This handsome volume chronicles the rise of the fashion house Chloé, a crucible of creativity for some of fashion’s most notable designers.

The fashion brand Chloé may be sixty years old, but she still exudes a youthful elegance and femininity. As the first high-end Paris fashion house to sell exclusively ready-to-wear clothing, Chloé has since redefined its look for the modern woman with flattering colors, quality materials, and a series of must-have It bags.

Chloé started in 1952 when Gaby Aghion invented the revolutionary idea of luxury prêt-à-porter, taking the craftsmanship of haute couture and making it available to a wider audience. Her focus on the beautiful yet wearable gave the line currency with chic young women. Born in Egypt in 1921 and moving to Paris when she was in her twenties, Aghion dressed some of the most fashionable and powerful women of her day, including Jackie O, Grace Kelly, and Brigitte Bardot. Her vision has always been maintained through the company’s extensive career.

The company’s lively and fresh energy has been sustained through the decades partly because it seeks out new talent, including then-28-year-old designer Karl Lagerfeld, who started with the company in 1966.

The book explores his career at Chloé, along with Martine Sitbon (in 1988), Stella McCartney, who joined Chloé when she was 26 (in 1997), and Phoebe Philo, who was responsible for Chloé’s major reinvention from 2001 to 2006, where she is credited for bringing a sensual and personal touch to the line. It is currently helmed by Clare Waight Keller, who previously reinvigorated the fashion line Pringle of Scotland. Chloé, in short, is the modern woman — refined and redefined.

____________

Пролистать книгу Chloe: Attitudes

New London Style takes a fresh look into the homes of the most exciting young creatives in the city, from the music, fashion, design and art worlds. This new wave is injecting funkiness and bright ideas into highly individual and inspirational interiors.

A great number of these ideas begin in the intimacy of their own homes but have come to attract international attention, so a glimpse into these interiors reveals a world of creativity.

The twenty-eight houses are in the grooviest, on-the-edge neighbourhoods – from Shoreditch to Notting Hill, Camberwell to Clerkenwell – and reflect the cosmopolitan melting pot that influences London’s design trends – whether in a mews house, a derelict pub, or even a church.

Textiles owe their development to religion, commerce, exchange and travel, and their vibrant and creative preservation to tenacious regionalism. Artists and designers from India, Mali, Madagascar, Morocco, Burkina Faso and Nigeria have reinvigorated art and fashion by using the fabrics and graphic elements they find on the streets of London, Paris and New York and other cities.

Extraordinary technological developments, from colour-changing, light-sensitive camouflage to emergency shelters of cement-impregnated fabric bonded to an inflatable plastic, are included here alongside the simply beautiful, such as Eley Kishimoto’s patterns that point to the historical exchange of ideas between the East and the West, or the astonishing colour transmutations of Morphotex.