Thames & Hudson
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.
Specifications - Hardback. 632 pages.
Monocle
Following in the footsteps of the hugely successful Monocle Book of Italy and The Monocle Book of the Nordics, Monocle’s latest title turns its focus to Portugal in an exciting new series of country-specific books.
A handbook in feel and tone, this practical guide will transport you to the sun-dappled hills of Lisbon and the winding streets of Porto as well as lesser-known locales from the Alentejo region, with its plentiful vineyards, to the dramatic landscapes of the Azores. Plus, discover Monocle’s favourite places to stay, eat and shop – stop off at an elegant palácio, indulge in a family-run tasca and scour the streets for the creamiest pastéis de nata – and the cross-country trips we’d make (whether by car, boat or horse). You’ll also be introduced to the country’s rich culture, including the history of Portugal’s vibrant visual identity and the folks at the heart of it all. So join in, hit the tiles and explore this fascinating country in Portugal: The Monocle Handbook.
Specifications - Hardback. 200 pages.
Catherine Legrand
What do Korean bojagi wrapping cloths, Cameroonian Bamileke boubous, Peruvian montera hats, and Hungarian cifraszür shepherd cloaks have in common? Each is made using the ancient technique of patchwork—the art of juxtaposing fabrics and motifs to create blankets, clothes, accessories, and more.
This volume follows Catherine Legrand as she sews together an ethnographic patchwork map. Legrand has spent many years traveling and researching textiles and has a deep knowledge of the techniques and traditions that characterize patchwork, enabling her to create an engaging fabric-inspired travelogue.
Pieced together much like the gorgeous textiles it portrays, Legrand’s beautifully illustrated history features over 300 dazzling photographsof patchwork from around the world and takes the reader from Europe and the Americas to Africa and Asia, where these ancient traditions survive, and patchwork is part of the fabric of everyday life. Textile artists, patchwork enthusiasts, and designers of all stripes will discover an endless source of inspiration.
Specifications - Hardcover. 216 pages.
Thames & Hudson
For the first time, ninety of the designers’ typefaces are catalogued chronologically in a three-part volume, comprising the history of their development; exclusive type specimens; and detailed illustrations of projects in which they appear.
With a foreword by Björk—whose collaboration with M/M spans over two decades—this encyclopaedic volume traces the distinctive and integral nature of type, lettering, and signs in the work of M/M, from one-off artistic commissions to fashion branding and their long-lasting collaborations with musicians and theatres.
This complete typographic collection is the perfect companion to the two-volume monograph M to M of M/M (Paris), and will appeal not only to graphic designers, historians, and students, but to anyone interested in art and visual culture.
Specifications - Hardcover. 480 pages.
Karl Lagerfeld
Brain Dead
Bo Bech
What Does Memory Taste Like by chef Bo Bech is part cookbook and part memoir featuring personal anecdotes and essays from employees, guests and friends.
Specifications - Hardcover. Format: 28 x 22 cm. 316 pages.
Wolfgang Tillmans
“The viewer...should enter my work through their own eyes, and their own lives,” the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has said. An incisive observer and a creator of dazzling pictures, Tillmans has experimented for over three decades with what it means to engage the world through photography. Presenting the full breadth and depth of the artist’s career, Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear invites us to experience the artist’s vision of what it feels like to live today.
From ecstatic images of nightlife to abstract images made without a camera, sensitive portraits to architectural slide projections, documents of social movements to windowsill still lifes, astronomical phenomena to intimate nudes, Tillmans has explored seemingly every imaginable genre of photography, continually experimenting with how to make new pictures. He considers the role of the artist to be that of “an amplifier” of social and political causes, and his approach is animated by a concern with the possibilities of forging connections and the idea of togetherness.
Tillmans has rejected the prevailing conventions of photographic presentation, continuously developing connections between his pictures and the social space of the exhibition. In his installations, unframed prints are taped to the walls or clipped and hung from pins, and framed photographs appear alongside magazine pages. Constellations of images are grouped on walls and tabletops as photocopies, color or black-and-white photographs, and video projections, exemplifying the artist’s idea of visual democracy in action. “I see my installations as a reflection of the way I see, the way I perceive or want to perceive my environment,” Tillmans has said. “They’re also always a world that I want to live in.”
Dominic Bradbury
Lee McQueen
Growing up in London’s East End, Alexander McQueen left school at fifteen to become a tailor’s apprentice on Mayfair’s Savile Row. At twenty-two, he attended the prestigious art and design college Central Saint Martins and, after presenting his 1992 graduate collection that was bought on the spot by influential fashion stylist Isabella Blow, went on to change the course of fashion history.
Celebrated for his uniquely radical aesthetic, McQueen has captured the public’s imagination as few other fashion designers have before or since. Like his designs, McQueen was de ant in his opinions. His quotes on creativity, “You’ve got to know the rules to break them. That’s what I’m here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition”; and women, “I design clothes because I don’t want women to look all innocent and naive…I want people to be afraid of the women I dress”; make this a thoroughly thought-provoking book. Featuring specially commissioned illustrations, this is the perfect gift for fans of fashion and of McQueen, capturing the sharp wit and unbridled spirit of a true visionary.
Specifications - Hardcover. 176 pages.
Lucian Freud
Since his death in 2011, Lucian Freud’s reputation as one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century has continued to grow with his inimitable large-scale paintings of human figures hanging in museums worldwide and reaching dizzying prices at auction. Art historians note his talent, brilliance, and complicated personal life, but until now, his own voice has often not risen above the noise. Full of verbal and visual wit, affection and irreverence, Freud’s letters now provide a revealing and at times revelatory personal look at his life and process.
This volume brings together Freud’s early letters, gathered with the endorsement of the Freud estate, from both private collections and public archives, including the Freud Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Tate. Ranging from schoolboy notes to his parents to his early recognition as a professional artist, the letters, which often feature drawings and characterful visual quirks, present the multiple facets of Freud’s complex personality.
Coauthored by David Dawson, Freud’s longstanding personal assistant and now director of the Lucian Freud Archive, and Martin Gayford, author, critic, and acquaintance of Lucian Freud, these extraordinary, illustrated letters are reproduced in facsimile alongside striking reproductions of Freud’s works of this period. Linked by a narrative that weaves the letters and paintings into the story of his life, including his first marriage and separation, this book provides an intimate and fresh perspective on the first three decades of the artist’s life.
Specifications - Hardcover. 392 pages.
Saul Leiter
Now widely acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest photographers, Saul Leiter (1923–2013) remained relatively unsung until he was rediscovered by curators and critics in his early 80s, and his work has been drastically re-evaluated over the last two decades. Leiter’s images evoked the flow and rhythm of life on the mid-century streets of New York in luminous colour at a time when his contemporaries were shooting in black and white. His complex and impressionistic photographs are as much about evoking an atmosphere as nailing the decisive moment.
On his death in 2013, he left behind a collection of more than 40,000 colour slides, only a fraction of which had seen the light of day. This book showcases seventy-six newly unearthed images from that extraordinary photographic treasure trove, published here for the first time. Meticulously curated by Margit Erb and Michael Parillo of the Saul Leiter Foundation and supported by texts that explain how Leiter built the slide archive and how it is now being explored, catalogued and restored, this monograph will be a must-have for photography fans worldwide.
Specifications - Hardcover.
