The FiFi Report 066

The Christmas List:
AMERICAN STYLE By Kelly Killoren Bensimon Assouline, $50
No, this is not an oxy moron,American Style does exist. Just because the author is an ex model who is married to Gilles Bensimon (the famous Elle Photographer/director) doesn’t mean she can’t put a book together but it is a picture book after all. A big fat glossy one too, full of portraits of the icons of American style. “And so a portrait of Lil’ Kim is paired with one of Wallis Simpson; Kid Rock, all dressed up in a red undershirt, shares a spread with an archival photograph of Bergdorf-Goodman. There are no page numbers, so it’s impossible to cross-reference photo credits with images. Ms. Bensimon, when asked how she assembled the pictures, some of which were taken by her husband. ”Everyone says, ‘Gilles just gives Kelly all his stuff, They don’t realize how much research I did. It’s the same way I got Dick Avedon’s picture or Patrick Demarchelier’s. I just asked him, and he said, ‘Yeah.” The New York Times