Cultured Life Books
Style
Homes
Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection Hardcover – October 3, 2023
​
The ultimate and most comprehensive collection of Slim Aarons’s photography ever released, featuring more than 100 previously unpublished images
Foreword by Maria Cooper Janis
This luxe edition provides a deep and comprehensive look at the groundbreaking career of Slim Aarons, spanning five decades. The book begins with Slim’s fieldwork as an army photographer and continues through his fledgling days in Hollywood, opening the LIFE bureau in Rome, doing fashion and travel shoots for Holiday, and finally traveling the world for Town & Country.
With a new and definitive biographical essay, spotlights on key moments in his career, and exclusive insights from former associates, Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection gives readers an unprecedented look into Slim’s private world. The supervisor of Slim’s image archive, author Shawn Waldron’s text digs into the photographer’s biography in unprecedented detail and reveals new information, while award-winning journalist, historian, and New York Times bestselling author Lesley Blume provides historical context to Slim’s career. Additionally, Slim’s former assistant and author Laura Hawk reveals the intricacies of her friendship with Slim, and historian, author, and Vanity Fair contributing editor Nick Foulkes explores Slim’s influence on our current cultural moment.
After five previous books, Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection presents the best of the previous image collections, including hundreds of iconic black-and-white and color photos, along with more than 100 rare and previously unpublished works. This beautifully produced book, a tribute to Slim Aarons’s incredible contribution to modern photography, is the result of intensive scholarship and research, making it a must-have for any Slim fan and photography lover.
Slim Aarons: Once Upon A Time Hardcover – December 1, 2003
​
Slim Aarons: Once Upon a Time is a luxurious photography book presenting the ultimate insider’s view of the lifestyles of the wealthy, privileged, and powerful.
“Aarons was a transitional figure at the height of the era of photojournalism, when magazines like Life were read by millions. The public had become fascinated by members of the affluent class, and Aarons captured them in all their splendor.” —Town & Country
Increasingly heralded for his influence, Slim Aarons has established his place in the pantheon of great postwar photographers. It was Aarons who perfected, if not invented, the environmental portrait while photographing the international elite in their exclusive playgrounds during the jet-set decades of the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, carrying out his self-described mission: to document “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.”
Sexy women in tiny bikinis and handsome men dressed for dinner, fabulous homes and boats, and splendid pools and gardens are the playground of Slim Aarons’s world. You’ll find style and joy in visiting them in this rapturous coffee-table celebration of living well.
Join the Duke and Duchess of Windsor for dinner at the Waldorf Astoria. Visit novelist Elizabeth Bowen at Bowen’s Court, her ancestral home in County Cork, Ireland. Jump on a speedboat with actor George Hamilton and his beautiful friends. Pulitzer, Vanderbilt, Hearst, and Ford are just some of the bold-faced names who light up this Who’s Who of society.
Presenting Hollywood royalty, European aristocracy, the grandes dames of high society, captains of industry, media moguls, statesmen, and luminaries of various stripes, across a vast geography of opulent and glamorous settings, Slim Aarons’s photographs—some 250 of which are included here—define the legendary class known as the Beautiful People and document a lost era of style, grace, and grandeur.
“Nostalgia-soaked images.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“Sumptuous images.” —Publishers Weekly
“It’s the next best thing to time travel.” —DuJour magazine
This lavish volume of Slim Aarons photography revels in this photographer’s decades-long love affair with Italy. From breathtaking aerials of the Sicilian countryside to intimate portraits of celebrities and high society taken in magnificent villas, Slim Aarons: La Dolce Vita captures the essence of “the good life.”
Slim Aarons first visited Italy as a combat photographer during World War II and later moved to Rome to shoot for Life magazine, yet even after relocating to New York, he would return to Italy almost every year for the rest of his life. The images collected here document the aristocracy, cultural elite, and beautiful people, such as Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Joan Fontaine, and Tyrone Power, who lived la dolce vita in Italy’s most fabulous places during the last 50 years.
