From the bookself: Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion and Recollections of Leonard

I had a bit of a red letter day as far as books go on Saturday - getting two wonderful new books from Amazon on the same day. 

I'd heard from a few friends that Napoleon and the Empire of Fashion was a good book based on an amazing exhibition, but that doesn't quite do it justice, it was more like mind-blowing.  If you're into Empire fashions I'd say it's a must have book.  It's chock full of incredible, huge color photos of tons of gowns you've never seen before, most of them the height of  fashion.  I haven't even begun to read the next yet but that's only because I've been distracted by my other book - Recollections Of Leonard: Hairdresser To Queen Marie-Antoinette.    I'd recently started reading "The Private life of Marie Antoinette" by Madame Campan when I came across the fact that MA's hairdresser Leonard had also written memoirs of the queen.  Leonard is such an outrageous character I decided I had to read what he'd written.  And although I've only just started his book it's been well worth it so far. Leonard's recollections are astonishingly modern in style, totally self-inflated and very funny.  They could easily be a modern Hollywood self-made-man rags-to-riches story.