Search Results for: karl lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld: Fendi 50 years

This elaborate object offers an as yet unseen insight into Karl Lagerfeld’s working processes as artistic director for Fendi, a position he has remarkably held since 1965. FENDI by Karl Lagerfeld traces Lagerfeld’s unparalleled career at the luxury Roman fashion house, where he has revolutionized the craft of fur (both technically and artistically), and introduced the successful ready-to-wear and accessory lines that have transformed Fendi into a global fashion brand. Through the decades we see how Lagerfeld incorporates eclectic infl uences-from Eskimo designs and medieval armor, to kimonos and the world of informatics-into his own progressive vision. FENDI by Karl Lagerfeld includes a sketch pad of 137 of Lagerfeld’s fashion drawings (those given to the Fendi ateliers to enable them to construct the garments, and selected from an archive of over 35,000), a pad of his logo designs for the house, along with booklets of exclusive interviews with the designer, a poster, and DVDs of his short fi lms-all packaged in a custom-made wooden case modeled on the box of oil pastels which invariably graces Lagerfeld’s working desk. Essential for all Lagerfeld and Fendi devotees, FENDI by Karl Lagerfeld illustrates the evolution of contemporary fashion over the past half-century.


Posted on September 4, 2020

Karl Lagerfeld

In Metamorphoses of an American Karl Lagerfeld traces the physical and emotional development of Brad Kroenig, once an unknown but now the world’s most sought-after male model. Lagerfeld discovered Kroenig in 2003, took his first photographs of him in Biarritz, and since then has observed him through his photographic lens, month by month. In hundreds of photographs Lagerfeld explores Kroenig’s evolution from a young “All American Boy” into a professional model conscious of the subtleties of facial and corporeal expression. These photographs are however not simply documentation; rather Lagerfeld and Kroenig work together to create a new persona, one which Kroenig expresses without losing a sense of his own self.


Posted on October 16, 2019

Karl Lagerfeld

Rome would be unthinkable without its fountains. They play a fundamental role in this ancient city’s history and to date have largely contributed to its beauty. The Fontana di Trevi acts like a magnet to the Roman tourist, often being their first destination of their visit. Rome has many famous fountains but also many that are almost secret and hardly known at all but are just as beautiful and interesting. With his camera, Karl Lagerfeld has embarked on a dialogue between the past and the future, the result being a series of 50 daguerreotypes. The daguerreotype process – an almost forgotten technique mastered by only a few specialized artists nowadays – was the first photographic process to permanently fix an image onto a medium. The surface of a daguerreotype is similar to that of a mirror, with the image made directly on the silvered surface. Depending on the angle viewed, the image can change from a positive to a negative and adapt an almost three-dimensional appearance. Karl Lagerfeld’s photobook is a modern and colorful interpretation of the traditional monochromatic Daguerreotypeplates masterfully rendered on paper by Steidl.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Karl Lagerfeld: Villa Noailles

Built in the 1920s by the Bauhaus-inspired architect Robert Mallet-Stevens in Hyères in Southern France, Villa Noailles is a place of timeless modernity. Originally the home of art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, the villa welcomed artists such as Man Ray, Buñuel, Dalí, and Cocteau, who inspired and took inspiration from their hosts. Despite its incredible charm, the building was subsequently abandoned and slowly succumbed to the passage of time, only to be re-discovered in the early 1990s as a perfect symbol of interwar “modern.” Karl Lagerfeld’s graphic photographs of Villa Noailles, taken in the summer of 1995, were published in that year in the now collectible Steidl book Villa de Noailles. Now, two decades later, Lagerfeld has re-edited and updated his vision in this new book Villa Noailles, Hyères-Été 1995, which once again visualizes the villa’s avant-garde architecture and its historical shadows.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Choupette

Choupette is the world’s most famous and pampered cat: she has two maids, she receives manicures, and only eats at the table off Goyard and Louis Vuitton crockery. Her Instagram account is approaching an enviable 300,000 followers, and now she has her own brand-new book. Choupette by Karl Lagerfeld is a selection of the iPhone photos which Lagerfeld took daily of his beloved pet and muse. Here we see Choupette in a variety of indulgent poses: perched on a pile of books, curled up in the bathroom sink, and (of course) admiring her reflection in the mirror. Lagerfeld personally chose and sequenced these photos, which reveal a tender, playful look into Choupette’s precious world.

Choupette has an attitude like a princess … she knows exactly what she wants. – Karl Lagerfeld

You know, personally, I don’t even think I’m that famous. Now, Choupette really is famous. She has become the most famous cat in the world. I even get propositioned by pet food companies and things like that, but it’s out of the question. I’m commercial. She’s not. She’s spoiled to death. Obviously. – Karl Lagerfeld


Posted on October 23, 2019

Numéro Couture

This book features Karl Lagerfeld’s most beautiful photographs of Haute Couture garments shot for French fashion magazine Numéro, to celebrate its fifteen years of collaboration with the famous fashion designer. Who else but Lagerfeld could better reveal the timeless and intricate beauty of Haute Couture? With all his innate imagination and indulgence, Lagerfeld has immortalized the iconic models of our time within the covers of Numéro-Cara Delevingne, Linda Evangelista, Natasha Poly, Anja Rubik, Lara Stone, Stella Tennant, Natalia Vodianova… all these and more have participated in his game, often framed by sumptuous decors worthy of the greatest Hollywood productions. Lagerfeld’s spectacular stagings visualize our most daring fantasies of female archetypes, from fairytale princesses to contemporary muses.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Karl Lagerfeld Unseen

A Financial Times Book of the Year 2022

A glamorous tribute to Karl Lagerfeld’s highly influential creations for Chanel captured behind the scenes by US Vogue photographer Robert Fairer in beautiful, never-before-seen images.

Casting a new light on one of the best-loved chapters in fashion history, Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years illuminates key Chanel collections and creations from behind the scenes.

From discreet client fittings in rue Cambon’s immaculate black-and-beige salons to previously unseen backstage moments that show models, hairdressers, stylists, make-up artists and Karl Lagerfeld himself at work, Robert Fairer’s stunning and high-energy photographs capture the elegance, glamour and spirit that defined Karl Lagerfeld’s shows for Chanel.

