Description

---

A striking portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her historic tenure on the United States Supreme Court, brought to life with incisive quotes and bold photographs of her iconic collars.

“RBG was unlike any other. So is this visual tribute to her.”—Pete Souza, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait

A PARADE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

The collar is a powerful point of entry for exploring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life and her tireless work on America’s highest court. The twenty-five neckpieces captured here—in over eighty stunning photographs by award-winning photographer Elinor Carucci—hoffer insight into RBG’s legacy. Her sharp use of language, a linchpin of her notorious dissents, is celebrated throughout, with quotes to support each collar and its story. The bold, ornate, and subversive collars she chose to wear on the bench communicated so much more. 

Shortly after RBG’s passing in September, 2020, Carucci was commissioned by Time magazine for a commemorative piece on the late justice, focused on the stories behind her legendary collars. Here, Carucci and co-author Sara Bader use each collar to highlight a defining career moment, from RBG’s earliest argument for gender equality to her support of immigration and marriage equality throughout her twenty-seven years on the bench. Some of her collars are well-known, like her dissent collar, or her favorite white beaded neckpiece that she wore for important portraits. Other collars are less familiar but tell poignant stories of artists, colleagues, friends, and fans whose gifts to Justice Ginsburg found meaning in her hands.

Small in stature but towering in influence, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was described as a titan, a civil rights hero, and most poetically, by her colleague Justice Stephen Breyer, “a rock of righteousness.” The Collars of RBG is an artful collection of moments from this warrior’s legacy, crystallizing the many ways RBG reshaped the cultural landscape for us all.

About the Author

---

Elinor Carucci is an award-winning fine art photographer whose work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions worldwide and The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Time, W, Aperture, and ARTnews, among others. Carucci's photographs are also included in prestigious museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, and the Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others. 

Sara Bader has worked as an acquisitions editor for Princeton Architectural Press and a senior editor for Phaidon. In addition to editing visual culture books, she has conceived and researched several quotation compilations, including Art Is the Highest Form of Hope and Every Day a Word Surprises Me. She is also the founder of Quotenik, a growing library of verified quotations and the author of the collection The Book of Pet Love & Loss: Words of Comfort & Wisdom from Remarkable People.

Praise For…

---

“RBG was unlike any other. So is this visual tribute to her.”—Pete Souza, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Obama: An Intimate Portrait

“The Collars of RBG brings to light a sensibility that goes beyond the headlines. Justice Ginsburg offered something rare with her collars—in the fabrics, the metals, the intricacies of needlepoint, the smell of the sea, the sense of what’s done with human hands: answers to questions of integrity, dishonesty, human failing, and frailty. In this she triumphed.”—Judy Collins, singer, writer, author, activist