The story of luxury fashion house Lancel, from its founders and innovative designs to its contemporary collections and famous collaborations.
 
Lancel, the iconic French fashion house renowned for establishing the handbag as a womenswear essential and inventing the covetable Bucket bag, has set trends throughout its history, collaborating with celebrities from Josephine Baker to Brigitte Bardot and great designers from Patrick Demarchelier to Viviane Sassen. Marking its 140th anniversary, this volume — featuring original art from Martin Parr, Marjane Satrapi, and Jean-Philippe Delhomme — uncovers the rich history of Lancel and reveals the secrets behind the brand’s continued success.

Founded in 1876 and originally specializing in smoking accessories, Lancel soon expanded its product line and its name became synonymous with incomparable savoir faire and sophistication — from toiletry cases to Bambino (the smallest radio set in the world), or from travel luggage to the unique and inventive Umbrella bag. Combining luxury with functionality, its aim has always been to simplify life while making it more beautiful, an ideal that the house continues to perpetuate today.

About the Author:

Laurence Benaïm is a fashion journalist, author, and historian who has published biographies of Yves Saint Laurent and Marie-Laure de Noailles.

The Dior Bar suit is one of the most influential designs in the history of fashion. On February 12, 1947, Christian Dior presented this voluminous skirt combined with a jacket featuring a tiny waist, a pronounced bust, and enhanced hips in his first collection in the salons of 30 Avenue Montaigne. After the show, the editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, Carmel Snow, exclaimed: “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian! Your dresses have such a new look!” The phrase made headlines.  

Dior’s New Look transformed the zeitgeist of a postwar France and heralded a storied career for his label. The New Look was an immediate sensation, and everyone wanted to wear the silhouette that Dior was later to describe as “the return to an ideal of civilized happiness.” Almost seven decades after its creation, the New Look revolution and its spirit continue to inspire the House of Dior.

Published to accompany the Dior: The New Look Revolution exhibition at the Musée Christian Dior in Granville, France, this stunning volume presents a rare collection of images that illustrate the Bar suit, from the initial sketches drawn by Christian Dior to the sartorial perfection of the completed outfit, as well as the many versions it has inspired. From Yves Saint Laurent to Raf Simons, season after season, the designers of Dior have interpreted the legendary curves of the Bar suit, dreaming up bustier versions, designing it in woolen denim, or adorning it with masculine prints. With exquisite photography and insightful text surveying over sixty years of Dior’s sublime reinvention, this book is a must-have for followers and students of fashion.

About the Author:

Laurence Benaïm is a writer and historian known for her biographies of Yves Saint Laurent and Marie-Laure de Noailles, among others.

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Пролистать книгу Dior: The New Look Revolution

Unveiling Azzedine Alaïa’s story before his milestone 1982 show, this book offers a never-before-seen look into one of fashion’s most enigmatic icons.

Azzedine Alaïa (1935–2017) was regarded as a contemporary fashion genius. Edited by his closest friend, Carla Sozzani, this new volume presents an unprecedented view into Alaïa’s early life and career, from his native Tunisia and 1956 arrival in Paris to his breakthrough 1982 New York show.

From apprenticeships to encounters with Paris’s creative and society crowds, this book pays homage to Alaïa’s evolution. Chronological chapters depict a designer devoted to his work while enjoying friendships with such individuals as Arletty, Louise de Vilmorin, César, Andrée Putman, and Thierry Mugler. Quotes by Alaïa accompany gorgeous photographs of iconic dresses and lesser-known designs, providing captivating stories behind the inspirations for his creations. Interviews share intimate anecdotes from Serge Lutens, Edgar Morin, Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele, Marie Rucki, and more. Accompanying an exhibition at the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation, this unique publication delves into rare archival materials, private photographs, and prominent publications to powerfully illustrate the fascinating journey of a fashion legend.

About the Author:

Carla Sozzani cofounded the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation and is its president. Laurence Benaïm is the author of Women in Dior: Portraits of Elegance and Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography. She created the style supplement for Le Monde and has contributed to Vogue and Marie Claire. Emanuele Coccia is an Italian philosopher and associate professor at EHESS in Paris. Olivier Saillard is a French historian specializing in fashion and director of the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation.

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Пролистать книгу Alaïa Afore Alaïa

This definitive portrait of the creative genius who transformed fashion is the first major English-language biography of Yves Saint Laurent since his death in 2008, featuring exclusive interviews of those who knew him best, by one of the most respected names in French fashion.

