As the coverage of Fashion Week proves, what happens outside the shows can attract as much attention as what happens on the runway. Even Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the rest of the old guard weigh in not just on designer trends but on what social media influencers are wearing. So it’s no surprise that several forthcoming titles celebrate street style—those who promote it and those who wear it.
Drop
Byron Hawes (PowerHouse, July)
Hawes documents the culture of the “hypebeast,” which he describes as “a ruthless pursuit of limited-edition street fashion and kicks, by any means necessary.” Drop features photographs of the fashion fans who treat product launches, or drops, as opportunities to show off their threads as they wait outside stores in lines that stretch down city blocks. The prevalence of Instagram lifestyle posturing, Hawes speculates, has made such launches into events. “The ateliers have fashion week; these drops are becoming the street fashion analogue.”
Fashion Climbing
Bill Cunningham (Penguin Press, Sept.)
Self-taught photographer Cunningham, who died in 2016, was the unofficial king of street-fashion photography. He cruised the streets of New York City by bicycle, capturing its citizens’ clothing and accessory choices for the New York Times. His memoir, which he wrote, revised, and secreted away to be published after his death, is interspersed with photographs from his life as a designer and professional people-watcher.
Polka Dot Parade
Deborah Blumenthal, illus. by Masha D’yans (Little Bee, Sept.; ages 4–8)
The author of 2017’s Fancy Party Gowns, which introduced the picture-book crowd to fashion designer Ann Cole Lowe, here profiles street-fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, contrasting his reclusiveness with the joy he found in placing the spotlight on others.
This Is Not Fashion
King ADZ and Wilma Stone (Thames & Hudson, Apr.)
Beginning with what the book calls the first streetwear shop—Trash and Vaudeville, which opened in Jersey City in 1972 and soon after moved to St. Mark’s Place in New York’s East Village—this look at fashion styles and brands encompassing punk, hip-hop, club wear, and more includes hundreds of photos as well as interviews with big names in the field, such as Shepard Fairey, the street artist and designer of the Barack Obama “Hope” poster whose clothing brand Obey was a pioneer of contemporary street art–based streetwear.
Tokyo Street Style
Yoko Yagi, photos by Tohru Yuasa (Abrams Image, Apr.)
Joining a list that includes books on Paris (2013) and Brooklyn (2015), this title tracks Tokyo fashion by neighborhood and decade, from the 1960s to today, and showcases the influence of its models, photographers, designers, and shops in other arenas, such as food. “Trends that develop in Japan quickly spread to international markets,” says Abrams senior editor Laura Dozier. For instance, “the book explores how Tokyo has been a pioneer in genderless fashion for decades, and continues to be today.”
