Francois Catroux

This first volume on François Catroux is a comprehensive consideration of the work and life of an international master of interior design. François Catroux is an innovator and explorer in interior design, who has always been a master of contemporary style. From his early days as a design prodigy, creating space-age boutiques for a house of couture and apartments that drew from Art Deco and modern design, to chic, mirror-studded interiors rich with glamour and elegant refinement in residences in Hong Kong, New York, and London, Catroux is at home in the vast world of design. His spaces may surprise with the introduction of irregular elements—a chandelier of elk horn or pink florescent lighting in a hallway—but Catroux’s hallmark sensibility combines the majesty and grandeur of high ceilings, elegant moldings, and gossamer draperies with elements that suggest comfort and tasteful, restrained opulence. Go-to accoutrements include sumptuous sofas, rich carpeting, gentle lighting, rooms lined with books, and ship staterooms in warm wood paneling with brass lamps, all measured according to a modern eye. This book looks at Catroux’s career chronologically, featuring his first projects in 1968 through his latest, completed only this year, and includes the interiors of houses and apartments around the globe, from Paris to New York, Hong Kong to Los Angeles. Luxuriously photographed, this volume is more than just a design monograph on one of the great, and so far relatively untold, careers in the history of design—it is also a lively and intimate read about a life lived in great style.

Most decorating books focus on one designer; the rest focus on one period, one trend, one room. This book, for the first time, has the big picture: ALL the names everybody must know from the entire 100-year history of interior design. Each designer is profiled and illustrated with three to four photographs of their best work; what we can learn from them--and how they changed decorating forever--is clearly highlighted to catch the eye.

The first monograph on the work of renowned twentieth-century British decorator and antiques dealer Geoffrey Bennison. Geoffrey Bennison (1921–1984) ranks among England’s most influential designers, defying conventional notions of style to conjure up magnificent settings for discerning clients who loved his theatrical and romantic sensibility. The master of the layered look, he used antique textiles with his own fabrics to achieve a complex mix of scale, pattern, and color in inventive shades such as his evocative Red Riding Hood Red and Prussian Blue. His talent for combining eclectic objects, his unerring eye, and his deep knowledge of antiques earned him a reputation for sophisticated originality equaled by very few. Even today, leading designers turn to Bennison for inspiration. This lavish volume opens with an illuminating text about Bennison’s fascinating history—from his early days at the Slade School of Art and his work as an antiques dealer in London during the swinging sixties to his later career as an interior designer. All of Bennison’s interiors are showcased, from magnificent country estates and retreats to elegantly appointed apartments and townhouses filled with priceless French and English furniture and curiosities, making this book a must-have for design lovers.

How They Decorated illustrates some of the great rooms of the twentieth century, whose stylish residents influence our tastes today. Gloria Vanderbilt cleverly noted, “Decorating is autobiography.” Reflecting that truism, the interiors in this book capture the individual approaches of these icons of style: Bunny Mellon’s spare all-American elegance; Hélène Rochas’s refined sophistication; Vanessa Bell’s colorful bohemianism; Mona von Bismarck’s breezy opulence; and Georgia O’Keeffe’s earthy chic. Author P. Gaye Tapp analyzes each of her subjects’ refined way of living, how she embellished her residences (or left them elegantly stark), and the long-lasting effects on today’s generation of designers and connoisseurs of beauty. The book is presented in four sections that describe the aesthetic approaches that the ladies took in decorating their abodes: “The Fashionably Chic”, “The Unconventional Eye”, “In the Grand Manner”, and “Legacy Style”. Each interior illustrates the crucial aspect of the lady’s definitive taste. Some worked closely with decorating legends such as John Fowler, Albert Hadley, Billy Baldwin, Syrie Maugham, and Jean-Michel Frank. Others took to the task of decorating single-handedly—like Pauline Trigère, Sybil Connolly, Vita Sackville-West, and Fleur Cowles. The interiors of these trendsetting ladies defied their time and inspire and delight to this day. In How They Decorated, one can learn from the most notable style muses of the last century.

A 100-year visual history of the magazine, showcasing the work of top interior designers and architects, and the personal spaces of numerous celebrities. Architectural Digest at 100 celebrates the best from the pages of the international design authority. The editors have delved into the archives and culled years of rich material covering a range of subjects. Ranging freely between present and past, the book features the personal spaces of dozens of private celebrities like Barack and Michelle Obama, David Bowie, Truman Capote, David Hockney, Michael Kors, and Diana Vreeland, and includes the work of top designers and architects like Frank Gehry, David Hicks, India Mahdavi, Peter Marino, John Fowler, Renzo Mongiardino, Oscar Niemeyer, Axel Vervoordt, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Elsie de Wolfe. Also included are stunning images from the magazine’s history by photographers such as Bill Cunningham, Horst P. Horst, Simon Upton, Francois Dischinger, Francois Halard, Julius Shulman, and Oberto Gili. “The book is really a survey of how Americans have lived—and how American life has changed—over the past 100 years.” ?Los Angeles Times “A Must-Have Book!” ?Interior Design Magazines “Written in the elevated quality that only the editors of Architectural Digest can master so well, AD at 100: A Century of Style is the world’s newest guide to the best and brightest designs to inspire your next big home project.” ?The Editorialist

"Betty Catroux, Yves Saint Laurent's female double, embodies in the couturier's eyes the androgynous woman and a certain feminine ideal. She personified, better than anyone else, the fascinating enigma of Saint Laurent and his long silhouettes, celebrated around the world and immune to passing trends. One of his closest friends, she was the only model able to keep prototypes of each collection. A collection she just donated to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum 1,200 pieces (clothing and accessories). This book presents photographs from the museum's collections and Betty Catroux's personal collection, selected by Anthony Vaccarello." -- Website.

Loulou de la Falaise is the first monograph to celebrate the life and work of the style icon and muse to Yves Saint Laurent who became the embodiment of French chic. Renowned for her bohemian chic, daring style as well as for her lightness, nonchalance, and humor, Loulou de la Falaise was not only an influential fashion icon but also a breath of fresh air to the world of Parisian haute couture. The Anglo-French beauty assisted the designer Halston and modeled briefly for Diana Vreeland’s Vogue before moving to Paris in 1972 to work alongside the iconic designer Yves Saint Laurent. A true original, her sense of color and fantasy and her attitude would energize the mythic house and fashion in general. For almost forty years, de la Falaise would forge her professional reputation designing extraordinary jewelry and accessories both for Yves Saint Laurent as well as for her own line. This elegant volume is a life in pictures, with over 400 images by legendary contemporary photographers, from Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon to Steven Meisel and Bettina Rheims, as well as an essay by Pierre Bergé and interviews with Loulou intimates such as Betty Catroux, Inès de la Fressange, Diane von Furstenberg, Christian Louboutin, Elsa Peretti, Paloma Picasso, André Leon Talley, and Oscar de la Renta. A celebrated style icon from the ’60s until her death, Loulou's appetite and flair for fashion continues to be an inspiration today.

From the editors of Elle Decor comes a richly illustrated overview of the quintessential French style of home design and decorating, featuring an array of interiors, ranging from the eclectic to classic chic, that represent the influences, principles, and work of distinguished designers in eight chapters focusing on distinctive styles. 20,000 first printing.