beautiful books

I love reading. If you saw my post about my room a while back, it's pretty obvious that books are a Big Deal to me (heck, if you've seen any of my pictures of my room in my parents' home, it's also pretty obvious, because there are even more books there). Normally, I really only read fantasy and science fiction books (and occasionally historical fiction) - basically only fictional stuff. However, I spotted a pin a while back about the book Dreaming of Dior. Written by Charlotte Smith and illustrated by Grace Cowan, it is a beautiful book full of wonderful stories about the collection of dresses Smith inherited from her godmother, Doris Darnell. Given that I got it less than a month ago and have already read through it a couple of times, you can probably imagine my reaction when I discovered today that there's a second book, Dreaming of Chanel. Obviously, I ordered it right away.

The books are wonderful, not because of the beautiful dresses in them, but because of the stories about them. I think my favorite story in the first book was about the first designer dress Doris owned, bought in college, which she wore to a dance with her future husband. It was one of the cutest stories I've ever read about a couple, and there are many more like that story within the pages. I'm excited to see what other beautiful clothes lie within the second book.

Has anyone else read one of these? Let me know your favorite story&dress! (Also, side-note, if you've read them, tell me I'm not the only one who's been super surprised by some of the stories Smith's told about herself because damn she's been up to some interesting things!)



ps: I forgot to mention, the black sections on the outfit on Dreaming of Dior are VELVET and so cool.