Texts by Karl Lagerfeld’s collaborators and friends provide a fresh perspective on his creative process and reveal the stories behind the now iconic designs. A treasure trove of inspiration, this publication will be a must-have reference for fashion and photography lovers alike, and for dedicated Chanel fans the world over.


Posted on May 26, 2022

Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses

The first publication dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld’s glamorous homes, known for their eclectic interiors, ranging from the Art Deco to the ultramodern.

While Karl Lagerfeld was famous for being at the very centre of the fashion industry for over half a century, he was equally opinionated when it came to interiors, which acted as a private creative outlet alongside his fashion designs.

Following an overview by Patrick Mauriès, each house is introduced by a short text by Marie Kalt unveiling its history and identifying key designers and pieces. The homes are documented by date, beginning with rare photography of Lagerfeld’s early addresses in the 1960s and 1970s, through to his final house purchase in 2009. From the elegant Art-Deco inspired apartment in Saint-Sulpice, Paris, to the incredibly ornate 18th-century mansion, Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo (his muse and collaborator Amanda Harlech described Lagerfeld as having ‘a Versailles complex’) – Lagerfeld’s houses reveal he was a collector of a Renaissance scale, and showed spectacular range in his decorating styles. Lagerfeld would balance the old with the new, humorously describing the minimalist decor of his 200-year old apartment in Quai Voltaire, Paris as ‘like floating in your own spaceship over a very civilised past’, and moved from one atmosphere to the next, leaving a Memphis-designed apartment in Monte Carlo for a Grand-Tour themed Roman pied-à-terre, followed by bucolic French country houses and even a majestic Nordic villa in his native Hamburg.

Presented in a large, elegant format, Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses will be a rich source of inspiration for those interested in interior design, and will appeal to fans of the decorative arts and the fashion designer himself.


Posted on May 31, 2023

Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion – A Financial Times Book of the Year

A revelatory biography of Karl Lagerfeld, introducing readers to the public and private life of the charismatic designer

Karl Lagerfeld lived a very public life. He shaped the Chanel and Fendi brands for decades, and his wit and wisdom amused and informed the world. Yet despite a massively public persona, his hinterland remained unknown. What is the truth behind this larger-than-life but enigmatic figure?

The journalist and fashion specialist Alfons Kaiser met Lagerfeld on numerous occasions. He has now written the first authoritative biography on this fascinating character, whose life has always been marked by elements of secrecy. From his parents’ links with the Nazi regime to Lagerfeld’s last days in the company of only his closest friends, this book – the result of unprecedented archival and field work – divulges all the facets of a passionate artist and workaholic: the precocious boy who preferred to draw in the attic rather than play with his peers; the son who quarrelled with his parents but never got away from them; the competitor of Yves Saint Laurent, whom he outshone in the end; the brother, uncle, friend; and finally, the partner of Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life.


Posted on November 5, 2021

Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion

A Financial Times Book of the Year: the definitive story of fashion’s most enigmatic icon.

Karl Lagerfeld lived a very public life. He shaped the Chanel and Fendi brands for decades, and his wit and wisdom amused and informed the world. Yet despite a massively public persona, his hinterland remained unknown. What is the truth behind this larger-than-life but enigmatic figure?

The journalist and fashion specialist Alfons Kaiser met Lagerfeld on numerous occasions. He has now written the first authoritative biography on this fascinating character, whose life has always been marked by elements of secrecy. From his parents’ links with the Nazi regime to Lagerfeld’s last days in the company of only his closest friends, this book – the result of unprecedented archival and field work – divulges all the facets of a passionate artist and workaholic: the precocious boy who preferred to draw in the attic rather than play with his peers; the son who quarrelled with his parents but never got away from them; the competitor of Yves Saint Laurent, whom he outshone in the end; the brother, uncle, friend; and finally, the partner of Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life.


Posted on July 13, 2023

Chanel

When Karl Lagerfeld was named at the helm of the fashion house in 1983, he set out to radically shake up and update its image – not only through bold collections but also, from 1987 onwards, by choosing to shoot the house’s campaigns himself, a move that was unprecedented for a fashion designer.

Conceived in collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld and the House of Chanel, this definitive publication opens with an essay by Patrick Mauriès before exploring the campaigns themselves, organized chronologically. A carefully curated selection of images showcases hundreds of spectacular clothes worn by the top fashion models – and personalities – of each era, from Inès de la Fressange, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne, to Kirsten Stewart and Lily Rose Depp, captured in glamorous locations, from Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment to the French Riviera or LA.

Presented in a high-end, slipcased package, Chanel: the Karl Lagerfeld Campaigns offers an unrivalled overview of the house of Chanel as seen through the eyes – and lens – of Karl Lagerfeld himself.


Posted on July 2, 2018

Choupette

‘I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat’ Karl Lagerfeld

Choupette is the constant feline companion of designer Karl Lagerfeld, creative director at Chanel. She has her own iPad, eats next to Lagerfeld at the table from Goyard china, and has inspired couture collections. Choupette occasionally delivers words of wisdom to her devotees via Twitter, but here for the first time is her complete guide to the art of living. It is full of observations and precious advice from Choupette’s vet, Madame Horn, and her housekeeper and maid, Madame Françoise, who keeps her daily diary.

This is the perfect chic gift for cat lovers, the fashion-conscious and the style-aware.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Jewelry by Suzanne Belperron

In 1919 Suzanne Belperron began her lifelong journey at the vanguard of modern art and design. Her pioneering work in the Art Deco style evolved into the colourful compositions and pure, sensual forms that became her unmistakable trademarks. In the pantheon of 20th century master jewelers, Madame Belperron stands apart as the only woman.

A splendid array of Belperron’s work is illustrated in this book, from her earliest designs as a student in her native city of Besançon to her groundbreaking creations for the Maison Boivin and Maison B. Herz in the 1920s and 1930s, culminating in the iconic jewels she designed after World War II. Also included are the original designs she created for clients ranging from intellectuals to actors, artists to royalty. Jean Cocteau, Colette, Mrs. Gary Cooper, Doris Duke, Mona von Bismarck, Lauren Bacall, Daisy Fellowes, Clark Gable, Dorothy Paley Hirshon, Elsa Schiaparelli, Diana Vreeland and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were among her loyal patrons and friends. Current admirers include Catherine Deneuve, Daphne Guinness, and Karl Lagerfeld, who has written a personal foreword to this book. A selection of over 9,200 gouache paintings and tracings from the Belperron archive of designs (nearly all unpublished) are shown with an impressive catalogue of finished jewels. The book follows Belperron’s extraordinary life and career and, with many specially commissioned photographs of jewelry from private collections, it presents a portfolio of some of the rarest and most important examples of Suzanne Belperron’s work.

