Blahnik By Boman

Blahnik by Boman is a brilliant photographic collaboration between shoe designer extraordinaire Manolo Blahnik and his close friend, photographer Eric Boman. In over 160 photographs, Blahnik's exquisite, luxurious and impossibly sexy shoes take centre stage in a dazzling array of settings, perfectly set off by Boman's unerring eye and uncanny empathy with Blahnik's creations. Almost as covetable as a pair of Manolos, this is a beautifully produced book of consummate creativity, addictive power and unrivailed individuality.

Now available at a new price, this is the first comprehensive volume dedicated to documenting the influences and life work of Manolo Blahnik, one of the most influential and talked-about icons in contemporary fashion. Featuring more than forty years of shoe design, this is the definitive monograph of the work of Manolo Blahnik, one of the titans of contemporary fashion. Drawing inspiration from the worlds of architecture, art, film, and literature, Blahnik is a master of the art of the shoe. His exciting use of color, unprecedented designs, and exquisitely sculpted heels make his shoes some of the most coveted in the world. Featuring more than 250 iconic designs from his archive, the book reveals for the very first time the inspirations behind his singular artistic vision. This book is conceived as a comprehensive survey of Blahnik’s work and provides access to never- before-seen photography of his designs. With insightful chapters devoted to Blahnik’s most powerful relationships and inspirations—including Marie Antoinette, Diana Vreeland, Cecil Beaton, Spanish and Italian film, the works of Goya and Velázquez and the Prado Museum—this book is a personal look into the man behind the shoes. Beautiful photography and thoughtful essays and conversations by fashion writers, curators, and colleagues give readers a unique opportunity to access Blahnik’s vivid and creative world.

A true original: this lavishly photographed book captures the style of American fashion maverick Iris Apfel, who, over the past 40 years, has cultivated a personal chic that is exuberantly idiosyncratic.

Through a playful series of alphabetical vignettes, Manolo Blahník reveals his ideas and inspirations in newly photographed examples of shoes and whimsical drawings. The shoes of Manolo Blahník have been called “magical totems of success and femininity” (The Guardian) and boast a cult following of devotees the world over. With their sleek elegance and distinctive fashion edge, “Manolos” are at once fascinating and timeless, their design a beautiful combination of chic, playfulness, and flair. This book explores the creativity and influences of this modern master through an alphabetical chronicle of the designer’s loves and inspiration. Blahník’s alphabet gives insight into the art and craftsmanship of shoemaking and includes whimsical musings on his relationships with figures such as Anna Piaggi, Loulou de la Falaise, and Diana Vreeland; the inspiration he draws from works by Goya, Zurbarán, Picasso, Barbara Hepworth, and Zaha Hadid; and his admiration for fellow designers such as Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent. These highly personal anecdotes—drawn from conversations between Blahník and the author and accompanied by original sketches and new photography—offer the reader a rare opportunity to learn the vision behind the shoes as told by a fashion legend. The book— which will accompany a traveling global exhibition— is introduced by an illustrated essay, which describes the designer’s illustrious forty-five-year career in the fashion industry.

An extraordinary paper doll’s house enhanced here by evocative photographs of Miss Otis’s late 19th-century life, which will delight lovers of art and interior design as well as children In 1884, a remarkable twelve-year-old girl made a paper doll’s house. While these were fashionable enough at the time, they were usually drawn and painted. Miss Sarah Elizabeth Birdsall Otis, however, chose the medium of collage: scraps of wallpaper, gilded trim, colored-in cut-outs of furniture, and engravings from mail-order catalogs, all glued down unselfconsciously in book form with no regard for scale or realism. What makes the album so special is its creator’s stunning, innate artistry. She also populated her house with paper dolls, their delightful cut-out costumes preserved in envelopes marked with the names of the characters and their accessories stored in paper squares marked “Hats and Bonnets” or “Umbrellas and Parasols.” Eric Boman’s photographs capture Miss Otis’s vivid fantasy world in all its quirky splendor. Exploring the household, from the conservatory, parlor, and library to the dining room and bedrooms, the images portray a domain of astonishing color and aesthetic daring. Context is provided by period photographs depicting the era of Miss Otis’s privileged Long Island life. The twelve-year-old girl grew up to become a formidable personality, a playwright, and a president of the Girl Scouts. Here, her youthful creativity is celebrated in a format guaranteed to appeal to adults and children alike.

Lost Desserts is lavish, elegant, and evocative of other times and worlds, with new photographs by Eric Boman illustrating 30 of the 75 recipes and including memorbilia of menus, logos, and other ephemera from the heyday of some of such beloved restaurants The Brown Derby, Blum's, and La Pyramide,. Organized by such conceptual categories as "Lost Hollywood, " "Lost Tradition," and "Old World Elegance," to name a few, the book will also have an appendix in which all recipes are cross-referenced according to type of dessert. The 75 recipes featured will be adapted to work for the home cook and tweaked for the modern palate to taste as good as they looked and are remembered. The book will feature recipes from the decadent, such as The Four Season'"Fancy Cake" , the Ritz Carlton's Fruit Flambee Jubilee and Romanoff's Baked Alaska, to more sober delights like Chasen's Banana Shortcake or Laserre's Profiteroles. Desserts featured will run the gamut from cakes, tarts, pies, petit fours, ice cream and sorbet concoctions to fruit desserts, fools, souffles, custards, meringues, creams, crepes, waffles and bavarians. Each recipe is prefaced by an informative and entertaining header giving the dessert's history and importance.

Originally born in Algeria, Yves Saint Laurent moved to Paris when he was 18, and only three years later he was handpicked by Christian Dior to take the reins as designer of his fashion house. Over time, Saint Laurent resurrected haute couture from the casual mores that predominated in the 1960s, but also offered chic cachet to ready-to-wear clothing. He was among the earliest of designers to incorporate non-European references into his work, and in 1983 he became the first living designer to be feted with a solo exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Vogue on Yves Saint Laurent is a stellar volume in the series from the editors of British Vogue, featuring 20,000 words of original biography and history and studded with more than 80 images from their unique archive of images taken by leading photographers.