Yves Saint Laurent's impact on fashion is legendary, yet he remains an enigmatic and compelling figure. Tracing the development of Saint Laurent's visionary work through his charmed yet tumultuous life, respected fashion writer Laurence Benaïm's newly translated and updated biography of the famed designer explores how this unassuming prodigy became a legendary, celebrated public icon who changed the face of fashion, style, and celebrity.

Enriched by the author's exclusive interviews--from Saint Laurent's partner Pierre Bergé to family members, his atelier staff, and muses such as Catherine Deneueve, LouLou de la Falaise, and Paloma Picasso--this fascinating biography chronicles early glimpses of Saint Laurent's talent in Oran and his star trajectory, from leading the House of Dior at the age of twenty-one to his fall from grace and subsequent forging with Pierre Bergé, fashion's most enduring and successful professional partnership. In portraying the man behind the timeless icons of the Mondrian-print shift dress and the Le Smoking trouser suit -- who partied with Warhol in New York and relaxed with the jet set in his Marrakesh hideaway -- Benaïm powerfully illuminates both the glittering world of haute couture and the business empire that revolutionized the fashion industry.

About the Author:

Journalist and fashion writer Laurence Benaïm has written many books including Lancel: Parisian Maison Since 1876, Women in Dior: Portraits of Elegance, Dior: The New Look Revolution, and a biography of Yves Saint Laurent. She created the style supplement for the newspaper Le Monde and has contributed to Vogue and Marie Claire. She is an editorial adviser for Le Figaro.

The history of the quintessential Parisian perfumer Guerlain both influenced and was shaped by Parisian life, savoir-faire, and culture.

The house of Guerlain is a Parisian institution. Guerlain aficionados — from royalty and empresses, to celebrities, writers, and artists — have been featured in novels, song lyrics, movies, and artistic creations, all while exemplifying Parisian savoir-faire and luxury. The Guerlain headquarters and laboratory on the rue de Rivoli in the heart of Paris feature a new scent laboratory and a rose garden, intrinsically binding the famous house to the city of light, which it so perfectly captures in each bottle of perfume.

Travelling through two centuries of history at Guerlain, this book highlights the inextricable links between the house and the city: Guerlain changed Parisian life with its cosmetics and perfumes, yet could have existed nowhere else but in Paris. Guerlain’s creations, especially its perfumes, are put into historical and cultural context through a combination of interviews, images, and portraits of the people and products that played a role in the house’s story. This celebration of Guerlain, the quintessential Parisian perfumer, combines fashion, Parisian life and savoir-faire, history, and the essence of beauty.

About the Author:

Laurence Benaim has written many books including Fashion and Versailles (Flammarion, 2018) and Lancel: Parisian Maison since 1876 (2016). She created the style supplement for Le Monde, contributed to Vogue and Marie-Claire, and is an editorial advisor for Le Figaro.

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Пролистать книгу Paris: Capital of Guerlain

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 revolutions 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.

About the Author:

Laurence Benaim has written many books including Paris: Capital of Guerlain (Flammarion, 2022) and Lancel: Parisian Maison since 1876 (2016). She created the style supplement for Le Monde, contributed to Vogue and Marie-Claire, and is an editorial advisor for Le Figaro.

A tribute to the sumptuous jewelry and the glamorous history of Van Cleef & Arpels

For more than a century, the designs of the French jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels have represented the marriage of an unrivaled sense of elegance with an extraordinary level of technical expertise and prowess. The comprehensive monograph Van Cleef & Arpels: The Art & Science of Gems is a glittering, gorgeous tribute to a century of luxurious, glamorous jewelry design and incomparable mastery of materials. Lavishly illustrated with meticulous photographs by Patrick Gries, the book’s pages are filled with sparkling chalcedony, cornelian, rubies, emeralds and colored diamonds, beautifully set off and enhanced by the jeweler’s designs (at alternate moments whimsical or understated, as the materials demand).

Suggesting the complexity and richness of Van Cleef & Arpels’ output, the book is organized thematically around categories such as “Abstractions,” “Couture,” “Nature” and “Icons,” and additionally features some of the legendary stones from the annals of the house’s history, such as the “Blue Princess” sapphire and the “Walska Briolette Diamond” brooch. Texts by art historians, personalities from the fashion world and mineralogists offer context and highlight the full extent of the jeweler’s art. Essential for those who love and lust after jewelry design, this eminently covetable volume celebrates the Van Cleef & Arpels style.