Based on private letters, photographs and personal documents from the Herz and Belperron families, as well as those of her expert craftsmen, this is a view into the personal life of a remarkable woman whose influence endures to this day.


Posted on August 2, 2019

Chanel: The Making of a Collection

Chanel: The Making of a Collection traces the design process of the world-renowned fashion house, revealing how a collection is created. Moving from the studio to the fashion show, fashion writer Laetitia Ce´nac has unprecedented access to explore a world that is usually carefully guarded from the public eye. With hundreds of beautifully rendered fashion illustrations from acclaimed artist Jean-Philippe Delhomme, Karl Lagerfeld’s approach to design is brought to life, as are the talents of the masterfully skilled artisans-the embroiderers, flower makers, shoemakers, hat makers, and more-who specialize in everything from buttons and leather to lace, silk, and cashmere. Delving into the history and culture of the brand, while also detailing contemporary collections, Chanel: The Making of a Collection is a richly visual insider’s look at the enduring creative legacy of this haute couture icon.


Posted on May 29, 2019

The World According to Karl

Karl Lagerfeld is a modern master of couture. He is also famously outspoken: his wise, surprising statements pop up like offbeat news flashes. This collection of quotations pays homage to the legendary éminence grise of the fashion world. Lagerfeld’s pronouncements – on fashion, women, art, politics, love, and life high and low – are famously oracular, seized upon by fashionistas, acolytes and sages around the world. Created with the full approval of the designer himself, this cornucopia of Lagerfeld’s maxims is required reading for us all today as we negotiate the trickiest curves of modern life. Cultivated, unpredictable, provocative, sometimes shocking, Lagerfeld’s ‘bons mots’ are always impossible to ignore.


Posted on June 3, 2018

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) lived and worked all over the world and was one of the most internationally famous and controversial photographers of the 20th century. His shots at haute couture and the beau monde are instantly recognizable, having appeared in virtually every major magazine in Europe and the United States. From his early work for Vogue to his portraits of the rich and famous, Newton conveys a unique vision of a wealthy and glamorous world that often shocks but never ceases to fascinate.

The Photofile series brings together the best work of the world’s greatest photographers, in an affordable pocket format. Handsome and collectable, the books are produced to the highest standards. Each volume contains some sixty full-page reproductions printed in superb duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography. The series has been awarded the first annual prize for distinguished photographic books by the International Center of Photography, New York.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Harper’s Bazaar: Models

You know them by their first names: Christy. Naomi. Linda. Kate. Gisele. Their faces are unforgettable. They are supermodels, and the pages of Harper’s Bazaar are their stage-and the stage for fashion’s biggest names. Harper’s Bazaar: Models gives an exclusive look at the top models that have graced the magazine for the last sixty years. Harper’s Bazaar editor at large Derek Blasberg has selected twenty-eight women for this book from the publication’s rich and diverse history: iconic beauties from Suzy Parker, Dovima, and China Machado to Iman, Patti Hansen, and Cindy Crawford-plus new stars such as Lara Stone, Hilary Rhoda, and Lily Donaldson.

Alongside essays written by Blasberg, who is a friend and confidant to many of the models, are more than 200 stunning photographs shot by leading photographers including Richard Avedon, Francesco Scavullo, Patrick Demarchelier, Peter Lindbergh, and more. Filled with revealing anecdotes and images from the archives, Harper’s Bazaar: Models is a celebration of the gorgeous women who have lent so much inspiration and beauty to the pages of this visionary magazine.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Tomasz Gudzowaty

This is the first monograph by Tomasz Gudzowaty, presenting a selection of his iconic pictures which have won him numerous awards and international recognition, alongside previously unpublished material. True Love Never Dies contains two decades of work by Gudzowaty, who dexterously explores a wide range of genres and formats-from social documentary to portraiture, from wildlife to sport, from austere blackandwhite pictures in the tradition of photojournalism to sophisticated color compositions. In editing the book, Gudzowaty eschews chronological or thematic order for a sequence shaped by moods and relationships, all unified by his consistent and engaging investigation of the world and human condition.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Wit & Wisdom of Coco and Karl

Immerse yourself in the wit and wisdom of Coco and Karl: two elegant collections of the legendary designers’ maxims on style, creativity and life.

Chic, sharp and always on point, Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld continue to captivate young generations of fashion fans. Chanel was fierce and uncompromising in her opinions on fashion, women and life, while Lagerfeld’s famously controversial pronouncements were seized upon by fashionistas, acolytes and sages around the world. Cultivated, surprising and sometimes shocking, their ‘bons mots’ are always impossible to ignore.

This elegant box set contains two slim volumes of their pithiest, wittiest and most provocative quotations, and will be required reading for us all today as we negotiate the trickiest curves of modern life.

‘Fashion changes, but style endures’ Coco Chanel

‘People who tell all appal me’ Karl Lagerfeld

‘The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive’ Coco Chanel

‘You must never be afraid of progress. Otherwise you are damned’ Karl Lagerfeld


Posted on August 23, 2023

Karl: No Regrets

The artist Patrick Hourcade met Karl Lagerfeld in 1976, sparking a friendship that would last more than twenty years, strengthened by their shared passion for eighteenth-century art. Following his education in art history, Patrick Hourcade joined the creative team at Vogue Paris and, in parallel, he introduced Karl to the art of the Enlightenment, of which Hourcade is a fervent expert. From then on, he assisted the fashion designer with each of his lavish acquisitions-mansions, furniture, and works of art. The two built a magnificent universe together, refined and at times luxuriously extravagant, notably at the château de Grand-Champ in Brittany, l’hôtel Pozzo di Borgo in Paris, or at La Vigie, a villa on the French Riviera. Patrick Hourcade recounts the story of their aesthetic complicity, through previously unpublished documents and a unique biography in which he reveals Karl Lagerfeld in all of his splendor as well as his weaknesses. This intimate story introduces the colorful cast of characters who were important to the designer, including Anna Piaggi, Francine Crescent, Laure de Beauvau, Liliane de Rothschild, Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent, Gilles Defour, Vincent Darré, Guy Bourdin, Andrée Putnam, and, most importantly, the two great loves of Karl’s life: his mother Elisabeth and Jacques de Bascher.


