Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks

Louis Vuitton: 100 Legendary Trunks -- Trains and steamships transformed transportation in the mid-19th century and opened the world to a new breed of traveler. Louis Vuitton understood the need for more practical luggage, and strove to create products that were adaptable to all situations—and the travel trunk was born.

Authors Pierre Léonforte and Éric Pujalet-Plaà curate 100 of the finest trunks the Louis Vuitton company has produced on commission, including boxes made for movie stars from Douglas Fairbanks to Sharon Stone and couturiers from Jeanne Lanvin to Karl Lagerfeld, as well as cases designed for Ernest Hemingway, Leopold Stokowski, and Damien Hirst. Illustrated with 600 images taken from the Louis Vuitton archives and new photographs made especially for this book, this is the definitive history of personalized objects of both practicality and luxury.

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt

The World of Gloria Vanderbilt -- Gloria Vanderbilt is many things: an heiress, a painter, a muse, a designer, a model, a writer, an entrepreneur, an actor, a socialite, a survivor, an icon. She brought the Vanderbilt name out of the Gilded Age and into the Digital Age, reinventing herself over and over along the way. Hers is a story of charisma, glamour, and heartbreaking loss, told here by Wendy Goodman, who had intimate access to Vanderbilt for this book. The illustrations include portraits of Vanderbilt and her extraordinary homes, filled with original and influential decorating ideas, by such photographic legends as Richard Avedon, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Inge Morath, Horst P. Horst, Francesco Scavullo, and Annie Leibovitz. Vanderbilt’s son, Anderson Cooper, contributes a foreword.

Wendy Goodman is coauthor of Abrams’ Tony Duquette. She is the design editor of New York magazine, a well as contributing editor for Departures magazine and German and French Architectural Digest.

Eternal Chanel

Eternal Chanel -- When Jean Leymarie’s monograph on Coco Chanel was originally published in 1989, he was known primarily as a curator and modern art historian, both in his native France and abroad. Bringing his expertise to bear on one of the most famous (and often controversial) couturiers of all time, Leymarie legitimized fashion as fine art.

Completely redesigned by Philippe Apeloig, Leymarie’s classic volume is back in print once more. Beginning with a brief history of fashion, Leymarie takes the reader through Chanel’s early days, when she mingled with Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, and Luchino Visconti, through the development of her brand after her death by Karl Lagerfeld. A special essay on Lagerfeld’s contribution to the Chanel legacy, written by journalist Marc Lambron, brings this new edition up to date.