Mary Wilson, alongside Diana Ross and Flo Ballard, was one of the founding members of the Supremes, Motown’s leading act of the 1960s, who were as famous for their endless stream of #1 hits as they were for their dazzling costumes. In the lavishly illustrated Supreme Glamour (Thames & Hudson, Sept.), Wilson presents 32 of their most eye-catching gowns, which have been meticulously brought together and photographed on the stage of the Grammy Museum. “What we wore truly mattered,” she writes. “We took our fans from the sophisticated shirtwaist dresses of the 1950s to the go-go boots and elaborate hairpieces/wigs and gowns of the 1970s, the Afros and ‘hot pants’ of the disco 1970s, and beyond.”
In what she calls “a labor of love,” Wilson also chronicles the evolution of the group. Writing with her close friend and music biographer Mark Bego, she shares anecdotes and insights from the group’s beginnings to their 1964 breakthrough hit, “Where Did Our Love Go,” the departure of Diana Ross, and their hits of the 1970s. Whoopi Goldberg provides the foreword.
