Elegance

Marshall Watson’s first book reveals how to make traditional interiors fresh. Known for his meticulously researched, European-inspired style, Marshall Watson creates interiors that are rich in texture, detail, and simple luxuries. In his first book, Watson shares his finest work, demonstrating that while each of these homes is as unique as its owner, they all adhere to principles that transform a mere series of spaces into a genuine, coherent home: warmth; light; peace; comfort; balance; proportion; livability; and last but not least, appropriateness. Whether in an Italianate villa in Los Cabos or a family idyll on a Swedish island, a Gramercy Park apartment that blends shimmer and restraint, or a Newport Beach cottage warmed by walls finished in egg-yolk yellow, Watson explains how he translated each family’s lifestyle and aspirations, the house’s history, and the surrounding environment into a highly original form of elegance—and how anyone can discover his or her own. Beautifully photographed with lavish images of Watson’s work, this inspiring book is a must-have for interior design lovers.

One of today’s eminent tastemakers, Alex Papachristidis is known for arresting, elegant interiors that meld classical motifs with a modern perspective and sophisticated details. This volume pays homage to Papachristidis’s refined sensibility and celebrates Alex Papachristidis Interiors’ twenty-fifth anniversary. Papachristidis has decorated homes for an international clientele—featured projects range from grand New York apartments to idyllic beach houses in the Hamptons and Cape Cod. Inspired by legendary designers such as Renzo Mongiardino and Sister Parish, he is known for wall-to-wall luxury. The hallmark of his style is an unwavering attention to detail, from gilded finishes and stenciled floors to his use of passementerie and creative layering of fabrics for upholstery. Papachristidis’s multifaceted approach and fresh color palette make his rooms the perfect backdrop for glamorous living and an easy elegance. He discusses style strategies such as draping hall tables and hanging matchstick blackout shades beneath bedroom curtains, and he opens his international address book to share favorite resources for fabrics, furniture, and antiques.

The original What Not to Wear from one of fashion's most enduringly stylish women ... Written by French style guru Madame Genevieve Antoine Dariaux, Elegance is a classic style bible for timeless chic, grace, and poise -- every tidbit of advice today's woman could possibly need, all at the tips of her (perfectly manicured) fingers. From Accessories to Zippers, Madame Dariaux imparts her pearls of wisdom on all things fashion-related -- and also offers advice on other crucial areas in life from shopping with girlfriends (don't) to marriage and sex.

The phenomenal New York Times bestseller that “explores the upstairs-downstairs goings-on of a posh Parisian apartment building” (Publishers Weekly). In an elegant hôtel particulier in Paris, Renée, the concierge, is all but invisible—short, plump, middle-aged, with bunions on her feet and an addiction to television soaps. Her only genuine attachment is to her cat, Leo. In short, she’s everything society expects from a concierge at a bourgeois building in an upscale neighborhood. But Renée has a secret: She furtively, ferociously devours art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With biting humor, she scrutinizes the lives of the tenants—her inferiors in every way except that of material wealth. Paloma is a twelve-year-old who lives on the fifth floor. Talented and precocious, she’s come to terms with life’s seeming futility and decided to end her own on her thirteenth birthday. Until then, she will continue hiding her extraordinary intelligence behind a mask of mediocrity, acting the part of an average pre-teen high on pop culture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma and Renée hide their true talents and finest qualities from a world they believe cannot or will not appreciate them. But after a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building, they will begin to recognize each other as kindred souls, in a novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us, and “teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors” (Kirkus Reviews). “The narrators’ kinetic minds and engaging voices (in Alison Anderson’s fluent translation) propel us ahead.” —The New York Times Book Review “Barbery’s sly wit . . . bestows lightness on the most ponderous cogitations.” —The New Yorker

Modern fashion photography was born when three brothers, Parisian postcard photographers, shifted their lenses to the upper echelon of French society in the early twentieth century. As impromptu portraits of beautiful women in inimitable finery at racecourses, resorts, and cafs began to appear in magazines, courant designers such as Chanel, Herms, and Madeleine Vionnet rushed to send their models to posh watering holes to be photographed with the beau monde. The first-ever showcase of 300 rich black and white Seberger images, this luxe collection is a must-have for fashionistas, Francophiles, and vintage clothing enthusiasts. Elegance recalls a bygone era of glamour, and illuminates the candid beginnings of a now highly stylized photographic form.

Elegance represents an important watershed in architectural design. Since the onset of computer-driven technologies, innovative designers have, almost exclusively, been preoccupied with the pursuit of digital techniques. This issue of AD extrapolates current design tendencies and brings them together to present a new type of architecture, one that is seamlessly trying processes, space, structure and material together with beauty. ‘Elegance’ here is cast with a new contemporary meaning as it is applied to work that is effortlessly complex. It is analogous to an elegant algorithm that uses a small amount of initiative code to great effect. In a structure elegance may be expressed by a complex surface that retains its continuity and integrity even when punctured. In many ways, Elegance marks a coming of age for, ‘digital architecture’, as architects become more adept at producing complexity and integrating digital design technologies, production and assembly systems producing elegant solutions. It is the potent finesse that is often associated with the work of Zaha Hadid Architects and other featured architects, such as Mark Goulthorpe of Decoi and Hani Rashid of Asymptote.

What is elegance? Is it a quality of movement or gesture? Or is it rather connected to the way someone dresses up? Can we think of an elegant object or an elegant speech? These questions point at the ambiguity elegance presents any person wanting to reflect on it. The Reconciled Body responds to this challenge by looking at the birthplace of elegance: a subject’s experience. From movement consciousness to dreaming, from attention to the upright posture, this book presents the reader with first-person moments that are fundamental in shaping someone’s intimate sense of elegance. In the end, the reader is invited to reflect on the value of elegance and its potential in reconfiguring someone’s I-world relation: is it worth opposing the nature of consciousness to experience the self and other in a radically different manner? *** Simionescu’s brilliant formula on elegance conveys a sense of measure and a self-limitation in one’s unconventional conducts, fulfilling the characteristic, albeit subtle, moral nuance carried by the meaning of the word “elegance.” Following the main methodological rule of classical phenomenology, and at the same time drawing on contemporary research about embodiment and movement, the author finds his way to “material” axiology by a bottom-up analysis of the intuitive, lived matter of this value, laying the foundations of a phenomenology of elegance. (Roberta de Monticelli)

Now out in Paperback! How To Be Chic and Elegant was first published as an ebook in November 2011. The Kindle version fast became a cult classic and has not been out of the top rankings in its categories since February 2012. Marie-Anne Lecoeur, The French Chic Expert and French author of "Pear Shape", "Plus Size" and "The Tidy Closet", gives you over 200 simple tips in this book that will propel you to sidewalk model in no time at all. Here are just a few of the subjects covered: The principles of French elegance, The secrets of achieving a French Woman's Style, Over 200 TIPS to attain that Chic Look, Which clothes to avoid at all costs. Many women are crying out for the secrets of effortless French Chic. Here, in one small book, you have those secrets and more besides.This book is direct and straightforward, with no waffle or padding. Apply the tips right away, and literally see results in the mirror immediately. Save money on impulse purchases and learn to sharpen your style eye. Follow this French Author's simple instructions and start hearing the compliments roll in! Adopt the timeless style of Chic French women today.