he developed a passion for photography when his mom gave him his first 35mm and shared with him some of her black-and-white work from the sixties. Film and photography became an obsession. He rolled his own film, built his own darkroom, and bugged every one of his friends to sit for him as he explored all facets of the medium.

Celebrating the centennial of Saul Leiter’s birth, the official retrospective of a revolutionary figure in twentieth-century photography.

Saul Leiter photographed and painted nearly every day for over sixty years, amassing an enormous archive, most of which remained unseen during his lifetime. Finding inspiration within a few blocks of his apartment in lower Manhattan, he was a master at discovering beauty in the most ordinary places. Celebrated today for his evocative colour photographs of New York in the 1950s and 1960s, which were unknown in their day, Leiter also found success as a fashion photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. All the while he was shooting black-and-white street scenes on his daily walks, and nudes and intimate portraits back home, while continuing his painting explorations with abstract watercolours, whimsical sketchbooks and painted photographs.

Created in collaboration with the Saul Leiter Foundation, this definitive monograph brings together these diverse yet interconnected bodies of work – including much that was previously unpublished – to reveal the complete artist for the first time.

About the Authors:

Saul Leiter was born in 1923 in Pittsburgh. He pioneered a painterly approach to colour photography in the 1940s and produced covers for fashion magazines such as Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar before largely withdrawing from public attention in the 1980s. The publication in 2006 of his first collection, Early Color, inspired an avid ‘rediscovery’ that has since led to worldwide exhibitions and the release of a documentary, In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter (2013). He died in New York in 2013.
Margit Erb is the founder and director of the Saul Leiter Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving Leiter’s art and legacy.
Michael Parillo is the Associate Director of the Saul Leiter Foundation.

McLaren Formula 1 Car by Carchronicles every car McLaren has campaigned since 1966, from the first M2B to Ayrton Senna’s MP4/6 to today’s MCL60.

Explore 60 thrilling years of McLaren Formula 1 race cars in this handsome volume, complete with detailed specs, stunning photography, a foreword by twice World Champion Mika Häkkinen,and the full competition record for every car.

McLaren has been a top Formula 1 competitor and innovator since it fielded founder and driver Bruce McLaren’s first car, the M2B, in 1966. Just two years later, Bruce scored the team’s first grand prix win. Tragically, he was killed in 1970 while testing his Can-Am car at Goodwood.

Despite the heavy loss of its founder, McLaren carried on, scoring its first of twelve championships in 1974 with Emerson Fitipaldi. McLaren’s roster of F1 Champions includes such greats as James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, and modern master Lewis Hamilton.

Equally legendary are the cars themselves, including the:

-1960s M7A
-1970s M23
-1980s MP4/2
-1990s MP4/5
-2000s MP4-23
-Today’s MCL 60

As the second longest-running team in F1 (surpassed only by Ferrari), McLaren holds twelve Drivers Championships and eight Constructor’s titles. 

McLaren Formula 1 Car by Car chronicles every McLaren Formula 1 car in chronological order, featuring an overview of each car’s significant features and evolution, its technical specifications, and its competition record accompanied by historic and contemporary images.

Featuring a Foreword from two-time F1 World Champion Mika Häkkinen, McLaren Formula 1 Car by Car details the amazing race cars and drivers that have cemented McLaren’s reputation as one of the most dominant manufacturers in F1 history making this book a must-have for every McLaren and F1 fan.

About the Author:

Stuart Codling is a respected motorsport journalist and broadcaster who covered sports car racing in the United States before joining F1 Racing, the world's biggest-selling Formula 1 magazine, in 2001. He has appeared as an F1 expert on TV and radio, hosted for Renault F1, and contributes to F1 Racing, Autosport, Autocar, and the Red Bulletin. Codling is the author of several Motorbooks titles, including Real Racers: Formula 1 Racing in the 1950s and 1960s, Art of the Formula 1 Race Car, Art of the Classic Sports Car, and The Life Monaco. Stuart lives in Farnham, Surrey, England.