Posted on September 4, 2021

Chanel Catwalk

‘This is your new fashion bible’ Id

The best-selling Chanel Catwalk was the first book to gather every Chanel collection ever created by Karl Lagerfeld in a single volume. Now fully updated to include Lagerfeld’s final collections for the house and those of his right-hand and successor, Virginie Viard, this revised edition includes twenty-eight new collections.

This definitive publication features a concise history of Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard’s time at Chanel as well as brief biographical profiles of each designer. The collections (from Haute Couture and Ready-to-Wear to Cruise and Métier d’arts) are organized chronologically. Each one is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images, showcasing hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs – and of course the top fashion models who wore them on the runway. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes the book.


Posted on June 17, 2020

Chanel

Gabrielle Chanel was, without doubt, the most influential fashion designer of the twentieth century. She was years ahead of her time and her clothes, cuts and accessories have remained eternally chic, creating a look for her era and beyond. Chanel’s influence is demonstrated here by celebrating the key elements that defined and still define her style, through inspired pairings of classic and contemporary photographs.

Putting together fashion plates from Chanel’s own time with the most recent contemporary creations by the house’s visionary designer-in-chief, Karl Lagerfeld, the resonance between archive and contemporary photographs becomes sharp, vibrant and telling.

The vocabulary of Chanel’s style – the little black dress, baroque inspirations, androgynous chic – is revealed and interpreted by comparing original forms from the 1920s with the full range of their later expressions through every fashion era up to today.

Images by the modern greats of fashion photography display the triumphs of one of the world’s most visible and distinctive brands: Edward Steichen, Horst P. Horst, Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier, Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Lindbergh and Mario Testino are among the galaxy of ultra-gifted photographers whose work appears in this volume.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Fashion and Versailles

The Château de Versailles-the indisputable birthplace of fashion-continues to inspire glamour and style today.

From Jackie Kennedy to Rihanna, from the Bal des Débutantes to Dior’s publicity campaigns, from Karl Lagerfeld to Sofia Coppola to Deborah Tuberville, the legendary royal residence of Versailles has inspired countless revolution in fashion. An unparalleled seat of power and seduction, Versailles established the world’s first dress codes, linked to the whims of the queens and royal mistresses. Madame de Montespan launched the “innocente” robe that camouflaged pregnancy, Marie-Antoinette was known for her extravagant wigs and giourmand pastel hues, and members of Louis XIV’s court were adorned in beribboned accessories and lavish fabrics.

Since then, fashion at Versailles has been a constant and inexhaustible source of inspiration for designers, photographers, decorators, and directors. Haute couture in the 1950s, for example, launched the cinched-waisted “Neo-Trianon” trend. Karl Lagerfeld used the château’s gardens as the runway for his 2013 cruise collection featuring Versailles- influenced crinoline dresses and brocade jackets. Today the spirit of Versailles continues to thrive in contemporary fashion, inspiring passions and vocations. This stunning volume showcases the best of fashion set on the exquisite background of the most spectacular palace in the world.


Posted on August 11, 2019

The Lives of 50 Fashion Legends

This fun volume from fashion experts Fashionary tracks the rise to fame of the most influential designers in fashion.

This visual book walks you through the stories of the world’s greatest designers, across the decades. Explore each of the legend’s life choices, learn how they adapted to trends and adversities, and discover how the fashion industry has changed over the years.

Filled with timelines and fascinating graphics that place each fashion designer on the world stage. This volume shares appraisals of 50 of the most important fashion designers and their iconic status.

Alongside star designers such as Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Cristóbal Balenciaga, and the most influential fashion designers in the fashion industry, it is filled with historical information about the brands and biographies. A special treat for anyone who loves fashion.

Fashion Legends included: Coco Chanel, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior
, Pierre Balmain, Emilio Pucci
, Pierre Cardin
, Hubert de Givenchy
, Mary Quant
, Sonia Rykiel
, Valentino Garavani, Oscar de la Renta
, Karl Lagerfeld
, Giorgio Armani
, Azzedine Alaïa, Yves Saint Laurent
, Issey Miyake
, Kenzo Takada, Ralph Lauren,
 Roberto Cavalli
, Vivienne Westwood
, Rei Kawakubo
, Calvin Klein
, Yohji Yamamoto
, Jil Sander
, Paul Smith
, Gianni Versace
, Diane Von Fürstenberg, Donna Karan
, Miuccia Prada
, Franco Moshino
, Tommy Hilger
, Jean Paul Gaultier
, Helmut Lang
, Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana, Micheal Kors
, Ann Demeulemeester
, John Galliano
, Alber Elbaz
, Tom Ford
, Marc Jacobs
, Thom Browne
, Raf Simons
, Hedi Slimane
, Alexander Mcqueen
, Hussein Chalayan
, Nicolas Ghesquière, Stella McCartney, Riccardo Tisci


Posted on July 2, 2018

Chanel: Her Life

This is the long-awaited third edition of Justine Picardie’s acclaimed illustrated biography of Coco Chanel (1883-1971), one of the twentieth century’s most captivating personalities and a defining figure in fashion history. Whoever attempts to understand Chanel’s life is confronted by countless myths, half-truths and rumors. In this book Picardie discovers the woman behind the legend, and tells Chanel’s story with a flair and clarity of which Coco herself would approve. Chanel – Her Life explores every facet of Chanel’s universe: her fascinating private life as well as the famous icons of her fashion empire- the tweed jacket, the little black dress, N° 5 perfume, the pearls, the camellia …

The result is a comprehensive biography that reveals Chanel’s style to be the outcome of rigorous elegance, resolute self-belief and a determinedly unconventional stance. Picardie was granted access to Chanel’s archives and is the first author to have examined previously undiscovered private archives in the United Kingdom and France; and this unique knowledge underpins Chanel – Her Life. The book, designed and with drawings by Karl Lagerfeld, and with a new foreword by Picardie celebrating Lagerfeld’s extraordinary time at the House of Chanel, is the definitive biography of the tantalizingly elusive Coco Chanel.

