Her honesty about herself and her world make 'The Price of Illusion' a compulsive read. Joan Juliet Buck is a woman of immense talent, which was certainly recognized, even though the only foreign editor-in-chief of French Vogue seems never to have found her true niche in the way Anna Wintour has. This is a very honest and frequently poignant biography. Through fashion luminaries of the calibre of Paloma Picasso and Karl Lagerfeld, she decided that the fashion world was more right for her than the world of film and film makers. Her childhood and youth, although wealthy and privileged, were frequently lonely and sad even though her world enabled her to know and be part of the Hollywood hierarchy she was surrounded by, such as Lauren Bacall and John Huston. Joan Juliet Buck is the only child of a larger-than-life film producer. 'Price of Illusion: A Memoir' | Source: Atria Books 'Price of Illusion: A Memoir' | Source: Atria Books Beautifully written, this book really does reveal the visual culture of fashionable clothing over 300 years. All in a book that deals authoritatively with many different styles and types of paintings, from the sixteenth century of Caravaggio to Rembrandt to Alma-Tadema and Paul Poiret. This book is the result of a lifetime of looking, thinking, reading and then doing all three again with a skill that makes even the apparently most clichéd of portraits take on a different life. Her analysis of dress and social mores in art, such as her masterful unpicking of Hogarth’s 'Marriage A-La Mode' and Rake's 'Progress', are just two of the many commentaries on paintings we think we all know, but find that Ribeiro knows more. 'Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of Fashion | Source: Yale 'Clothing Art: The Visual Culture of Fashion | Source: Yale 'Clothing Art' is a vast, wide-ranging survey of the links between portraits and the dresses worn for them, but also the movements of taste and style that were epitomised in the courts and fashionable lives of Europe. But she is also an expert in dress as seen in portraits and the social life that they have recorded. Professor Aileen Ribiero is one of the worlds top fashion historians. On Midsummer's Day, BoF columnist Colin McDowell brings you his bi-annual list of the most intriguing fashion tomes, including books on Rei Kawakubo, Irving Penn, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent's Dior years and more.

LONDON, United Kingdom - It's that time of the year again.

Best books to read 2017 business