Tracing a journey from the 1940s to the 1990s, Slim Aarons: La Dolce Vita takes us to Italy’s fashionable resorts, to its magnificent historic cities and small atmospheric towns, and to glorious landscapes, all reflecting the pleasures of the Italian art of living. Here is a rare glimpse into the lives of the preeminent families’ formal and informal circumstances, photographed in their palaces and on their estates, at their vacation villas and favorite haunts. Handsome men are in tuxedoes. Voluptuous women wear their most glorious gowns. Families walk beautiful gardens.
Here is your chance to experience la dolce vita in this one-of-a-kind coffee table celebration of all things Italian.
Shauna Varvel’s Provence Style provides an intimate tour of quintessential Provençal style, featuring chic homes and interior details inspired by this picturesque region.
Contribution by Alexandra Black
Thirty years after the publication of Peter Mayle’s bestselling memoir A Year in Provence, the sun-drenched southern French region continues to excite home decorators with its combination of rustic charm, elegant details, and historical influences. Provence Style showcases the best of the region, with Shauna Varvel’s quintessential 18th-century Rhône valley farmhouse—Le Mas des Poiriers—as its centerpiece. Named for the working pear orchard on the grounds, the property was reimagined by noted local architect Alexandre Lafourcade, who transformed a rough structure into a luxurious expression of the Provençal aesthetic, referencing historical influences, rural traditions, and Parisian taste.
Set amid a garden of allées, arbors, and terraces designed by the architect’s mother, renowned landscape designer Dominique Lafourcade, this exemplar of Provençal style is the starting point for exploring the region’s characteristic interior details and exterior features. The book includes chapters on the public spaces of the home, from entrances to living rooms, the private realm of bedrooms and bathrooms, and outdoor areas including patios and kitchen gardens, transporting the reader on a captivating stylistic journey.
“When Shauna Varvel and her family bought an 18th-century estate on a 65-acre pear farm on the Rhône River, their lives turned into a romantic fantasy fit for a Hollywood movie.” —New York Post
An intimate love letter to summertime in Newport, Rhode Island, from photographer Nick Mele, the “modern-day Slim Aarons,” and interior designer Ruthie Sommers.
Newport, Rhode Island, is one of the last bastions of American high society. The grand Gilded Age houses that top its oceanside cliffs and line storied Bellevue Avenue are largely untouched by contemporary renovation and taste, and family heirlooms are passed down from generation to generation with Yankee thrift. Indeed, Newport has an understated elegance that sets it apart from other resort towns.
Life behind the facades of these elaborate mansions is rarely revealed, but now, photographer Nick Mele and author Ruthie Sommers, both lifelong Newport residents, share their entrée into the parties, lawn tennis matches, beach clambakes, and family gatherings that make up the glorious days of a Newport summer. Picture the foggy mornings of June, the traditional yacht races of July, the annual meeting of old friends at Marble House in August, and the melancholy close of the season after Labor Day. Through Sommers’s personal, evocative text and Mele’s exquisite photographs of people, parties, beaches, and houses, the intimate charms of A Newport Summer come poignantly to life.
A compelling account of the luxury and splendor of Newport's nineteenth-century summer “cottages.”
In his latest contribution to America's architectural record, Michael C. Kathrens gives house enthusiasts a superbly visual and informative book on Newport's early resort architecture.
The nineteenth century was an incredibly vibrant period in Newport, Rhode Island's, rich architectural history. Opulent private houses―or summer “cottages” as they were known―populated the seaside resort half a century before the rise of the European Revival behemoths of the late 1880s and 1890s. The luxury and splendor of many of these earlier homes often rivaled the sumptuousness of the later “Gilded Age” mansions.
In the decades since 1835, when the first private house was built exclusively for seasonal use, scores of magnificent homes were commissioned by a burgeoning summer colony whose members were among America's wealthiest and most prominent families, including the Schermerhorns, Lorillards, Goelets, and Joneses. They built their summer residences in neighborhoods known today as Kay-Catherine-Old Beach Road, Bellevue Avenue, Ochre Point, and Ocean Drive, commissioning local talents such as George Champlin Mason Sr., Seth C. Bradford, and Dudley Newton as well as nationally renowned architects such as Richard Morris Hunt, McKim, Mead & White, and Peabody & Stearns. These exceptional houses showcased new architectural expressions and displayed the mastery of those who designed them.
