Being the wife of a Barneys New York executive certainly has its perks–like, say, snagging your well-connected husband’s ‘plus one’ invite to industry insider events that most people only dream of attending.

Sharon Socol–wife of Howard Socol, who served as Barneys’s CEO from 2001 to 2008–used that exclusive access to her advantage and then some. Toting a 35mm loaded with black and white film, Socol, an avid photographer since age seven, snapped behind-the-scenes photos of fashion shows, parties, and some of the industry’s most legendary characters.

Recently, she compiled those photos into a book titled Plus One: An Outsider’s Photographic Journey Into the World of Fashion–the release of which garnered a crowd of fashion’s elite last night on Barneys’s 9th floor.

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