Influence - Ashley Olsen & Mary-Kate Olsen

Mary-Kate Olsen describes her twin sister Ashley Olsen as someone who is passionate, driven and with great integrity while she is feisty with a maverick demeanor. This is highlighted immensely in their new book in which they share their historic influences. The mammoth coffee table book is aptly titled, Influence and shows these two ladies of style celebrating their icons. We all know the story of the Olsen twins; famous before they could even breathe they landed a slot on the TV show, Full House before they were even a year old. Before the show ended in 1993 they began to build their brand and lent their name to clothes, perfumes, books and magazines - you name it and chances are Mary-Kate and Ashley were on the cover of it. Over the last few years as they have become young women, The Olsens have become style icons with Mary-Kate leading the way with her waify boho-chic look which some people refer to as ashcan. Last year the twins launched a hip and contemporary clothing line called Elizabeth and James, so I suppose the release of this book was inevitable. 

The Olsens undertook all the interviews themselves in cities such as New York, Paris and LA and spoke to fashion's finest such as Karl Lagerfeld, Diane Von Furstenburg, Lauren Hutton, John Galliano, Margherita Missoni, Christian Laboutin and many many more. Each interview is accompanied by wonderful and vivid images taken by uber photographer, Rankin.  However, it is not just the images that make this book tick; the typography which is used abundantly is just beautiful to look at. 

While Mary-Kate plays her part this is very much Ashley's book in the fact that she has done most of the interviews and has written the introduction although Mary-Kate gets the last word with the conclusion. The scrap book like pages of the twins when they were younger and more recently in various on trend poses are very cute. I also really dig the the fact that they have used different textures for their pages; Mary-Kate's is a glossy matte while Ashley's has a much rougher texture. Even the images are a world apart - the ones on Ashley's pages are slightly off beat and quite grungy while Mary-Kate's reek of pure high end glamour. I just adore the Polaroid images in the book particularly the ones on the inside front and back. Gorgeous, gorgeous book that any fashion or photography lover would be proud to have in their collection. I am not an Olsen fan but this book might just convert me. 

NB: It has just come to light that Influence has two version, one for Ashley and the other for Mary-Kate hence the different covers and slants.