Legend is the consecration of fame.
Coco Chanel


Posted on August 21, 2020

Fashion Quotes

From the bestselling authors of Choupette and The World According to Karl, a selection of wise words from Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Diana Vreeland, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen and more. The book pulls together the sharpest wit from the last 300 years, from 18th-century dandies to the latest kings and queens of the catwalk.

Bursting with exuberant illustrations specially created for the book by fashion designer Christian Lacroix.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Tarun Tahiliani: Journey to India Modern

Hailed as the ‘Karl Lagerfeld of India’ by the late Isabella Blow, Tarun Tahiliani is one of India’s foremost fashion designers with incredible success in India and abroad. Celebrated for combining traditional Indian textiles with modern, Western-influenced silhouettes, Tarun Tahiliani today produces many different lines including accessories, home, carpets and pret, but is most acclaimed for couture bridal wear.

For almost three decades, Tarun Tahiliani has galvanized Indian fashion. His vision and its translation into garments have reintroduced India to her own rich sartorial history and legacy. Journey to India Modern celebrates Tahiliani’s contribution not simply through bewitching clothing but also through a question that he aims to answer through his ensembles: Can the past and present be merged for the global contemporary society? The book charts its way through the very first fashion photo shoot when there were limited expressions of fashion in India to the modern day. While garments and design retain the focus, the essays also illustrate the way Tahiliani explored and crystallized a vision of India-from road trips during the heydays of socialism to his arrival as a leading couturier to the most celebrated women and men in Indian society.

Garments from Tahiliani’s oeuvre are illustrative in understanding the past and reconcile histories that were affected by colonialism and globalization. While the book begins its life in Bombay, the journey is a tour of the country-from its urban slums to the farthest corners of the country and fashion weeks across the globe-in a bid to identify arts that were neglected and revived. It is embellished with anecdotes, imagery, sketches and stories that present a holistic view of who they are, where they are headed, and what it means to be an Indian luxury design studio in a rapidly transforming world.


Posted on December 7, 2023

Caftans: From Classical to Camp

Step into the world of Cameron Silver, the mastermind behind LA’s renowned vintage haven, Decades. With him, embark on a whimsical journey through the timeless saga of the caftan

This enchanting book, penned by Silver, reveals why caftans never fade from vogue. Arguably the world’s oldest-known garment, the caftan appears in every era and culture, from the chitons depicted on urns and murals in ancient Greece and Rome to the diaphanous versions wafting down today’s red carpets. They range in style from loungewear to haute couture, and Silver guides us expertly through all the manifestations: “Caftan Couture” presents creations by the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino, Marc Bohan for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld, Emilio Pucci, Rudi Gernreich, and Oscar de la Renta; “Caftan Stars” showcases caftans worn in films, concerts, and on the red carpet, as well as at home-think Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Natalie Wood, Barbara Streisand, Princess Grace of Monaco, Jacqueline Kennedy, Liza Minnelli, Nina Simone, Billy Porter, and Jennifer Lopez; “Mantans” reveals men’s growing penchant for wearing caftans; “Resort” focuses on the colorful, lightweight versions that are the go-to garments when on holiday; “Caftan Capital” highlights the iconic caftans of Morocco; and “Caftans Today” documents the current embrace of caftans as the ultimate multigenerational, size-inclusive, gender-fluid, cross-cultural, populist items in our wardrobes. Adorned with a tapestry of photographs, both vintage and modern, ‘Caftans’ flutters through the pages in a dance of glamour, camp, and comfort – an ode to a garment as multifaceted and enduring as the spirit it embodies.


Posted on November 3, 2023

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton’s unforgettable images, at once sophisticated and provocative, constitute a rich and ever-relevant artistic legacy. This book presents a compact but wide-ranging and impactful portfolio of his work, supported by an insightful introduction and a detailed biographical chronology.

Newton’s images straddle the knife-edge of ambiguity, teasing out allusions and social observations that both entice and challenge their viewers. In this portfolio, Newton’s unique perspective is effectively showcased, reflecting the complex undercurrents that give his images their distinct character across the breadth of his editorial work in the fields of fashion and portraiture.

This book reveals Newton’s evolution into a contrarian, a savvy and mischievous cynic, at once voyeur and satirist, whose lens framed contentious yet pivotal aspects of high fashion and high society in the latter decades of the twentieth century. He worked as a “gun for hire” while imposing his own perspectives and obsessions, defining most notably his idea of a powerful, self-assured woman. This figure became his most insistent theme, developed in erotically charged scenarios, most typically set in the seductive environment of opulent apartments or grand hotels, most notably in Paris, Monte Carlo, and Los Angeles.

From the mid-sixties, Newton’s dynamic images established his reputation in the world of fashion, through work published in leading magazines, among them Vogue Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, Nova, Queen, and British Vogue. From the mid-seventies his notoriety was extended through his first books and exhibitions. His images immortalize such luminaries of society, film, and fashion as Princess Caroline of Monaco, Charlotte Rampling, Paloma Picasso, and Karl Lagerfeld.

Helmut Newton’s glamorous, ground-breaking, and boundary-pushing photographs have an indisputable signature authority that maintains their hold on our imaginations.


Posted on November 3, 2023

100 Contemporary Fashion Designers

Refine your fashion sense with this essential compilation from TASCHEN’s Fashion Now! series. Edited by i-D creator Terry Jones, this book is a comprehensive overview of fashion design around the world and an indispensible work of reference for anyone interested in its future.
The style set traverses both tomorrow’s superstars and established industry giants, including Haider Ackermann, Azzedine Alaïa, Ann Demeulemeester, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Stefano Pilati, Zac Posen, Miuccia Prada, Jil Sander, Proenza Schouler, Raf Simons, Olivier Theyskens, Dries Van Noten, Alexander Wang, Junya Watanabe, Vivienne Westwood, and many, many more


Posted on June 3, 2023

Tokidoki: The Art of Simone Legno

Celebrate the history and explore the unique universe of tokidoki in this 400-page monographTokidoki, which translates to “sometimes” in Japanese, is an internationally recognized and iconic lifestyle brand based on the vision of Italian artist Simone Legno. Since debuting in 2005, tokidoki has amassed a cult-like following for its larger-than-life characters and has emerged as a sought-after global lifestyle brand. Tokidoki has managed to develop commercial public collaborations, with brands and organizations like Sephora, Levi’s, MLB, the San Francisco Giants, and T-Mobile, while also developing more artistic partnerships with Karl Lagerfeld and the Guggenheim museum, and crossovers with other iconic pop culture characters like Barbie, Hello Kitty, Marvel heroes, and Peanuts.