The scope of this volume―the prequel to Newport Villas: The Revival Styles, 1885–1935, Kathrens's first book on Newport residential architecture―extends beyond 1890, providing ownership histories of each of the thirty-six houses profiled, including Cannon Hill, Chateau-sur-Mer, Elm Court, Beaulieu, Land's End, the original Breakers, Ochre Point, and Chastellux as well as visual documentation of later renovations. Rare late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century interior images reflect a shift in fashion from the exuberant Victorian to a cleaner, more classical style that led to the Edwardian elegance of many of the later renovations by architects such as Horace Trumbauer, Ogden Codman Jr., and Francis L. V. Hoppin.
Stunning archival and newly commissioned photography, architectural renderings, and floor plans aid in fully conveying the remarkable legacy of Newport's majestic cottages built before 1890, presented comprehensively for the first time.
Paying homage to the seminal mid-century modern architecture of Palm Springs, this luxurious book showcases historic jet-set homes designed by legendary talents such as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, and Paul Williams, as well as private residences by today’s leading tastemakers.
Since Gary Cooper built one of the first modernist houses in Palm Springs in the 1930s, this desert oasis has entranced Hollywood. A mecca for the international jet set that lured Frank Sinatra, Walter Annenberg, and others, Palm Springs came into its own architecturally as a haven for visionary modernists such as Richard Neutra, who were practicing the International Style in Los Angeles. The architectural legacy remains unsurpassed for its originality and influence, and recently many of the city’s modernist residential treasures have been restored.
In original new photography, Palm Springs captures the allure of this famed modernist destination. The book profiles outstanding examples such as the Annenberg Estate, the Ford House, and the Kaufmann House, shown in their splendor, as well as today’s restorations by top interior designers such as Martyn Lawrence Bullard and fashion designer Trina Turk. A resource section provides modernist furnishing stores and other points of interest.
 |  |  |  |  |
|---|
Style
Luxury-Designers
Personal Style
“Some will call it a fashion book, others might call it a biography. Ralph Lauren: In His Own Fashion is unquestionably a superb primer for those who have not read or followed the trajectory of Mr. Lauren.” —New York Journal of Books
Here is a fully illustrated biography of iconic American designer Ralph Lauren told through the lens of fashion by Alan Flusser, the author of Dressing the Man, the seminal tome on men’s fashion.
This unique coffee table book on the life and career of one of America’s most successful fashion designers includes in-depth chapters like:
-
Starting with a Tie
-
The Early Years
-
Getting the Gang Together
-
Upon the Terra Firma of His Own Taste
-
A Portfolio of Stories, Sittings & Sightings
-
And more!
Flusser says in his introduction, “Although one of my primary missions is to establish an artistic knighting of Mr. Lauren, of equal importance is to illuminate his many courageous marketing and business decisions along with their life lessons for future generations to be inspired by. Watching Ralph become who he is has long been a source of inspiration and wonder for those of us who share his Aristotelian vision, ‘not with things as they are, but with things as they might be and ought to be.’”
Published as part of the Ralph Lauren’s 50th anniversary, Alan Flusser’s book looks at the life of the iconic American designer’s impact both on fashion and on broader American culture.
This high-level-yet-intimate reflection on the life and work of Ralph Lauren shows how a preppy young boy from the Bronx created one of the most recognizable brands in American fashion.
Includes Color Photographs
Fabergé: Romance to Revolution is a beautifully illustrated book that explores the history and legacy of the House of Fabergé, from its origins in Russia—and its role in the glamorous world of the Romanovs—to global recognition.
