Valentina

What do you get people who have everything? A very stylish coffee table book, of course! A bevy of beautiful tomes have been published in 2009 on everything from fashion designers' favorite recipes to those who've been accused of Russian espionage. Here are a few that caught our eye.

American Fashion Cookbook: 100 Designer's Best Recipes (Assouline, $45). The Council of Fashion Designers of America book of cooking recipes with a forward by Martha Stewart and text by Lisa Marsh. Check out Isaac Mizrahi's Mushroom Truffle spaghetti, Mark Ecko's "Adults Only" Chocolate Chip Cookies and John Varvatos' Calaloo Soup.

Resort Fashion: Style in Sun-Drenched Climates by Caroline Rennolds Milbank (Rizzoli, New York, $65) with a forward by Amy Fine Collins. From Chanel's beach pajamas to sailor stripes, this is a visual history of color, ease and playfulness that resort fashion is all about.

Russian Style by Evelina Khromtchenko (Assouline, $60). From Erte and Faberge to Lolita and Anna Karenina, leaf through photographs and witty stories about the elements of Russian style and culture that have influenced the world.

Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity by Kohle Yohannan (Rizzoli, New York, $75) with a forward by Harold Koda and preface by Phyllis Magidson. Some 250 photographs and research tell the rags-to-riches story of the Ukrainian-born beauty by the same name who shot to the top of American fashion design (pictured above). Valentina is a forgotten part of American fashion history but her stories are incredible. Some said she was a Russian spy. Others claimed she arrived in the U.S. as a dancer in Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She herself maintained she was a duchess in exile. She apparently lied about everything but was devastatingly chic and brilliant at capturing the public's attention. (Luxist)



I would love to add this to my collection!

Couture Designer and Fashion Icon

Madame Valentine (Pictures 1 & 3), of the few great American couturiers, dressed some of the biggest stars of the 1930's and 40's, including Paulette Goddard, Katherine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Yet despite her influence, she has largely been forgotten in the history of fashion. "Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity" at the museum of the City of New York is one of the first ever exhibitions of the the designer's work. The exhibition and it's hefty catalogue by Kohle Yohannan reveal a designer with a strikingly modern sensibility...not only in her beautifully minimalist dresses but in the creation of her persona as well.

The first picture captures here in the early 1940's. Valentina believed that one should always look chic...even when gardening or cooking. "What you wear when you are in your own house," she once said, "is like a costume for the role of yourself". She models one of her more practical linen outfits, topped off with an Asian-inspired coolie hat....one of her signatures.

You can see the influence of vintage designs, such as Valentina's in today's designer collections.


*Forbes