Collections are the themes of this month’s coffee-table tomes, from very different parts of the globe. From Japan, we look at the collection of the world’s biggest collection of tiaras — owned by a former buddhist monk — and from Los Angeles, a warehouse holding one of the film world’s greatest racks of costumes. And in the UK, we examine the collective works from two different kinds of artists: the paintings of Tracy Emin and the interiors of historical houses across London at a time when the city was the richest on earth.

Palace Costume by Mimi Haddon, Chronicle Chroma, £21.99 Los Angeles may be the city of dreams, but it is also the city of thrifting. And it was at a 1960s “swap meet” that Melody Barnett found a box of Victorian chemises that would launch her career collecting vintage clothing, eventually enabling her to become the chatelaine of Hollywood’s best loved costume-rental emporium, Palace Costume.

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