Posted on January 28, 2023

Chanel High Jewelry

A spectacular anniversary publication to celebrate ninety years since the launch of Chanel’s first fine jewelry collection in 1932.

‘I used my penchant for all that shines to try and reconcile elegance and fashion in a set of jewelry’ Gabrielle Chanel

From Gabrielle Chanel’s 1932 collection to the newest interpretations of her signature signs and symbols by Patrice Leguéreau, Director of the CHANEL Fine Jewelry Creation Studio, CHANEL High Jewelry remains eternally modern and true to the spirit of her enterprise.

Breathtaking new photography and classic images from the CHANEL archives brings together revealing combinations in a stunning visual narrative, privileging aesthetic form over four chapters: the origins, the symbols, the spirit, and the allure. Gabrielle Chanel’s passion for fabulous and improbable marvels is celebrated here in a covetable book object that pays tribute to the House’s unparalleled insistence on luxury and refinement, creativity and beauty.

Based on extensive research and exploring CHANEL’s inspirations and art through some of the most precious of all her creations and the eternally modern ideas they have inspired, the book features superb photographs by Karl Lagerfeld, Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, François Kollar, Roger Schall, George Hoyningen-Huene, André Kertész, Sarah Moon, Koto Bolofo, Karim Sadli, Dominique Issermann, and many others. It is also illustrated with images from CHANEL’s archive and sketches that express the creativity and joie de vivre of the world’s finest High Jewelry collection.


Posted on August 25, 2022

Chloé Catwalk

The first comprehensive overview of Chloé’s collections presented through catwalk photography, published in collaboration with Chloé to celebrate the house’s 70th anniversary in 2022.

Founded by Egyptian-born Gaby Aghion in 1952, Chloé pioneered luxury ready-to-wear that was all about ease and femininity, offering an elegant haute bohemian style for the modern, liberated Parisienne. Resolutely contemporary, the house spotted and hired a young Karl Lagerfeld as early as the 1960s: he stayed for over two decades, achieving fame and recognition worldwide through his Chloé work, before Stella McCartney (and her then assistant Phoebe Philo) succeeded him straight out of fashion school.

This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house of Chloé before exploring the collections themselves, which are organized chronologically. Each new era in Chloé’s history opens with a brief overview and biography of the new designer, while individual collections are introduced by a short text unveiling their influences and highlights, and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes the book.

After Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Prada, Vivienne Westwood and Versace, Chloé is the eighth in a series of high-end, cloth-bound books that offer an unrivalled overview of the collections of the world’s top fashion houses through original catwalk photography.


Posted on June 30, 2022

Runway Bird

If you could saunter down the runway and slip backstage on the heels of Irina Lazareanu, who would you meet, what antics would ensue, and what on earth would you wear? Irina-Karl Lagerfeld’s muse, Kate Moss’s BFF, and Pete Doherty’s former fiancée-introduces you to her inner circle-models, fashion designers, editors, Hollywood starlets, and rockers-to pilfer the secrets to their individually cool and universally coveted rock ‘n’ roll style. She details a host of wardrobe tips and essentials, including dos and don’ts for creating your own folk, retro, punk, or glam rock look. Including scrapbook collages and lively anecdotes from her life on the fashion and concert circuits, the captivating Romanian-Canadian top model-cum-singer shares showstopping sartorial nuggets that will give your threads-and attitude-a rock ‘n’ roll edge.


Posted on December 1, 2021

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography. 40th Ed.

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefébure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This edition gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garçons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaïa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on August 28, 2021

100 Contemporary Fashion Designers

Refine your fashion sense with this essential compilation from TASCHEN’s Fashion Now! series. Edited by i-D creator Terry Jones, this book is a comprehensive overview of fashion design around the world and an indispensible work of reference for anyone interested in its future.
The style set traverses both tomorrow’s superstars and established industry giants, including Haider Ackermann, Azzedine Alaïa, Ann Demeulemeester, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Stefano Pilati, Zac Posen, Miuccia Prada, Jil Sander, Proenza Schouler, Raf Simons, Olivier Theyskens, Dries Van Noten, Alexander Wang, Junya Watanabe, Vivienne Westwood, and many, many more


Posted on May 1, 2021

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefébure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This book gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garçons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaïa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on May 1, 2021

Naomi. Updated Edition

Supermodel, entrepreneur, activist, provocateur. Since her teenage rise to stardom, Naomi Campbell has dazzled the world with her looks, her strength, and her irrepressible spirit. The first black model to grace the cover of French Vogue and TIME magazine, she has been the face of hundreds of magazine covers, countless editorials and advertising campaigns, and a favorite subject for some of the best photographers of the ’80s, ’90s, and today.

Originally published as a signed Collector’s Edition of just 1,000 copies, this book gathers the very best of Campbell’s portfolio in an updated unlimited XL edition. It features photographs from the likes of Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Richard Avedon, Anton Corbijn, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Paolo Roversi, Ellen von Unwerth, and Bruce Weber, and includes such unforgettable shoots as Peter Lindbergh’s sequence of Naomi dancing as Josephine Baker on the beach for Italian Vogue and Jean-Paul Goude’s stunning composition of the model racing against a cheetah for U.S. Harper’s Bazaar.

The collection also features texts written by Naomi exclusively for this publication alongside magazine covers, ads, video stills, and more. Naomi recalls her childhood; the beginning of her modeling career; working with fashion’s greatest designers, including Azzedine Alaïa, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace; and her meteoric rise to superstardom. Photographer biographies and an illustrated appendix are also included.


Posted on May 1, 2021

Peter Lindbergh. On Fashion Photography. 40th Ed.

It was on a Malibu beach in 1988 that Peter Lindbergh shot the White Shirts series, images now known the world over. Simple yet seminal, the photographs introduced us to Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Rachel Williams, Karen Alexander, Tatjana Patitz, and Estelle Lefébure. This marked the beginning of an era that redefined beauty, and Lindbergh would go on to alter the landscape of fashion photography for the decades that followed.

This edition gathers more than 300 images from forty years of Lindbergh’s career. It traces the German photographer’s cinematic inflections and humanist approach, which produced images at once seductive and introspective.

