Bill Cunningham’s Memoir

BY: Claire Connors

One of the most thrilling documentaries for fashionable New Yorkers—among many others—was the 2010 feature, Bill Cunningham: New York. The ubiquitous, not to mention quite delightful, New York Times street photographer and journalist was always seen riding around the city on his spray painted Schwinn, camera in hand. Hardly a Saturday went by that Bill, dressed in his uniform of a French sanitation worker’s blue jacket and khakis, didn’t take glam shots of women buying flowers at the farmer’s market.

Bill’s photographic Sunday column in the Style section of The Times was literally the first page people with fashion flair would turn to. His eye for trends and the fabulous people wearing them was a must-see. As Vogue editor Anna Wintour once said, “We all dress for Bill.” And anyone who gave a damn about what they wore, woke up on Sundays hoping, nay PRAYING, that they might be the subject of one of Bill’s photos.

Sadly, the much-loved and respected man passed away in 2016. But the modest genius left behind a trove of treasures. As the 2010 documentary revealed, Bill bordered on hoarding. His apartment, if that’s what you would call it, was really a storage room filled with six decades of negatives, prints, and God knows what else. After he died at age 87, his family began the fascinating job of going through his archives. In the midst of his vast personal and professional photographic history, they discovered his memoir entitled Fashion Climbing.

No one is sure when it was written but the book covers his difficult Catholic childhood, his service in the Korean War, his move to New York, and his early days as a journalist. Penguin Press is releasing Fashion Climbing in September, right around New York Fashion Week, one of Bill’s favorite times of the year.

We just know Bill is smiling down on his fans as we all anticipate learning more about the man behind the camera.