Can fashion save publishing (and vice versa)? - Financial Times

The new Rizzoli book 'Stars in Dior'

Can fashion save publishing and can publishing save fashion? Such was my thinking as I lay jet-lagged last night after returning from that far wardrobe planet called the American desert, where I had a nice, blue-jean-and-bandanna week with some cowboys and was happily protected from rattlesnakes by Patagonia hiking boots. Good thing I had those.

Anyway, my late-night questions were sparked by news of a new coffee table book from Rizzoli entitled “Stars in Dior” with Dior ambassadoress Charlize Theron on the cover. Before you roll your eyes and say “big whoop,” know this: I think this is a lot more than a thinly disguised celeb-fashion-tome. In fact, I think it’s very revealing, both of a new publishing reality and a super-smart and subtle Dior strategy.

No, the sun has not gone to my head.

Inspiration Dior, 2011

The latest Dior mega-book joins Patrick Demarchelier’s “Dior Couture” (also Rizzoli) and ”Inspiration Dior “(Abrams), all of which landed on my desk in the last year, and all of which (along with Dolce & Gabbana’s three-books-a-year output) has started to make me wonder if the fashion industry is single-handedly keeping the publishing industry in business. As an idea, it’s not as out there as you might think.

Jay-Z's book, "Decoded", features an image of Andy Warhol's "Rorschach" on the cover

Before I went away I was having lunch with a high-powered book agent, and she told me that there was a big boom in coffee table books â€" the more expensive the better. These even went beyond picture books to books with gorgeous covers that you want to put out on display. (The Jay-Z book with the gold Rorschach blot on its cover springs to mind. I put it out on my coffee table, anyway.)

It makes sense when you think about it. After all, the advent of the Kindle/iPad has transformed the purpose of physical books from something you have to own to something you want to ownâ€" which is also the description of …fashion! Especially accessories! And what are these books but accessories for the home? Make them gorgeous, and you make them marketable. It’s how they look, stupid (to paraphrase the endlessly paraphrasable James Carville). Bet art directors are suddenly a lot more in demand.

So that’s the publishing side of it. As for Dior’s side, this seems to me part of an orchestrated effort to keep the brand front and centre in consumers’ minds, despite the fact it has not had a marketable designer for over a year.

By creating opportunities to

1. spark news stories on the brand; and
2. publish lots of pretty pictures of famous people, living and dead, in the brand’s clothes

it is experimenting with the idea of assorted faces that might be associated with brand image, as opposed to a single one, while simultaneously creating buzz around its name.

Now that’s something to write home about, don’t you think?