CECIL BEATON: A CREATIVE MASTERMIND

There are a few people that have the ability to turn fashion in a strikingly intelligent, artistic, brilliant matter: one of these is, without a doubt, English photographer, painter, costume and set designer, diarist and interior designer Sir Cecil Beaton. In conjunction with the retrieval of some of his masterpieces, hidden for fifty years, and their exhibition at the splendid Wilton House, in Witshire (until Sept. 14th) we selected a comprehensive list among the many amazing books created by and written on this iconic man. 

Beaton in Vogue. Josephine Ross. Thames and Hudson, 2012.

Mr Beaton's years in Vogue are remembered in this marvelous treasure containing his sketches, photographs and articles dating from the 1920s to the 1970s, proof of his brilliant contribution of he world's leading fashion magazine in some of its most iconic decades.

The Unexpurgated Beaton: The Cecil Beaton Diaries as He Wrote Them, 1970-1980. Cecil Beaton.Edited by Hugo Vickers. Carrol and Graf Publishers, Inc., 2005 reprint. 

The Unexpurgated Beaton

Edited by Hugo Vickers. Carrol and Graf Publishers, Inc., 2005 reprint. 

The only volume of the photographer's diaries left unedited, this book shows the Beaton we all grew to love in his many worlds, shooting from  Buckingham Palace garden parties to costume balls in Venice. He is honest, vivid, brilliant, in this delightful fragment of his life. A must read!

Cecil Beaton: The New York Years. Donald Albrecht. Skira Rizzoli, 2011.

An amazing retrospective on the photographer's life in New York City from the 1930s to the 1960s, this gem contains sketches, costumes, theatre set designs, unpublished letters, photographs and drawings. You will be inspired and swept away by Beaton's whimsical contributions in fashion, the performing arts and portraiture. 

The Glass of Fashion. Cecil Beaton. Cassell Illustrated, 1989

First published in 1954, this book contains a personal overview by Beaton himself examining five decades of changing tastes and the people that influenced their rise. Immensely satisfying for any creative personality. 

The Glass of Fashion. Cecil Beaton. Cassell Illustrated, 1989.

By Isabella Garonzi