Fashion Climbing

A MEMOIR WITH PHOTOGRAPHS

By BILL CUNNINGHAM

Preface by Hilton Als

ABOUT FASHION CLIMBING

The untold story of a New York City legend’s education in creativity and style

For Bill Cunningham, New York City was the land of freedom, glamour, and, above all, style. Growing up in a lace-curtain Irish suburb of Boston, secretly trying on his sister’s dresses and spending his evenings after school in the city’s chicest boutiques, Bill dreamed of a life dedicated to fashion. But his desires were a source of shame for his family, and after dropping out of Harvard, he had to fight them tooth-and-nail to pursue his love. 

When he arrived in New York, he reveled in people-watching. He spent his nights at opera openings and gate-crashing extravagant balls, where he would take note of the styles, new and old, watching how the gowns moved, how the jewels hung, how the hair laid on each head. This was his education, and the birth of the democratic and exuberant taste that he came to be famous for as a photographer for The New York Times. After two style mavens took Bill under their wing, his creativity thrived and he made a name for himself as a designer. Taking on the alias William J.–because designing under his family’s name would have been a disgrace to his parents–Bill became one of the era’s most outlandish and celebrated hat designers, catering to movie stars, heiresses, and artists alike. Bill’s mission was to bring happiness to the world by making women an inspiration to themselves and everyone who saw them. These were halcyon days when fashion was all he ate and drank. When he was broke and hungry he’d stroll past the store windows on Fifth Avenue and feed himself on beautiful things.

Fashion Climbing is the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original. But although he was one of the city’s most recognized and treasured figures, Bill was also one of its most guarded. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away in his lifetime. He held off on sharing it–and himself–until his passing. Between these covers, is an education in style, an effervescent tale of a bohemian world as it once was, and a final gift to the readers of one of New York’s great characters.

From a documentary "Bill Cunningham New York", Zeigeist Film

PRAISE

“This obscenely enjoyable romp fills in part of the Cunningham back story and provides tantalizing peeks in the psyche of the guarded and mysterious Bill. . . . [Fashion Climbing] leaves the readers gasping for more.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The photographer’s posthumously published memoir is a thoughtful, accessible glimpse inside the fashion world he chronicled for decades. . . . The true treasure of Fashion Climbing is that the man who spent his life holding up a mirror to the world’s most self-important industry, in the world’s most self-important city, turns the mirror around to make a subject of himself.” —Vanity Fair

“An unexpected gift . . .  a Strunk and White of chic.” —The New York Times

“Bill Cunningham’s memoir traces a righteous pursuit of beauty. Fashion Climbing, the fashion photographer’s posthumous autobiography, is just as fun as you’d expect.” —The Outline

“The glamorous world of 20th-century fashion comes alive in Cunningham’s masterful memoir both because of his exuberant appreciation for stylish clothes and his sharp assessment of those who wore them.” —Publishers Weekly, Boxed, Starred Review

“Cunningham’s writing is authentic, irreverent, and quintessentially New York . . .  A lively tale of a life in style and a delightful homage to the days before women stopped wearing hats.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Cunningham’s almost unbearably charming memoir—unearthed by relatives after his death, in 2016, and covering his life through the 1960s—sends readers winging through the twentieth century in style….[It]documents his unparalleled eye and appreciation for fashion’s magic, mystery, and illusions; style’s potential to invent and transform. As both the very personal autobiography of an icon and a valuable social history, this wins.” — Booklist, starred review

“Bill Cunningham’s enchanting memoir of his love affair with fashion and the people who created, shaped, analysed, and wore it in the combustible years after the Second World War is a delight and a revelation, proving that his pen was as astute as his lens. This lively, compelling, and invaluable social history tells us as much about the mores of the age as it does about the era’s seismic fashion revolutions and reflects the wonder that Bill saw in creation throughout his life.” —Hamish Bowles

“We missed Bill Cunningham terribly. So thank goodness for this book. Here comes a snap, crackle and pop of a memoir. Humble, sparse and vivacious. Funny! Forthright and elegant. Bill is back and we are grateful.” —Maira Kalman

“As Mr. Cunningham might have said, ‘a real dilly’ of a book—the story of a man who turned a love of beauty into an exquisite life.” —Lauren Collins

“Fashion Climbing has everything you’d want in a fashion memoir (industry politics, elaborate window displays, hijinks at galas), but it’s also a manifesto for living authentically. Just like Bill Cunningham’s photography, this book is anti-snobbery, pro-having-fun-at-all-costs, and awake to the pleasures of being oneself.” —Tavi Gevinson

ABOUT BILL CUNNINGHAM

Iconic New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham was the creative force behind the columns On the Street and Evening Hours. Cunningham dropped out of Harvard and moved to New York City at 19, eventually starting his own hat design business under the name “William J.” His… More about Bill Cunningham

PRODUCT DETAILS

Hardcover | $27.00 

Published by Penguin Press

Sep 04, 2018 | 256 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780525558705

*자전거를 탄 카메라맨, 빌 커닝햄

http://www.nyculturebeat.com/?mid=People&document_srl=52679