Synopses & Reviews
Michael Roberts is "the Jean Cocteau of the fashion world" wrote the celebrated New Yorker editor Tina Brown in 1997, welcoming her new fashion editor to the most prestigious magazine in the world. Having already served for many years as a style editor (The London Sunday Times, Vanity Fair) and having produced numerous illustrations, photographs, paintings and columns of fashion criticism for various media, M.R. had already had his name coupled with Cocteau's, but his striking visual style is collected here for the first time. From evocative pen-and-ink sketches to acrylic paintings to intensely witty New Yorker covers created from cut paper, these works capture the fads, foibles, and fashionability of our times. Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of American Vogue, in her introduction to "this beautiful book" calls them "fiendishly accurate satire." And the shoe guru Manolo Blahnik writes, "His drawings grasp fashion moments like a photo could never do." That a major part of the book was created through the painstaking method of paper collage especially appeals to the internationally famed fashion designer John Galliano. He writes, "I have avidly collected his work, along with doing my own collages, for years, and I am honored to be a part of this book.
Grace Coddington
Review
From the Publisher
Armand Limnander, New York Times T Magazine Michael Roberts Snips and Tells During his 30-plus years in fashion, The New Yorker's fashion director, Michael Roberts, has worn more hats than a Philip Treacy model. He began as a tart-tongued writer and critic at The London Sunday Times, where he was never afraid to say that something was hideous, leading to all sorts of litigation. He went on to art-direct memorable magazine covers, like one featuring Brooke Shields wearing a live turkey on her head for Vanity Fair and another with Vivienne Westwood looking like the spitting image of Margaret Thatcher for Tatler. Roberts's most memorable creations, however, are his elaborate collages of haughty New York divas, exotic tribal dancers and languid South Seas heroines, which have made up his four memorable books. August 28, 2005