Roomscapes is not only a beautiful testament to Mongiardino’s imaginative creations, the magnificent rooms he re-shaped and decorated in ancient Italian and Parisian palaces, English houses, New York apartments, but it is an important text that analyses space, function, decoration and lighting of rooms. It is meant as a guide to conceive spaces that are inhabited through time and by time. Sketches, drawings, and models by Mongiardino, next to the images of the finished rooms, make the creative process clear and showcase his extraordinary ability and taste. 

Roomscapes was originally published in 1993 and has long been out of print.

Contents: Preface by Giovanni Agosti; Introduction; Part one: The genesis of a room; Sketches; Chapter one: Space, measure, and models; Chapter two: The function of a room and its appearance; Chapter three: Decoration: ways to invent it, transform it, correct it; Chapter four: Decoration and the appeal of the exotic; Part two: Illusion: the eye deceived; Chapter five: Materials and the simulation of materials; Chapter two: The birth and development of perspective; Conclusion; Appendix: 16 unpublished sketches by Renzo Mongiardino.

About the Author:

Renzo Mongiardino, born in Genoa in 1916, was one of the world’s most renowned designers of the 60s, 70s and 80s, and remains highly influential. Although trained as an architect, and at a time when modernism ruled design, Mongiardino found inspiration in the likes of Bernini, Piranesi, Palladio, and the theater. He counted among his clients Gianni Agnelli, Lee Radizwill, Gianni Versace, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, Rudolf Nuryev, Valentino, and Baron Guy de Rothschild. Equally at home in the world of performance, he collaborated with Franco Zeffirelli on many films, including The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; and designed the set for Maria Callas’s triumphant return to opera in Tosca at Covent Garden. He died in 1998 at the age of 82.

A visual and cultural history of hip hop, charting its meteoric rise from underground trailblazer to global tastemaker

To tell the story of contemporary American culture is to tell the story of hip hop. From its humble, underground origins, hip hop transcended the confines of rap music and spread its influence across a broad spectrum of American life – fashion, film, art, sports, politics, language – to become a cultural movement of profound influence.

Rapper’s Deluxe is a critical contribution to America’s cultural canon, shining a light on hip hop’s ability to redefine and influence culture, through: photographs; fine art; advertisements; book, magazine, and album covers; film stills; and more. Organized chronologically from the 1970s to the present, image-rich and dynamic layouts show the people, places, events, objects, outfits, and inspirations that redefined the world as we know it – from fur-coated fans lining up for a Muhammad Ali fight at Madison Square Garden to a legendary party in the “Boogie Down” Bronx, through the hoods of South Los Angeles and the trap houses of Atlanta to the extravagant red carpet looks of the Met Gala.

Drawing on a broad range of curated examples, Dr. Todd Boyd re-examines hip hop’s legacy and how the genre remixes ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, past and present, to come up with a style that is uniquely its own. Filled with original insights and clever wordplay, Rapper’s Deluxe is a tale of transformation,  following hip hop’s arduous, but always triumphant, journey as it rose up to dominate the game.

About the Author:

Dr. Todd Boyd is Price Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at USC. A media commentator, author, producer, and consultant, Dr. Boyd has appeared in documentaries such as The Last Dance (ESPN, 2020) and the Ken Burns-directed Muhammed Ali (PBS, 2021). His body of work includes seven books and his essays have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Guardian.

A lively introduction to and history of international contemporary art from 1960 to the present

What does it mean?
Is it really art?
Why does it cost so much?
While these questions are perpetually asked about contemporary art, they are not the questions that E. H. Gombrich set out to answer in his seminal book The Story of Art. Contemporary art is very different from what came before. From the 1960s, where Gombrich’s account concludes, artists began to abandon traditional forms of art and started to make work that questioned art’s very definition. This is where Godfrey picks up the story.

