“The only way to last is to never let anyone really know you, for society is only friendly to new faces, out of fear that you’re better than they…
“One of the snags of high fashion is that it attracts the most ambitious social climbers: show-offs, snobs, bigots, and egoists. These women consider themselves as “social”—I think of them as miles of phony society fringe. They are the snake pit of the high-fashion business.
“By contrast, the [American] customers who gave me the most pleasure were the out-of-towners, especially the westerners. These women have no ax to grind and indulge in fashion purely for personal expression and the joy it brings their families.” — Bill Cunningham
Bill Cunningham, Fashion Climbing: A Memoir with Photographs
Preface by Hilton Als (New York: Penguin Press, 2018).
Thursday, October 11, at 6 pm.
Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway (at 65th Street), New York City.
Sunday, October 14, at 2:45 pm.
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street, New York City.
Through September 9.
New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West (at 77th Street), New York City.
Bill Cunningham in Central Park in 1967.