The name Fabergé has long been a byword for luxury. Combining an entrepreneurial vision for craftsmanship with innovative material sourcing and technical ability, Carl Fabergé created an astonishing array of bespoke jeweled and enameled objects at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
Much of the story is familiar, but less well known is the important part played by the London branch. Opened in 1903, and the only one outside Russia, it became a choice destination for Edwardian high society and an international clientele. Featuring more than 120 pieces, from delicate flowers to Imperial Easter eggs, and with contributions from leading experts, Kieran McCarthy and Hanne Faurby’s Fabergé: Romance to Revolution celebrates the enduring fascination with this master craftsman’s works.
Whether as stylish accessory or sartorial statement piece, men’s hats are back in fashion and more varied than ever before. Offering some 200 pages of headwear style, this extensive book of hats is the must-have sourcebook for fashion-forward men. From the trilby to the beanie, the flat cap to the fedora, explore more than 1,000 years of men’s hat history, from function to fashion statement to political statement and beyond, and discover the bountiful variety of designs, shapes, and fabrics you can put on your head! Text in English and German.
A beautifully packaged look at some of the world's most sought-after timepieces, with specially-commissioned photography in collaboration with Christie's auction house
Rare Watches features more than fifty of the most unusual watches in the world, including incredible one-off models and collector's editions. From watches that have set new records in auction houses, to feats of modern technology and engineering, via iconic models worn by figures such as Elvis and James Bond, this book appeals to professionals, collectors and amateurs alike.
The photography in this book was organized in collaboration with Christie's auction house, displaying some of the rarest, most expensive and desirable watches ever.
Complete with slipcase, this is a beautifully packaged look at some of the world's most sought-after timepieces.
Vogue on Christian Dior tells the story of Dior’s search for the perfect line and how his unique style and vision of women’s ideal silhouette developed.
In 1947, Christian Dior stunned the fashion world with his first collection, the “New Look,” which transformed the way women dressed, and he continued to send shock waves with his later shows, significantly altering the fashion landscape. One of the most famous designers of the 20th century, his name still fronts one of the most successful haute couture fashion houses.
Vogue on Christian Dior is a volume from the series created by Charlotte Sinclair and the editors of British Vogue. It features 20,000 words of original biography and history and is studded with 80 color and black-and-white images from their unique archive of photos taken by the leading photographers of the day, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.
-
At once an important social history of tobacco and smoking and a beautiful coffee table book, A Token of Elegance is ideal for art and design historians, history students, museum professionals, and collectors
-
Of great interest to jewelry historians as many cigarette holders were made for their international clientele by the major jewelry firms and this is the first book where so many cigarette holders are catalogued and photographed
The book offers an unprecedented look at cigarette holders through a selection of approximately 125 pieces from the collection of Carolyn Hsu-Balcer. Its introductory essay is both a social history of that world-changing leaf, tobacco, and a design history of its accoutrements. It examines the history of smoking from its pre-Columbian roots in the Americas through to the present-day worldwide e-cigarette craze, taking the reader on a journey from tobacco smoking as a sacred ritual, through the controversies of its worldwide spread, and the machine-rolled cigarette's role in the world wars and as a tool for European and American women's equality.
Following the illustrated essay is a luxurious catalogue of newly commissioned photography that makes these diminutive objects pop off the pages with brilliant color and form. The collection includes cigarette holders in their simplest incarnations - the disposable promotional holders given away at trendy New York nightclubs - to their most exquisite - the work of Fabergé, Cartier, Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels and other renowned jewelers of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Contents:
Foreword by Carolyn Hsu-Balcer; Introduction; Chapter 1: Tobacco's Journey from the New World to the Old: Medicine and Pleasure; Chapter 2: The Rise of Cigarette Culture: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries; Chapter 3: Smoking, Sociability, and a New Modern Era: From the First World War to the Second; Chapter 4: The Cigarette Holder's Peak and Fall: A New Culture of Smoking; Catalog; Appendix: Materials Used in Cigarette Holders; Acknowledgments; Photo Credits.
Creatures from the animal kingdom represented in exquisite jewelry by renowned masters Cartier, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., JAR, Belperron, David Webb, Schlumberger, Boucheron, and many other brilliant jewelers.