Developments in contemporary art have followed no straightforward line of progress or sequence of movements. Recognizing this, Tony Godfrey creates a narrative from a series of often dramatic creative conflicts and arguments around what art is or should be. From object versus sculpture and painting versus conceptual to local versus global, gallery versus wider world, The Story of Contemporary Art traces a history in terms of drastic changes in social and political life over the last sixty years.

How do we experience being human in a world that seems to change so quickly? In exploring art’s relationship to this question, Godfrey asserts that multiple voices must be heard: critics, theorists, curators and collectors, but also audiences and artists themselves. Key to the book is the story of how a perception that art was made almost exclusively by white men from North America and Western Europe has been radically overturned. Compelling and intelligent, but never academic, this book tells us how.

About the Author:

Tony Godfrey, former Programme Director of the MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute, London, now lives in Manila, where he works as a curator with artists from South-East Asia. He has written for the Burlington Magazine and Art in America, and is the author of Conceptual Art and Painting Today, as well as numerous exhibition catalogues.

Over the past 30 years, Sir Elton John and David Furnish have carefully built an unrivalled collection of photography. Remarkable in its range and depth, it’s a who’s who of photographer and subject ranging across disciplines from fashion and film to landscape and reportage.

This book presents 150 of the most important photographs from artists including Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Nan Goldin, David LaChapelle, Robert Mapplethorpe, Zanele Muholi, Helmut Newton, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei.

Featuring an afterword from Sam Taylor-Johnson and an in-depth interview with Sir Elton John and David Furnish by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament, as well as curatorial insights into themes within the collection – Fragile Beauty shares images that are beautiful, dynamic, striking, sometimes disturbing but always inspiring.

About the Authors:

Lydia Caston is Exhibition Project Curator at the V&A.

Duncan Forbes is Head of Photography at the V&A.

Newell Harbin is Director, The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection

The first extraordinary art book created through promtography. The artist and author has created the images, not with paint and brush but with AI.

This is an incredible selection of images, created through promtography. The artist Annika Nordenskiöld has used AI as a tool to portray her dreams and inner fantasies. None of the places, people or creatures in this book exist in the physical realm. Instead, they are conjured from the sum of human experience in our deep collective well. “I press enter and four versions of an image start appearing in the darkness. I have prompted deliberately, starting with characters and themes, the mood, and what matters most. Adding lesser details towards the end. I do not reference any existing work or artist, but I am specific with the time and setting. Slowly layers are added, and shapes are taking form.” The result is a book that is both beautiful and intriguing.

About the Author:

Annika Nordenskiöld is an established painter and sculptor in Sweden, that has chosen to use digital tools to create her art. She has had numerous exhibitions throughout the years, but the biggest exhibition success has been with the images presented in this book. In October 2023, Annika won the world’s first artificial intelligence art award, 'Prompted Peculiar' at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Australia.

Magnum Magnum showcases the best of Magnum Photos, celebrating the vision, imagination and brilliance of its photographers – from the acknowledged 20th-century greats to the modern masters and rising stars of our time

Since its founding in 1947 by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David ‘Chim’ Seymour, Magnum Photos - the legendary co-operative - has powerfully chronicled the peoples, cultures, events and issues of the time. Now, following its 75th anniversary, Magnum Photos and Thames & Hudson join forces to publish an updated and expanded edition of the original hit publication Magnum Magnum (2007), which was previously presented in three formats and sold over 200,000 copies worldwide.

Organized by photographer, Magnum Magnum is built upon a founding concept that made Magnum such a unique creative environment; a collaborative process where each of the four founders picture edited the other’s photographs. This book evokes the same creative spirit, with each photographer selecting and critiquing six key works by another of the agency’s 87 photographers along with a commentary explaining the rationale behind their choices.

This new edition adds the 25 photographers who have joined Magnum in the last 15 years. With more than 150 new photographs and over 700 pages, this book is the definition of an updated classic.