In 1980 Rei Kawakubo asked Lindbergh to shoot a Commes des Garçons campaign, one of his earlier forays into commercial photography. Kawakubo gave him carte blanche. The following years brought forth collaborations with the most venerated names in fashion and resulted in a relationship of mutual reverence; Lindbergh’s respect for some of the greatest designers of our time is palpable in his portraits. Among those photographed are Azzedine Alaïa, Giorgio Armani, Alber Elbaz, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler, Yves Saint Laurent, Jil Sander, and Yohji Yamamoto.

Widely considered a pioneer in his field, Lindbergh shirked the industry standards of beauty and instead celebrated the essence and individuality of his subjects. He was pivotal to the rise of models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Mariacarla Boscono, Lara Stone, Claudia Schiffer, Amber Valletta, Nadja Auermann, and Kristen McMenamy.

Lindbergh’s reach also extended across Hollywood and beyond: Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Richard Gere, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau all appear in his works. From the picture chosen by Anna Wintour as the cover of her first Vogue issue to the legendary shot of Tina Turner on the Eiffel Tower, it is never the clothes, celebrity, or glamour that takes center stage in a Lindbergh photograph. Each picture conveys the humanity of its subject with a serene melancholy that is uniquely and unmistakably Lindbergh.

From the outset of his career, Lindbergh was well-known in the contemporary art world, where his photographs were exhibited in galleries long before they appeared in magazines. This edition features an updated introduction adapted from an interview in 2016, allowing a glimpse behind Lindbergh’s lens, where the photographer recounts his early collaborations, the tenuous relationship between commercial and fine art, and the power of storytelling.


Posted on May 1, 2021

The World According to Coco

French couturière Coco Chanel has achieved legendary status across the world and continues to captivate young generations of fashion fans who eagerly collect and share her quotes, creations and insights.
A close friend of some of the leading wits and writers of her days (from Jean Cocteau to poet Pierre Reverdy), Coco Chanel was fierce and uncompromising in her pronouncements on fashion (‘Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity’; ‘Elegance is refusal’; ‘Fashion changes, but style endures’), women (‘A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future’; ‘Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman’) and life (‘The best things in life are free. The second-best are very expensive’). Much like her successor, Karl Lagerfeld, she never shied away from controversy, declaring one day of her detractors: ‘I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all’. Presented in a beautiful package and accessible format, The World According to Coco is the perfect gift for fans of fashion in general and Chanel in particular.


Posted on December 6, 2019

Goude: The Chanel Sketchbooks

For the first time, Chanel and Jean-Paul Goude reveal the unseen drawings, collages and sketches that have inspired Goude’s iconic advertising campaigns for Chanel’s world famous fragrances, from ‘Egoiste’ and ‘Coco’ to ‘Chanel No. 5’ and the recently launched ‘Chance’.

Inspired by a small gold birdcage in Coco Chanel’s Paris apartment, Goude famously cast a young Vanessa Paradis as a Chanel ‘Tweety Pie’ bird, swinging on a trapeze to promote Chanel’s ‘Coco’ perfume. He went on to make Estella Warren the face of his Chanel No.5 campaign, and called for the entire façade of a Riviera Palace to be built in Rio de Janeiro for the first ‘Egoïste’ film, before capturing Karl Lagerfeld, Lily-Rose Depp and the ghost of Coco Chanel herself.

A must-have for Chanel lovers, the book also allows creatives and advertising enthusiasts to discover the imagination and creative process at work behind these unforgettable images.


Posted on November 10, 2019

Travellers’ Tales

Much can be learned about a person from the manner in which they travel. From heiresses to actors, aristocrats to pop stars, writers, composers, dancers and designers, here are the personalities who have travelled through our modern era, whether by train, plane, car or canoe, accompanied by luggage that defines good taste.

With suitably glamorous style, over fifty individuals are described in witty and perceptive detail. Everyone who’s anyone is here: from Madonna to Marilyn Monroe, from the Duchess of Windsor to Karl Lagerfeld, from Audrey Hepburn to Keith Richards, from the firm’s eponymous founder Louis Vuitton to artist Jeff Koons, who has created his own controversial homage to the masters of art on the company’s bags.

Every traveller has a tale to tell: every bag reveals a personal secret. In her canvas Louis Vuitton bag Greta Garbo never kept more than a pair of blue espadrilles, flannel pyjamas and some pots of her favourite jam. (But she had a trunk specially made for her seventy pairs of Ferragamo shoes.) Ernest Hemingway, who owned and lost several Vuitton trunks, rediscovered in 1957 notes for a novel that he’d absentmindedly left in a trunk in the basement of the Paris Ritz some thirty years before. Richard Burton made sure that Elizabeth Taylor always had enough Louis Vuitton trunks (as well as furs and jewels), through both their marriages; in fact, the trunks outlasted her next two husbands as well.


Posted on November 9, 2019

Entre Nous: Bohemian Chic in the 1960s and 1970s

Glamorous fashion editor Mary Russell’s personal photographs capture the effervescence of the 1960s and 1970s from within the international fashion and art scenes.

As Paris fashion correspondent for prestigious publications such as Glamour, Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, and the New York Times, and as photo stylist for Helmut Newton, David Bailey, Lord Snowdon, Francesco Scavullo, and Henry Clarke, the American journalist and photographer Mary Russell not only captured the mood of the international clique of elite bohemians who ruled the Parisian art and fashion world in the 1960s and 1970s, but quickly became a central part of it.

The passionate young American in Paris participated in fashion history as it happened and plunged head first into the international Jet Set. Russell developed intimate friendships with her entourage, traveling from fashion events in Paris and London to glamorous holidays in Saint Moritz, Saint-Tropez, and the Venetian Lido with the people who invented cool modernity, and, most importantly, capturing them on her Nikon as a friend would have, mining the mood of the period and exploding the boundaries between reportage and fashion.

Published here for the first time, the charmed lives of the Beautiful People of the 1960s and 1970s are brought to life in this collection of intimate portraits of the creative high society and the cultural underground: Andy Warhol’s visit to Paris with the Factory, the circle of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé-Loulou de la Falaise, Betty and François Catroux, Karl Lagerfeld-Françoise Sagan, Charlotte Rampling, Isabelle Adjani, Jane Birkin, Peter Beard, Gunter Sachs and various playboys, and many others. The photographs are accompanied by Russell’s personal memoirs.