Many of the most imaginative designs by the world's great jewelry houses and artisans take inspiration from the animal kingdom. From Cartier's iconic panthers to Bulgari's snakes and JAR's butterflies, these spectacular objects dripping with precious stones are akin to wearable art. Beautiful Creatures depicts some of the most spectacular beasts ever transformed into sparkling treasures and accompanies a forthcoming special exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History's Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals.
The 120 pieces featured date from the mid-1800s to the present, representing species from the realms of land, air, and water. Gorgeous studio photography of the jewelry is complemented by images of iconic personalities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Twiggy, and the Duchess of Windsor wearing famous animal-
inspired jewels. Guest curator Marion Fasel relays the stories behind the individual pieces through entertaining anecdotes and reveals the colorful histories and fascinating symbolism of these remarkable creatures in precious gems and metals that intrigue and delight and that we never tire of wearing.
Style
Photography-Fashion
From the pages of one of the most popular lifestyle magazines that’s always been on the cutting edge of popular culture, Vogue x Music presents unforgettable portraits of Madonna beside David Bowie, Kendrick Lamar, and Patti Smith, as well as St. Vincent alongside Debbie Harry and many others.
Foreword by Jonathan Van Meter
Whether they’re contemporary stars or classic idols, whether they made digital albums or vinyl records, the world’s most popular musicians have always graced the pages of Vogue. Spanning the magazine’s 126 years, this breathtaking book is filled with the work of acclaimed photographers like Richard Avedon and Annie Leibovitz, as well as daring, music-inspired fashion portfolios from Irving Penn and Steven Klein.
Excerpts from essential interviews with rock stars, blues singers, rappers, and others are included on nearly every page, capturing exactly what makes each musician so indelible. Vogue x Music is a testament to star power and proves that some looks are as timeless as your favorite albums.
A visually engaging history of the 100-year-old fashion authority Vogue Paris
Always a defender of artistic and literary creation, Vogue Paris, more than other publications, makes fashion a cultural and societal topic as much as an object of fantasy. Through photographs, drawings, and magazines, Sylvie Lécallier’s book will highlight how Vogue Paris plays a major and singular role in the diffusion of Parisian style.
A New York Times bestseller! All in Good Taste helps us become the hostess everyone wants an invitation from.
In this charming guide to entertaining, kate spade new york throws rigid rules out the door and shares unpretentious ideas for the modern-day hostess that are easy, festive, authentic, and always with an air of deliberate polish. Filled with how-tos, personal essays, anecdotes, recipes, and a liberal dash of style, All in Good Taste covers the essential lost arts―how to shuck an oyster, curate a vibrant guest list, guide a dinner-table discussion―right alongside modern conundrums such as Instagram etiquette at dinner.
Whether you entertain a little or a lot, or just love being the person everyone wants to sit next to at dinner, All in Good Taste is the modern classic you’ll treasure for years.
Disclaimer: The wine stain on the cover of the book is a design element and is intentional.
Vanity Fair 100 Years showcases a century of personality and power, art and commerce, crisis and culture—both highbrow and low—in this collection of images that graced the pages of magazine, and some published for the very first time.
From its inception in 1913, through the Jazz Age and the Depression, to its reincarnation in the boom-boom Reagan years, to the image-saturated Information Age, Vanity Fair has presented the modern era as it has unfolded, using wit, imagination, peerless literary narrative, and bold, groundbreaking imagery from the greatest photographers, artists, and illustrators of the day.
