This book, edited by a Paris-based author and art director, showcases the indelible images of the legendary French fashion photographer’s advertising campaigns with luxury shoe designer Charles Jourdain, which began in 1967. The witty, colour-saturated compositions and striking tableaux created a sensation by abstracting women’s bodies (think: disembodied legs) and leaning to the surreal.

A panoramic history of “the vexed issues of body image and bodily autonomy” from Nicholson, a British author and social historian, centres the female body in the public gaze. Beauty and self-adornment have always reflected change, but the social revolutions of women’s emancipation and so-called feminine beauty ideals in this account – which covers 1860 to 1960 – have renewed relevance in the era of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic.

The glittering paintings in All About Love disrupt Western notions of beauty and identity. The queer Black artist’s vivid portraits (dubbed “rhinestone odalisques”) subvert the accepted canon of art and pop culture by inserting figures of self-possessed Black women into glamorous renderings of familiar paintings.

Givhan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic, chronicles the 1973 high-society gala known as The Battle of Versailles. In the watershed cultural moment when American style came into its own, a group of designers (including Stephen Burrows and Halston) bested their Paris couture counterparts in a fashion duel at the famed French palace, thanks to the energy and individuality of an unprecedented, racially diverse runway featuring Alva Chinn, Pat Cleveland, Bethann Hardison and eight other Black models.

Political and social context grounds a revelatory biography from an architectural historian and professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, which spans the entire career of the German-born architect’s entire career. The stunning photography of sleek landmarks such as the Seagram Building in New York and Toronto’s TD Centre delivers an understanding of the radical “less is more” modernist pioneer.

This lavish tome, subtitled Traditions, Secrets, and Unwritten Rules, celebrates the lived-in look and inspirational ideals we’ve come to know and love from shows like The Crown and Downton Abbey. It takes readers into classical and contemporary private homes with clever advice on layering texture, pattern and colour to re-create the decorating style.

Few could claim more insider knowledge of the stately lifestyle than Lady Pamela Hicks, 95. The daughter of Lord Mountbatten (last Viceroy of India, Prince Philip’s uncle and King Charles’ mentor) and Queen Elizabeth II’s bridesmaid, lifelong friend and lady-in-waiting was married to celebrated interior designer David Hicks. In the book, their designer daughter India shares the art, homes and ephemera (including letters from the late Queen) of Lady P’s archive that form a fascinating glimpse into her mother’s remarkable life.