Celebrity Fashion Books: Cringe or Covet?

Slapping the name of a celebrity on a product is a sure way to boost sales. But what if it’s something the celeb knows little about? Let’s talk about celebrity fashion books.

A string of well-known celebrities have written them, so have well-known fashion designers but which do you think is the better seller? If a young girl walks into a book store, which book is she most likely to buy—a firsthand glimpse into fashion by Miuccia Prada or a book of tips by Dannii Minogue who she watches on X Factor each week?

You guessed it, the celebrity. Enter: celebrity fashion books.

Pop star Kylie Minogue’s fashion book Kylie: Fashion has sold almost 300 copies in Sydney in the last 7 months while Dior’s book has sold an abysmal 50 copies since 2011.

But what gives these celebs the right—or wealth of knowledge—to write a book about style? Surely they have stylists and personal shoppers to take care of their appearances. How much do the Minogue sisters really know about fashion? Apparently Dannii knows enough to give advice to brides-to-be and buying the best tees and jeans for your body shape.

Kylie, however, doesn’t give tips. In summary, her book is just a collection of photographs of her in gorgeous outfits that she didn’t style herself. The closest her book gets to being 100% truly fashionable is the introduction written by Jean Paul Gaultier. (If you’re thinking “who’s that?”—you don’t know fashion.)

Set to be released later this year is a style handbook by Nicky Hilton.

“It’s how to dress for all the seasons, and then there’s just a bunch of stories—my encounters with fashion designers, my tips, my dos, my don’ts,” she told fashion website The Cut. Nicky isn’t a stylist or even someone recognised simply for her style but she’s notoriously known as Paris Hilton’s little sister and that will probably help her sell lots of books.

Taking style advice from a celeb is one thing. But from a reality TV star? And no, we’re not talking about Lauren Conrad or Whitney Port, who actually do have some style cred. We’re talking about Kelly Killoren-Bensimon from Real Housewives of New York.

To be fair, Kelly isn’t trying to tell you how to dress. She just thought it would be fun to choose photographs of a bunch of stylish people and turn it into a book. Unfortunately, the book isn’t very well laid out and has been described as “confusing” and “more of a messy picture book of name-dropped has-been celebrities.”

When people are buying these celebrity fashion books, it’s not really for the fashion. They’re buying them for the celebrity name and the promise of never-before-seen photos.