Edited by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, this sumptuous book takes a decade-by-decade look at the world as seen by the magazine, stopping to describe the incomparable editor Frank Crowninshield and the birth of the Jazz Age Vanity Fair, the magazine’s controversial rebirth in 1983, and the history of the glamorous Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
“The book is a stunning artifact that begets staring, less for the words and publishing industry than as an exercise in visual storytelling reflected through the prism of society and celebrity. The best photographers, the best designers, the best illustrators all came together over Vanity Fair’s contents, and the book unfolds in page after page of stunningly rendered images, some iconic and some that never even ran.” —New York Times Book Review
An unprecedented volume of photography from the Condé Nast Archive, illustrating the history, art, and fashion of their famous magazine brands
Foreword by Anna Wintour
Chronorama: Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century is an impressive photography volume curated by Condé Nast. Chrono—referring to space-time—and rama—referring to sight—are the cornerstones of this notable art record that depicts the third decade of the 20th century, a decade that had the potential to be another Roaring Twenties and during which Condé Nast Publications experienced meteoric growth.
Taken from the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair, House & Garden, GQ, and Glamour, the nearly 400 stunning original vintage prints and illustrations within this tome are by top photographers such as Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Edward Steichen, Cecil Beaton, Eduardo García Benito, Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Arthur Elgort—resulting in an unprecedented showcase of some of the most important works ever to be produced for the magazine page. Organized by decade, the book opens with the 1910s and ends with the 1970s, and the backstories of each decade are told through the art and historical context of the times, firmly situating the prevalence of the works in the minds of the readers.
An exclusive collection of full-color, vivid, exquisite, and memorable images, Chronorama is not only a landmark in the history of photography and illustrated books but also a pivotal time in the history of fashion, design, and the arts.
A lavish illustrated biography of Queen Elizabeth II and her storied 70-year reign with 300 extraordinary photographs and insightful commentary by royal journalist Victoria Murphy
“...an invaluable photographic tribute to Britain’s longest serving monarch and to her memorable reign.” —Robert Lacey, historian and biographer
After her succession to the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II became respected, celebrated, and beloved around the world. This ultimate commemorative book for all royal waters captures significance of her magnificent reign, as well as the historical context for the contemporary British monarchy.
This collection of powerful photographs showcases the historic, and intimate moments throughout the Queen’s private and public life. Inside readers will find:
-
Her early years as a young princess including her war years in service
-
Her personal and familial relationships with her husband, Prince Philip; her parents, King George VI and the Queen Mother; her sister Princess Margaret, and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren
-
Her approach to the royal succession in her later years, with Prince Charles, Prince William, and Kate Middleton taking on ever enlarging roles as working royals
-
Her coronation—the first to be televised—and the pomp and pageantry of ceremonial events
-
Her role as a fashion icon with a close look at the stunning Crown Jewels and the Queen’s personal jewelry collection.
Throughout her rule, with a combination of star power and a profound sense of duty, Queen Elizabeth II steered the British monarchy into the modern era with supreme style and grace. Perfect for fans of The Crown, this elegant tribute which includes burnished gold foil embellishments on the cover, celebrates Britian’s influential leader and longest serving monarch.
Vogue's "special royal salute" to Queen Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor.
"Vogue, like the royal family, has been through many evolutions of its own, and to view Her Majesty's life through the record of our pages is truly a document of history." —Edward Enninful, Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue and European Director of Vogue
The Crown in Vogue is an extensively illustrated tribute to the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II and to the British Royal Family from the pages of British Vogue. Four monarchs (crowned and uncrowned); one abdication; one royal investiture; a jewel box of jubilees and many, many royal marriages... British Vogue has borne witness to a century of royal history. The Crown in Vogue is the magazine's "special royal salute" to our longest-serving monarch and her "assured and unwavering" presence in the lives of a nation.
Vogue's first star photographer, Cecil Beaton, was entranced by the House of Windsor and the admiration was mutual. A younger star photographer, Antony Armstrong Jones, left Vogue to marry the Queen's sister and returned as Lord Snowdon. The Queen's cousin, Vogue's Lord Lichfield, proved an insightful photographer of royal style along with many of Vogue's fashion photographers, including Horst, Norman Parkinson, and David Bailey. With visual treasures from Vogue's unrivaled archive and contributions through the decades from the most perceptive of royal commentators—from Evelyn Waugh to Zadie Smith—The Crown in Vogue is the definitive, authoritative portrait of Queen Elizabeth II's magnificent reign—and of royalty in the modern age.