In her new memoir Always Pack A Party Dress, Amanda Brooks, the former fashion director of Barneys New York and creative director of Tuleh, deftly tells the story of her offbeat journey—from fashion to her current life on a farm in rural England—and, of course, she doesn’t leave out the clothes.
“As someone who came of age in the fashion industry over the course of 20 years, it was nice to share these very personal stories,” Brooks tells DuJour. “There is a kind of glamorous lens on the stories, obviously, but at the same time I felt that they were also stories that everyone could relate to.”
From her time as an assistant to a world-famous photographer to her days behind an art gallery desk and beyond, Brooks shares the kind of stories that make the sometimes-imposing world of fashion seem entirely approachable, and never misses the chance to discuss the clothes that she wore along the way.
“I wanted to tell the story of having a wonderful experience in the fashion industry, and talk about the highs and lows, and talk about how I make decisions, the evolution of my clothes and how my personal circumstances informed that,” Brooks says of the book, her second. “And once I started writing, I had a lot to say.”
Main image photographed by Casey Kelbaugh
