ARTES

Chanel expert Isabelle Fiemeyer offers a rare, deeply personal look into the life of the iconic designer Coco Chanel. This biography draws from exclusive interviews with Chanel’s closest family members and extensive archival research to reveal the designer’s most private world—her love for symbolism and poetry, her romantic relationships, and her enduring bond with her nephew, André Palasse, whom she raised as her own son. His daughter, Gabrielle Palasse-Labrunie—Chanel’s goddaughter and only direct descendant—shares intimate memories and access to her great-aunt’s cherished collection of fashion, jewelry, and art. Divided into five chronological sections, the book immerses readers in Chanel’s life, unveiling rarely seen personal artifacts: gifts from her great love, Boy Capel, as well as her furniture, favorite jewelry, talismans, garments, family photos, and correspondence. This new text expands upon Fiemeyer’s research from her previous books on the designer and includes the compelling chapter “Alias Coco,” which explores newly uncovered documents from French Secret Service archives, shedding light on Chanel’s clandestine activities during World War II and her connections to the Resistance.

Across Brazil and around the world, the elegant and meticulously crafted spaces designed by the firm Dado Castello Branco Arquitetura e Interiores are known for blending functionality with aesthetic allure. These places—residences, apartments, and villas, all in the signature style the firm has honed since its founding in São Paulo in the early 1990s—are brought to cinematic life by Brazilian artistic director and visual artist Ricardo van Steen. In these pages, van Steen stages a visual journey through four key elements of the company’s sophisticated design vision: He considers light as medium and muse, almost a character in the drama of each living, breathing space. He attends to matter, meaning the very materials of wood, copper, stone, fabric, and glass through which Dado’s designs achieve their richness and authenticity. He turns to the horizon, an essential feature that opens up perspectives and creates visual intrigue, serving as a metaphorical guide to the soul of the space. And he closes with art, paying tribute to Dado Castello Branco’s lifelong passion for the artists who inspire him and the art objects whose presence enhances these meticulous interiors. This richly illustrated publication brings us into these worlds of drama and elegance with exclusive photography and a profound consideration of the legacy of this legendary firm.

A unique collection of photographs by Yuriko Takagi, showcasing her poetic and surrealist look at Dior haute couture creations. An important addition to the library of leading artistic photographers working to interpret the fashion house’s oeuvre. Takagi is an icon of Japanese photography, her enchanting and otherworldly images are built with a unique and careful consideration of shadows, the result of a career-long contemplation of natural light—a theme that plays a pivotal role in her work for Dior. This book features exclusive shootings by Takagi of the most emblematic Dior haute couture designs. Takagi delivers her personal reinterpretation of the essence of Dior, opening a profound dialogue between her artistic conception and the codes of the House. Her photographs capture an ephemeral, intangible quality of the subjects, and her signature technique of layering images, in this case of flowers and architectural motifs over toiles of dresses and models, creates a dreamlike atmosphere. The result is a collection of great poetry, a surrealist promenade through Dior’s eras, and a unique observation of the inventiveness of the House over the decades.

Published on the occasion of a major exhibition at Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan, this volume explores the deep and transformative relationship between Louis Vuitton and Japan, which has produced myriad innovative collaborations that have defined the brand and revolutionized contemporary fashion. This fresh perspective on the global impact of the luxury powerhouse follows Louis Vuitton’s journey from pioneering trunk innovations to its outsize influence on global street style, especially in Japan. In the volume, the Maison’s history comes to life, from the evolution of its Monogram logo (which took inspiration, in part, from Japanese design) to the ingenious flat stackable trunk and patented lock innovations, alongside the brand’s bold expansion into Japan. The authors consider the house’s groundbreaking artistic collaborations most notably with artists Takashi Murakami (with his iconic “Monogramouflage”) and Yayoi Kusama (with her signature polka-dot motifs) which transformed Louis Vuitton’s visual identity.