About the Authors:

Brigitte Lardinois is a Reader in Understanding of Public Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Lardinois’ association with Magnum began in 1995 when she set up the Cultural Department of their agency in London. She has been involved in group exhibitions as well as solo shows – working closely with Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martin Parr, Josef Koudelka, Eve Arnold, Elliott Erwitt and many others.

Timeless, evocative and hauntingly beautiful: a retrospective monograph by a truly innovative image maker whose female gaze transformed fashion photography.

American photographer Deborah Turbeville defies classification. She belongs to no school or movement. Her unique visual signature has been recognizable since her emergence as a major talent in the 1970s. Her images are evocative, difficult to date at first glance, and seem dreamlike to our 21st-century eyes. Turbeville stands apart from her male contemporaries, whose hard-edged, highly sexualized photographs of women now seem to be of their time in comparison with Turbeville’s very different representation of beauty.

This book focuses on the area of Turbeville’s practice where her genius as an artist can be found: photocollage. In contrast to her contemporaries in fashion photography, she was deliberately playful with her images: xeroxing, cutting, scraping and pinning prints together, writing in the margins and creating narrative sequences. Her work is located far from single, glossy images. It inhabits a liminal zone between art and commerce.

Built upon extensive research in the Deborah Turbeville archive, the work shown spans commercial and personal projects, with many images published for the first time. With texts by Vince Aletti, Anna Tellgren and Felix Hoffmann, this book brings into the spotlight the ways in which Turbeville redefined fashion photography, moving away from the sexual provocation and stereotypes assigned by male photographers to an idea of femininity on her terms. Deborah Turbeville: Photocollage will be an essential publication with modern relevance for all with a passion for fashion photography.

About the Author:

Nathalie Herschdorfer is Director of Photo Elysee-Museum of Photography in Lausanne. Her previous books include Coming into Fashion, Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past and Body: The Photography Book. Deborah Turbeville (1934–2013) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her fashion photography featured in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Nova and The New York Times and for fashion labels including Commes des Garcons, Guy Laroche and Charles Jordan. Her archive is held by The MUUS Collection.

Stefan Sagmeister’s newest project encourages long-term thinking and reminds us that many things in the world are improving.

Initially conceived in 2020 as the world entered pandemic lockdown, Stefan Sagmeister has created a book that looks at the state of the world today, illuminating, through collected data, how far we’ve come, and encouraging us to think about where we can go from here.

Statistics are vividly brought to life, as numbers are transformed into graphs, inlaid into nineteenth-century paintings, embroidered canvases, lenticular prints, and hand-painted water glasses. 

The book includes a foreword from psychologist and leading authority on language and the mind, Steven Pinker; a featured essay by graphic designer and historian Steven Heller; and a conversation between Sagmeister and Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries in London and will appeal to all visually minded readers, providing a positive reaction to the tumultuous news cycle of recent years.

Published in softcover with flaps Now is Better is contained within a die-cut slipcase and accompanied by a lenticular print designed by Sagmeister. Now is Better is an intriguing and thoughtful visual meditation on our daily lives.

About the Authors:

Stefan Sagmeister formed the New York-based Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 and has since designed for clients as diverse as the Guggenheim Museum, the Rolling Stones, and HBO. His work is in museum collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna. He teaches in the graduate department of the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and the author of many books on language, mind, and human nature, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Rationality.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. 1968, Zurich, Switzerland) is Artistic Director of the Serpentine in London, and Senior Advisor at LUMA Arles. Prior to this, he was the Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 350 shows.

Steven Heller is co-chair of the SVA MFA Design program. He is the author, co-author, and/or editor of 200 books on design, illustration, and visual culture. For 33 years he was an art director at the New York Times for the OpEd page and the Book Review section. He has contributed to many magazines including The Atlantic, Wired, EYE, Baseline, and PRINT, where he has written The Daily Heller online for over a decade.