Books
Eleanor Lambert: Still Here
John Tiffany’s first book Eleanor Lambert: Still Here recounts the incredible career of the extraordinary American pioneer who was the first fashion publicist. Eleanor Lambert raised the visibility of the fashion industry by creating Fashion Week, The Coty Awards, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), the International Best-Dressed List, as well as helping start the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, and inaugurating the celebrated Costume Gala along with numerous other organizations and events. She initially worked for artists starting in the 1920s whose careers she enhanced by promoting their work. She was instrumental in helping start the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), American Art Dealers Association, the Parke-Bernet Galleries (now Sotheby's USA), and National Council on the Arts. She also served as the first press director of the Whitney Museum. The book details her passion for those she deemed truly talented, turning them into household names and ultimately the biggest legends in their time. She discovered, worked for, and promoted an incredible roster of fashion designers: Halston, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Christian Dior and many more. Published by Pointed Leaf Press, the book was the official kickoff party for New York Fashion Week, co-hosted by the Council of Fashion Designers of America & Lincoln Center in September 2011.
DAWN: The Career of the Legendary Fashion Retailer Dawn Mello
DAWN: The Career of the Legendary Fashion Retailer Dawn Mello is John Tiffany's second book with a Foreward by Tom Ford. In 1975, Mello was hired as Fashion Director and Vice President of Bergdorf Goodman to turn the store around and remake it in her image, by then CEO, Ira Neimark. Together they turned the once dowdy department store into the retail center of luxury fashion. Mello’s strategy not only redefined and repositioned Bergdorf Goodman, but in doing so, she discovered and encouraged the rise of exciting modern designers, while inaugurating an exuberant, new type of fashion shows. Mello left Bergdorf Goodman in the late 1980’s to revitalize the fading and unfashionable Gucci. Her time in Italy at Gucci in the late 80’s and early 90’s is the modern case study for resuscitating a luxury brand and discovering exceptional talent to breathe in new life, hiring Tom Ford and Richard Lambertson. When she left, Gucci was back on top as a in-demand high-fashion luxury brand. She has spent decades identifying talent, pursuing designers, and helping launch and nurture their careers: Michael Kors, Donna Karan, Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Gian Franco Ferre, Azzedine Alaia, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, Jo Malone–and the list goes on and on. The official launch of the book took place in New York at Bergdorf Goodman. It was published in April 2019 by Pointed Leaf Press.
What People Are Saying...
“The book touches on every aspect of Lambert’s career... As much as Tiffany explores Lambert’s achievements, the book also paints a picture of the evolution of American fashion in the 20th century...”
Marc Karimzadeh, Women’s Wear Daily
“Author John Tiffany sheds light on this fascinating doyenne... the original fashion publicist and brains behind America’s most glamorous fete...” Charlotte Moss, Wall Street Journal
“Eleanor Lambert was one of the most influential women in the fashion industry. John Tiffany lays out her evolution from failed sculpture student to artists rep to one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art.”
Michelle Langevine, Washington Post
“John Tiffany’s book is almost as large (and only slightly less imposing) as the turban-wearing grande dame herself.”
Ralph Gardner, Wall Street Journal
“Eleanor Lambert is the person responsible for creating fashion week as we know it. That was just one of the fascinating things I learned about this remarkable woman in John Tiffany’s new book.”
Heather Clawson, Habitually Chic
“John Tiffany’s book turned out to be a quintessential example of why young, creative industrious people come to New York, and why New York remains the city that it is in the world...”
David Patrick Columbia, New York Social Diary
"Tiffany manages to capture Dawn Mello's alluring persona and detail the splashy fashion shows she staged in NYC landmarks like the Pulitzer Fountain, Studio 54, and Castle Clinton..."
David Moin, Women's Wear Daily
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