Monet’s Venice paintings are high points in his lifelong engagement with the interplay of water and light. Monet and Venice—anchored by two masterworks from the collections of Brooklyn and San Francisco, The Doge’s Palace and The Grand Canal, Venice—will be the first exhibition and English-language publication dedicated to this significant suite of paintings since their Parisian debut at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in 1912. Monet keenly felt the burden of influence in a city that had so often been depicted and had long been an icon of waning, fragile beauty. Venice was—and is—a place where culture and nature are profoundly and uniquely entangled. Monet’s images of Venice’s buildings and canals dissolved in colorful mist and hazy light may be seen as meditations on human aesthetic interaction with a natural environment built upon for centuries.

From the fabled towers of Babylon and Angkor Wat to the colossal stone heads of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and secret gardens of Beijing’s Forbidden City, each of the sixty sites featured in this lavishly illustrated book are must-visit destinations for every cultured traveler, representing the pinnacles of human achievement over millennia and across the globe. Yet despite their beauty, fame, and importance, these treasured places face existential challenges arising from climate change, war, financial pressures, and—increasingly—over-tourism. From its founding in 1965, World Monuments Fund (WMF) has focused the public’s attention on these dangers while developing solutions that will ensure these sites will be enjoyed for generations to come.

Quintessential nineties images, taken from editorials for fashion magazines as well as many never-before-seen outtakes of behind-the-scenes candid moments, constitute this book by Hanson, who is known for her unique female gaze and famous for capturing the essence of youth in her vibrant and highly energetic images of beautiful girls having fun. Texture, light, and emotion play a pivotal role in her iconic documentary-style work. The book features intimate photographs of her muses and the top supermodels of the era, including Kristen McMenamy, Christy Turlington, Carla Bruni, Stephanie Seymour, Eva Herzigová, Milla Jovovich, Linda Evangelista, and many more. This is the first major book of Hanson’s published in the last twenty years, and it presents a nostalgic time capsule of one of the most fetishized decades of fashion.

This panoramic collection showcases stadiums, venues, and pitches, from the quirky to the historic, covering both men’s and women’s leagues, professional to amateur, wherever the game is played with enthusiasm and great style. For those who love the sport, either from birthright or from newly kindled passion, there’s a distinct and beloved resonance and local character to each stadium. This is one of soccer’s great charms, and this book is a road map to a pilgrimage to 1000 arenas that anyone in love with the beautiful game would want to visit in person: some visionary and new, some ageing but iconic, some remote yet picturesque, some tumbledown, quirky yet historical and utterly lovable—but all with such genuine personality, the fans’ hearts beat a little faster to see a match there.

This book celebrates the 1925 Paris Exposition—at its centenary—a landmark event that shaped twentieth-century design and gave its name to Art Deco. The exposition dazzled over sixteen million visitors during its run, showcasing the pinnacle of French luxury goods and design innovation. Renowned as the preeminent exponent of French Art Deco, Ruhlmann (1879–1933) was recognized for the aesthetic refinement, luxurious materials, and impeccable craftsmanship of his creations. Inspired by eighteenth-century pleasure pavilions, Ruhlmann’s pavilion, L’Hôtel du Collectionneur (The Town House of the Collector), was one of the most admired exhibits at the fair. Conceived as a modern-day Trianon, it was filled with his own sumptuous furnishings together with a meticulous selection of objets d’art by his contemporaries, including Edgar Brandt, Jean Dunand, and Jean Puiforcat.

Spanning the extraordinary breadth of the studio’s most recent work—projects in townhouses, historic country manors, and seaside villas—the interiors in this book reflect the design philosophy of founder Emma Sims-Hilditch: Every house needs to work on a functional level before one even considers the decoration. Spaces, from sumptuous entrance halls and sitting rooms to hardworking kitchens and boot rooms, are organized for efficiency and practicality before the design team introduces an abundance of floral and damask textiles, striking colors, both refined and comfortable furnishings, and decorative trims. This book not only explores the fruits of complex and rewarding collaborations that artfully breathe new life into old buildings but also offers an insight into an exciting new chapter in the fascinating story of classic English country houses. New materials and technologies, paired with traditional decorative devices, reinvigorate a Victorian house in the city, an eighteenth-century country house, a Jacobean manor, an apartment in London’s Old War Office, and many other quintessentially British residences.