Mauries Patrick Livres

When Jean Cocteau first met Picasso during the First World War, he was so eager to impress that he arrived at the brilliant young Spaniard's studio dressed as a harlequin. This anecdote says a great deal about Cocteau, one of the century's great modernists. Picasso went on to incorporate the harlequin into some of his greatest cubist paintings, an example of Cocteau's silent mediation in so many of the decisive moments within 20th-century modernism. Cocteau's own assumption of the role of the harlequin also says much about his own dazzling, but often ambiguous character, an image of the artist captured in Patrick Mauries' short illustrated biography, Jean Cocteau . Mauries' book is a fine reflection of Cocteau's own artistic career--a slight, beautiful, poetic book, made up of a short allusive biographical essay, supplemented by illustrations of Cocteau, his friends, his lovers, and his art. Mauries' biography offers very little not already covered in Francis Steegmuller's classic work, Cocteau: A Biography , and tends to drift into speculation on Cocteau's relationship with his father and his slavery to fashion, while lacking a stronger sense of chronology and his development as an artist. However, the book is saved by a wonderfully idiosyncratic collection of illustrations, which emphasise the highly personal nature of Mauries' study. Photographs of Cocteau sculpting with pipe-cleaners, and Jean Marais erotically clad in strips of cloth artfully knotted by Coco Chanel for the performance of Oedipe Roi , offer a strangely poignant reflection of the artist's own career: elegant, enchanting, intense and erotic, yet strangely frustrating, and often produced with the hope of media exposure never far away. Mauries' book may not be the most comprehensive introduction to Cocteau, but it offers aficionados a telling perspective on one of the greats of French modernism. -- Jerry Brotton

Le sol inondé, à certaines périodes de l'année, d'un café vénitien, sous les Procuraties ; le service de porcelaine blanc et orangé du café Greco à Rome ; les murs de miroirs et de mogano, acajou sombre et poli, du Baratti à Turin... C'est à la fascination pour ces endroits immatériels, transitoires par essence, que ce petit livre veut donner corps. Le sol inondé, à certaines périodes de l'année, d'un café vénitien, sous les Procuraties ; le service de porcelaine blanc et orangé du café Greco à Rome ; les murs de miroirs et de mogano, acajou sombre et poli, du Baratti à Turin... C'est à la fascination pour ces endroits immatériels, transitoires par essence, que ce petit livre veut donner corps. En brassant, sans fausse pudeur, réminiscences, descriptions, anecdotes, bavardages - sinon médisances - sur des rites perdus, des boissons merveilleuses, des muphtis d'Arabie, des amoureux lunatiques et des excentriques de toutes sortes, parmi lesquels le regretté Tabacchino, chien, amateur de café, dont l'émouvant éloge funèbre, qu'on lira ici, fut justement prononcé dans le lieu qu'il hanta, l'air gourmand, le regard vide, une vie durant.

Créateur parmi les plus marquants et les plus fertiles du moment, ne cessant d'inventer et de se réinventer, Christian Lacroix est aussi, par formation et par goût, un véritable érudit de l'histoire de la mode et du costume. Invité par Les Arts Décoratifs à célébrer les vingt ans de son parcours et de la création de sa maison, il a choisi de sortir du cadre traditionnel de la rétrospective pour s'aventurer, de longs mois durant, dans les réserves du musée et en reporter à la lumière tous les vêtements historiques ou de créateurs qui lui semblaient remarquables. Regroupés par thèmes, ces vêtements, distingués à ses yeux par tel détail de coupe, de texture ou de motif, sont mis en regard, ou en dialogue, avec ses propres créations, créant un fascinant jeu d'échos et de rebonds entre le présent et le passé.

Erik Desmazieres is acknowledged as a contemporary master of the art of etching. This book locates Desmazieres and his work in the long tradition of artist-printmakers, surveys the world of 17th-century antiquarianism and its intriguing cast of characters; and examines today's reawakened interest in cabinets of rarities and curiosities.

