TREATS! “BARES IT ALL” By Steve Shaw
So Good, You Might Need Two Copies…
There are coffee table books, and then there’s Treats! Bares It All—a heavyweight, 360-page slab of photographic decadence chronicling the rise, reign, and raw cultural impact of Treats! magazine. If most coffee table books are bought to sit and gather dust, this one demands to be opened, pored over, and argued about. It’s as much a piece of art as it is a story about ambition, risk, and the pursuit of beauty.
Founded in Los Angeles by British-born photographer turned publisher Steve Shaw, Treats! was never just another men’s magazine. It was a rebellion. At a time when publishing was gasping for air, when print was supposedly dead and Instagram hadn’t yet conquered the planet, Shaw put everything on the line—selling his Venice, CA home to Robert Downey Jr to fund the first issue—to create something daring: a high-art photography magazine showcasing the world’s most beautiful women, shot by the best photographers, and presented like a collector’s item.
The gamble paid off. Issue One, printed on lavish paper stock, sold out instantly and caused a quiet riot in Hollywood. Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard couldn’t keep it on the shelves. Hugh Hefner himself reportedly sent his driver to scour LA for copies after seeing one at James Goldstein’s house. From there, Treats! became a cult phenomenon.
Bares It All tells that story in glossy, oversized detail. The book isn’t just a “best of” anthology—it’s a behind-the-scenes memoir of Shaw’s 15-year journey building the brand. Alongside iconic shoots are anecdotes of the chaos, glamour, and near-disasters that came with it: hand-delivering magazines to newsstands when distributors failed, throwing infamous parties that became the talk of LA, and accidentally launching Emily Ratajkowski’s career after she posed for Issue Three.
Yes—that Emily Ratajkowski. Long before Blurred Lines made her a global name, she walked into the treats! studio and produced some of the most iconic nude photographs of the 21st century. Shaw knew instantly she had “it”—the spark he’d seen when photographing supermodels like Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell. Those pages alone are worth the price of admission, but they’re only one part of the journey.
The book also features Lou Lou Roberts’ very first modelling images, Robin Thicke’s first meeting with his future wife April Love Geary at a Treats! Malibu White Party, and Black Coffee’s first LA performance at a Halloween bash Shaw produced in the Mayan Theater. There are cameos from Olivia Culpo, the Winklevoss twins, Paris Hilton, and a revolving cast of Hollywood insiders who floated through Shaw’s orbit. Each story underscores what Treats! really was: not a magazine, but a cultural movement.
What makes Bares It All essential is the sheer quality of the work. Shot by masters like Tony Duran, David Bellemere, and Steve himself, the photography is pure high art—timeless black-and-white studies, sun-drenched Malibu nudes, Parisian portraits that look torn from Helmut Newton’s contact sheets. This is not porn. It’s not even “sexy” in the conventional sense. It’s beauty, form, and attitude, presented without apology.
And yet, the book isn’t just about images—it’s about survival. Shaw documents the battles with investors (a seven-year legal nightmare), the frustrations of the print business, the rise of social media, and the shifting cultural landscape post-#MeToo. He doesn’t shy away from the scars. If anything, the grit makes the glamour more compelling.
Bares It All is, quite literally, a publishing miracle: a 360-page hardcover, hand-bound, slipcased, and printed on luxurious 170gsm paper. It’s heavy, expensive, and unapologetically indulgent. But in a world of disposable scroll culture, it’s a reminder of what real, tangible, collectible media feels like. This isn’t just a book—it’s a trophy.
For fans of photography, fashion, or just outrageous stories of risk and reward, Treats! Bares It All is essential. It’s the book that proves print isn’t dead—it’s alive, beautiful, and sometimes half-naked.
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