The Glossy Book Club

Just in time for Christmas. Essential (and not-s0-essential) reading for the holidays. Send it to Santa and wish for the best. 

1. The Fashion Designer Survival Guide: An Insider's Look at Starting and Running Your Own Business by Mary Gehlhar

Industry consultant Mary Gehlar dishes up advice on everything to start-up costs to production information. Oh yah - forward by Zac Posen!? Might be worth it for that alone? 

2. 100 Years of Fashion Illustration by Cally Blackman

Fashion illustrator lover that I am - this already has a reserved spot on my bookshelf... 

3. The Little Black Book of Style by Nina Garcia

Elle's Fashion Director serves up advice on style including a concise list of her 10 fashion essentials. Number one and two are the LBD and a men's white shirt....perhaps the reading is a little dry but still worth a peruse? Extra bonus: illustrations by Ruben Toledo. 

4. Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People by Hamish Bowles

Who doesn't want to see inside Madonna's rural retreat, Oscar de la Renta's mansion, Christian Louboutin's enchanting house-boat on the Nile, or any number of Karl's palatial homes? Added bonus - all pictures shot by legendary photog's like Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino and others. 

5. First Gossip Girl Collection by Cecily von Ziegesar

If you're missing Serena and crew over the holidays - curl up and catch up with the complete first collection. Warning: brains may turn to mush if read in one sitting.