"Fashion Climbing has everything you?d want in a fashion memoir (industry politics, elaborate window displays, hijinks at galas), but it?s also a manifesto for living authentically. Just like Bill Cunningham?s photography, this book is anti-snobbery, pro-having-fun-at-all-costs, and awake to the pleasures of being oneself" (Tavi Gevinson, Editor in Chief, Rookie)

"Bill Cunningham?s enchanting memoir of his love affair with fashion and the people who created, shaped, analysed, and wore it in the combustible years after the Second World War is a delight and a revelation, proving that his pen was as astute as his lens. This lively, compelling, and invaluable social history tells us as much about the mores of the age as it does about the era?s seismic fashion revolutions and reflects the wonder that Bill saw in creation throughout his life" (Hamish Bowles, International Editor at Large, Vogue)

"Surprising and sprightly... A front-row seat on the mid-century fashion world... The glamorous world of 20th-century fashion comes alive in Cunningham's masterful memoir both because of his exuberant appreciation for stylish clothes and his sharp assessment of those who wore them" (Publishers Weekly)

"Cunningham's writing is authentic, irreverent, and quintessentially New York... A lively tale of a life in style and a delightful homage to the days before women stopped wearing hats" (Kirkus Reviews)

"We missed Bill Cunningham terribly. So thank goodness for this book. Here comes a snap, crackle and pop of a memoir. Humble, sparse and vivacious. Funny! Forthright and elegant. Bill is back and we are grateful" (Maira Kalman)

"As Mr. Cunningham might have said, ?a real dilly? of a book?the story of a man who turned a love of beauty into an exquisite life" (Lauren Collins)

"Cunningham's almost unbearably charming memoir - unearthed by relatives after his death, in 2016, and covering his life through the 1960s - sends readers winging through the twentieth century in style... It documents his unparalleled eye and appreciation for fashion's magic, mystery and illusions; style's potential to invent and transform. As both the very personal autobiography of an icon and a valuable social history, this wins" (Annie Bostrom Booklist)

?I took to New York life like a star shooting through the heavens??

Bill Cunningham?s first love was fashion but the big city came a close second. He left for New York aged nineteen, losing his family?s support but enjoying the infinite luxury of freedom. Living on a scoop of Ovaltine a day, he would run down to Fifth Avenue to feed on the spectacular sights of the window displays ? then run back to his tiny studio to work all night.

Working as ?William J? (to spare his parents? blushes), Bill became one of the most celebrated hat designers of the 1950s, creating elegant town hats for movie stars and playful beach hats for the summer set. Bill?s mission was to bring happiness by making beautiful things ? even if it meant pawning his bike to fund fancy-dress outfits for all his friends.

When women stopped wearing hats and his business was forced to close, Bill worked as a fashion journalist, touring the couture houses of Europe. But New York remained his home, and it was as a street photographer of the fashions of the city that he became well known, in a job that would last almost forty years.

Fashion Climbing is the enchanting memoir he left behind, capturing the madcap times of his early career and the fashion scene of the mid-century. Written with the spark and wit of Holly Golightly, and brimming over with Bill?s infectious joy for life, it is a gift to all who seek beauty, whatever our style or status.