Posted on September 24, 2019

Pierre et Gilles: 40 (special limited art edition)

This deluxe edition includes the artists’ monograph and an original art print created especially for the limited edition, presented in a clothbound clamshell case. Glittery clothbound clamshell case, with magnetic flap closure. Numbered colour art print, signed by the artists. Limited edition of 200 copies.

On the fortieth anniversary of Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard’s romantic union, this volume traces four decades of artistic collaboration between the photographer and painter known as Pierre et Gilles. This year-by-year retrospective of their vast oeuvre, accompanied by an incisive essay by art critic Éric Troncy, showcases the genesis and development of their sublime, audacious, and explicitly confected fusion of photography and painting. Highly sophisticated and shamelessly sexy, their art-stylized, idealized painted photographs-synthesizes tropes drawn from celebrity and mainstream gay culture with timeless themes of religion, mythology, and beauty, and many works feature international stars including Madonna, Naomi Campbell, Dita Von Teese, Kylie Minogue, Karl Lagerfeld, Mick Jagger, and Iggy Pop.


Posted on August 29, 2019

The Truth About Style

Focusing on more than just fashion, The Truth About Style highlights the nature of style and the importance of cultivating our individuality, whether it is expressed through the way we dress, our attitude, or the unique traits that we all possess. Wit and wisdom from insider favorite like Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, and Giorgio Armani, as well as some unexpected voices like Charles Bukowski, Michelle Obama, and Johnny Cash, make up this curated volume. Coupled with a fresh design (a foil-stamped cover, beveled corners, and a stained edge), The Truth About Style is for the minimalist or the maximalist, the trendy or the timeless, the rebel or the conformist, or anyone who has an ongoing fascination with style as a means of self-expression. Check out the other titles in this series: The Truth About Love, The Truth About Writing, and the Truth About Success.


Posted on January 19, 2019

Chanel

Chanel’s combination of tradition, originality and style has always made it the most seductive of brands. Here the House of Chanel opens its private archives, revealing a galaxy of brilliant designs created by Coco Chanel from the 1920s onwards, and now reinterpreted to become the motifs for brand new garments, accessories and beauty products.

Inspired by the House’s signature fragrance, the legendary ‘Chanel No 5’, the book explores five central themes – the suit, the camellia, jewelry, fragrances and make-up, and the little black dress – and follows the threads from past to present to show how these key items have been rediscovered and reinvented by fashion designers working in the footsteps of their illustrious predecessors. This visual journey is enhanced by previously unpublished archive photographs and original drawings by Karl Lagerfeld, as well as glorious images from some of the greatest names in fashion photography.

Dazzling clothes, intricate accessories, beautiful models and timeless design leave no doubt as to the lasting fame of the brand and embody everything that has come to symbolize the magic of Chanel.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Concentric Circles

“Gerhard’s like a Communist. You have to go into the salt mines with him. If you’re willing to go there then you’re like brothers in arms and he’ll do what needs be.” Robert Polidori In August 2008 Monte Packham began taking notes of events unfolding around him during a typical working day as an editor at Steidl Publishers. Until January 2009 he made such daily jottings, candid observations of the organised chaos that is book-making at Steidl. These notes form the basis of Concentric Circles, the first book to depict the eclectic personalities and experiences that shape Steidl. Here the reader discovers the secret processes and comic facets of life at the publishing house: Günter Grass tapping tobacco into his pipe while refining the typography of his latest book, Gerhard Steidl at a Chanel fashion show or unsuccessfully trying to repair his fax machine, Paul Graham pondering binding materials, the sudden halt of the printing press… The book is enriched by interviews with and original texts by some of Steidl’s most important collaborators including Robert Frank, Karl Lagerfeld, Lewis Baltz, Jim Dine, Roni Horn, Tacita Dean, David Bailey and William Eggleston. Concentric Circles is both an unconventional portrait of Steidl Publishers and a compelling insight into the craft of book-making today. Monte Packham is a writer and editor living in Göttingen, Germany. Born in 1981 in Sydney, he has bachelor degrees with honours in art history and law from the University of Sydney. Packham’s writing has been published in Art & Australia, sleek and Another Magazine among others. Since 2007 he has worked as an editor at Steidl.


Posted on May 13, 2018

How to Make a Book with Steidl

Martin Parr describes his new book; Gerhard Steidl packs his suitcase; Ed Ruscha designs an ambitious artist’s book; Günter Grass illustrates a new cover for The Tin Drum; Joel Sternfeld takes photos with his iPhone; Karl Lagerfeld walks the runway in Paris; Robert Adams rummages for vintage prints; Jeff Wall offers a tour of his new studio; John Cohen gives an impromptu concert; Robert Frank stumbles across a forgotten Polaroid….

For over a year, Gereon Wetzel and Jörg Adolph filmed on site at Düstere Strasse 4 in Göttingen, recording first-hand the organized chaos that is daily working life at Steidl Publishers. From book concept to design, from editorial and prepress to printing, the film exposes the craft of bookmaking today. Accompanying Gerhard Steidl on travels to artists’ studios and galleries-from New York and Mabou, to Doha and Vancouver-Wetzel and Adolph also capture some of the unique characters and collaborations through which Steidl books come into being. Gereon Wetzel and Jörg Adolph are filmmakers whose passion is narrative, feature-length documentary films. They are the founders of DocCollection.

How to Make a Book with Steidl is made in collaboration with DocCollection and The Goethe Institute.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Why Fashion Matters

Faster than anything else, what we wear tells the story of who we are or who we want to be. Yet even as fashion touches the lives of each and every one of us, it can seem mysterious

Who better to guide readers into the dizzying world of fashion than Frances Corner, Head of London College of Fashion and a leading expert on this rapidly expanding, increasingly global, always exciting industry? In 101 provocative entries Corner teases out the intricacies and contradictions of an industry that simultaneously values technology and craft, timeless style and fast fashion, the bespoke and the mass-market, consumption and sustainability, cold-hard numbers and creative expression.

From ‘Karl Lagerfeld and High-Tech Fur’ to ‘The White Shirt’ to ‘The One Trillion Dollar Business’, each entry offers a unique avenue into fashion and its impact, both positive and negative, on lives around the globe.

Accessible, instructive and hugely enjoyable, this book will be essential reading for anyone involved in fashion, business, education and beyond.


Posted on May 13, 2018