Autumn/Winter 2005 2006 Ready-to-Wear © firstVIEW
From inspired collections to legendary personalities, these books offer an indulgent look inside the world of Chanel, including the history, fashion and enduring influence of the house.
1. Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion
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.
Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion is a revelatory biography introducing readers to the public and private life of the charismatic designer. It features new insights from previously unseen letters and faxes from Lagerfeld’s personal archive, as well as recently uncovered letters, notes and photographs that belonged to his parents.
2. Chanel: the Karl Lagerfeld Campaigns
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.
3. 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 compact 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.
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4. Chanel Eternal Instant
Chanel’s J12 watch revolutionized the standards of watches for women, combining technical sophistication with the allure of modern design. The J12 has evolved into a classic watchmaking icon of the twenty-first century.
Since its arrival just over twenty years ago, the J12 has drawn its inspiration from Chanel’s drive to shake up the codes by combining a daring artistic approach with superlative technical finesse. The J12 watch transformed ceramic into a precious material, and rewrote two hundred years of watchmaking with the innovative brilliance of its design. A text by noted watch connoisseur Nicholas Foulkes explores the extraordinary conception, execution and history of the Chanel J12. Enhanced by a strikingly original selection of fine photographs, this volume celebrates twenty years of the most beautiful and technically refined watches ever worn on the wrist.
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5. Chanel N°5
Presented in two volumes (one on the early years of Chanel No5 from 1921 to 1945, the other on the period in which Chanel No5 went truly global, from the postwar years to today), Chanel No5 explores the evolution of the perfume’s packaging, composition, manufacture and marketing, with unprecedented access to the Chanel archives and those tasked with creating the fragrance today.
The world’s leading creatives have lent their talents to the perfume’s advertising campaigns, which are given pride of place in the book, from photographers such as Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton, to film directors including Ridley Scott and Baz Luhrmann, and stylish muses – Coco Chanel herself, of course, as well as Suzy Parker, Catherine Deneuve, Nicole Kidman, Gisele Bündchen and Lily-Rose Depp.
6. Chanel Catwalk
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.
7. Gabrielle Chanel
Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel is an icon of fashion, and can lay claim to having invented the look of the 20th century. At the height of the Belle Époque, she stripped women of their corsets and feathers, bobbed their hair, put them in bathing suits and sent them out to get tanned in the sun. She introduced the little black dress; trousers for women; costume jewelry; the exquisitely comfortable suit that became her trademark. Early in the Roaring Twenties, Chanel made the first ever couture perfume – No. 5 – presenting it in the famous little square-cut flagon that, inspired by Picasso and Cubism, became the arch symbol of the Art Deco style. No. 5 remains the most popular scent ever created.
This volume, published to accompany a landmark exhibition in Paris, traces the birth and evolution of Chanel’s timeless style. Specially commissioned photographs by Julien T. Hamon showcase the clothing, while essays by fashion historians illuminate a period, an event or a theme. Rare archival documents, including portraits of Gabrielle Chanel herself, round out the book.
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8. 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’. Chic, witty and accessibly priced, The World According to Coco is the perfect gift for fans of fashion in general and Chanel in particular.
9. Karl Lagerfeld Unseen: The Chanel Years
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.
10. 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.
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11. Chanel: The Vocabulary of Style
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.
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12. Chanel: Collections and Creations
Inspired by the House's signature fragrance, the legendary ‘Chanel No 5’, Chanel: Collections and Creations 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.