“Glorious . . . almost as good as owning one of the things themselves.”― The World of Interiors Piero Fornasetti lived and worked in Milan from 1935 until his death in 1988. During this long career he established an enduring reputation as a designer with a style that was distinctly his own―a style based on illusion, architectural perspectives, and a host of personal leitmotifs, such as the sun, playing cards, fish, and flowers, from which he spun seemingly endless variations.Fornasetti applied his decorative vocabulary to an astonishing array of objects―hats, vests, pipes, ashtrays, chairs, plates, cabinets, pianos, ocean liners―and transformed them by the application of unexpected images.Today his work seems more contemporary and is more popular than ever. Designers and collectors celebrate his use of allusion, unsettling images, and striking juxtaposition to create unique, whimsical objects. Fornasetti’s masterpieces continue to shock, delight, and inspire. 116 color and 484 black-and-white photographs and illustrations

Karl Lagerfeld’s world-famous cat dispenses essential advice on lifestyle, diet, fashion, beauty, and international travel for the uber-fashionable feline. Choupette—the constant feline companion of designer Karl Lagerfeld, creative director at Chanel—is a celebrity pet like no other. She has it all, from her own iPad to private jet service. She eats from Goyard silver seated next to Karl at the table, has been immortalized in Tokidoki figurines with the Kaiser, and has inspired his couture collections. "I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat," Mr. Lagerfeld said in a CNN interview. Choupette delivers words of wisdom to her 37,000+ Twitter devotees, but here, for the first time, she shares her complete lifestyle guide. Humorously themed chapters cover diet, beauty, healthcare, fashion tips, secret loves and pet hates for the pampered cat, along with observations and advice from Madame Horn (her vet), and Madame Françoise (her lady’s maid). Photographs taken by Karl himself include his Sacred Cat of Burma on fashion shoots with Laetitia Casta and Linda Evangelista. The book is completed with drawings, poetry, and photographs of literary cat-lovers including Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Saul Steinberg, Dorothy Parker, and Edward Gorey. This season’s most talked-about cat book is the perfect chic gift for cat lovers, the fashion-conscious, and style-aware readers.

Now available in paperback, Jewelry by Chanel explores one of the many sides of Coco Chanel, a creature of contrasts whose legacy continues to intrigue her admirers. There was the Chanel of the most sumptuous baroque, of dazzling, playful, unrestrained jewelry, of diamonds and emeralds shimmering like stars, and there was the Chanel of the tailored suit and the little black dress, of the severe cut, the strand of pearls, of classicism ala francaise. Out of this dialogue between hyperbole and understatement, and in counterpoint to the costume jewelry that she gave to the world, she created jewelry that was unparalleled in its insistence on luxury and refinement and unfettered in its imagination. Her jewelry presents one of the least known aspects of her work. With more than 120 illustrations and based on archival research and interviews with Chanel's colleagues and other witnesses to her life and career, Jewelry by Chanel is the first book to present this remarkable facet of a truly fascinating character.

The best-selling Chanel Catwalk was the first book to gather every Chanel collection ever created by Karl Lagerfeld in a single volume - a unique opportunity to chart the development of one of the world's most influential fashion brands and discover rarely seen collections. Now fully updated (with twenty-two new collections) and concluding with Lagerfeld's final collection for the house, the book will be a lasting tribute to Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel. 0 This definitive publication opens with a concise history of Karl Lagerfeld's time at Chanel and a brief biographical profile of the designer. It goes on to explore the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images, showcasing hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs - and of course the top fashion models who wore them on the runway. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes the book

A smart, sophisticated compendium of fashion’s most trenchant quotes, from Oscar Wilde to Kanye West, with color illustrations specially hand-drawn by Christian Lacroix The fashion world has long been celebrated for its scintillating salon wit. The sharpest tongues and quickest repartee has always sprung from the lips of fashion royalty. From Oscar Wilde to Miuccia Prada, fashion’s words of wisdom have become our daily bread. Fashion Quotes compiles hundreds of the snappiest quotations, selected from over three centuries: from the society beaux of the eighteenth century and the literary wits of the nineteenth century to the celebrity elite of the twentieth century and today’s hippest Twitterati. Christian Lacroix has gilded the pages with creative inspiration, his illustrations perfectly expressing the color and panache that we expect from fashion’s finest. The collection is divided into quotations from different spheres, including: Elegance, Shoes, Taste, The Little Black Dress, Dandyism, High Heels, The Cleavage, Eccentricity, Fashion Follies, and Vanity. Fashion Quotes will be the must-have gift for every fashionista and aspiring wit, or for anyone looking for the ultimate cheeky pick-me-up, whip-crack wisdom, or poisonous punchline.