Elvis: The King of Fashion

Lorraine Gibson, an award-winning journalist and freelance writer with more than 20 year's experience, is widely published in print and online. Author of Elvis: The King of Fashion, the must-have book about the man who was and remains the most iconic solo performer on the planet, she has a passion for fashion, history and, well, Elvis. Growing up listening to her parents' Elvis records and watching his films during the school holidays, she became fascinated with his colourful outfits and unconventional appearance. As a grown up, she decided to write about how his love of clothes influenced and defined him as much as the music that surrounded him did. Part of her research took her to Memphis to meet the people who knew him - in particular Hal Lansky, whose father, Bernard was known as the Clothier to The King - and to follow in Elvis's two-tone footsteps. The result is her second book, Elvis: The King of Fashion - a fresh, insightful, humane and immensely-readable take on the life of the man born to be King, as seen through a fashion lens. Like its subject, it relishes stylish details and resonates with a constant backbeat of the music of the South, the country, blues, gospel and soul that Elvis instinctively fused into his own unique rock & roll sound - a sound that shook up the world. Elvis: The King of Fashion follows Lorraine's acclaimed debut book, Robert Baden-Powell: A Biography with foreword by Bear Grylls OBE, an examination of the light and shade that surrounds the controversial and wildly eccentric founder of the Scouts. Living close to the island location of Baden-Powell's first, secret experimental scouting camp inspired the biography. She was intrigued by its role in the birth of the organisation and delving deeper into the world of its famous leader, she was hooked. When, in the pandemic summer of 2020, she witnessed a clash between Scouts and BLM protesters, who were hell-bent on throwing B-P's statue into Poole Harbour, directly opposite the first 1907 Scouts camp site, there was no going back. Like its subject, Robert Baden-Powell: A Biography is thought-provoking, contrary and full of ripping yarns. Lorraine lives in Dorset with her husband and two daughters.