Fashion Climbing

Book excerpt: Growing up in a lace-curtain Irish suburb of Boston, secretly trying on his sister's dresses and spending his evenings after school in the city's chicest boutiques, Cunningham dreamed of a life dedicated to fashion. When he arrived in New York in 1948, he reveled in people-watching. He became a photographer for The New York Times, and after two style mavens took Cunningham under their wing he made a name for himself as a designer. Taking on the alias William J.-- because designing under his family's name would have been a disgrace to his parents--he became one of the era's most outlandish and celebrated hat designers, catering to movie stars, heiresses, and artists alike. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away until after his death in 2016 -- adapted from jacket.