JRME GAUTIER

THE VOCABULARY OF STYLE

INTRODUCTION

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHS SOMETIMES carry markers that identify them with a particular moment in time. But images featuring Coco Chanel herself clearly transcend such limitations. The woman who succeeded in representing the aesthetic of her time her times through her collections, and by making a name for herself wearing her own creations, will always be modern. Chanel as a fashion icon embodied her own ideal, and the magazine images of her have crystallized the memory of a woman whose style is eternal. It is not always easy, in fact, to ascribe an accurate date to the various portraits taken by Man Ray, Horst P. Horst or Cecil Beaton. These images look perfectly in keeping alongside contemporary images, in which young women of today are shown wearing Chanel: such juxtapositions rather than inviting retrospection demonstrate that time has absolutely no impact on Chanels spiritual legacy, which is now in very good hands. Since 1983, Karl Lagerfeld has been directing the company with holy opportunism (un opportunisme saint, to use his own phrase). Avoiding easy tributes to the brand he has enlivened it by skilfully and subtly uniting past and present the spirit of the 1980s as well as the 2010s. He has introduced modernity, adjusting the image of the brand by emphasizing even more strongly the classic Chanel identifiers that make Mademoiselles remarkable lexicon ever more universal. The tweed suit, the quilted bag, the little black dress: authentic or not, these are the elements that are signified instantly, throughout the world, by the word Chanel. There have been a great many works devoted to describing Coco Chanels extraordinary life and her exemplary career, but as yet none has explored her fashion revolutions in visual terms or highlighted the ongoing stylistic dialogue between Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. The aim of this book is to bring together the vocabulary of style as seen by the most famous photographers in the world. These images trace its essential themes, from the first jersey suits to those for which she chose tweed, by way of her pauper hats and the little black dress. This style works today precisely because it was created by a woman who knew early on how to defy the conventions of her time and so showed herself to be thoroughly modern.

LEFT GEORGE HOYNINGEN-HUENE 1933

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LEFT WILLY RIZZO 1960

ABOVE PAOLO ROVERSI 1994

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ABOVE EDWARD STEICHEN 1926

RIGHT PAOLO ROVERSI 1996

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ABOVE MAX VADUKUL 1992

RIGHT ALBERT WATSON 1986

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ABOVE LACHLAN BAILEY 2007 RIGHT GIOVANNI GASTEL 1991 PAGES 14849 CAMILLA KRANS 2010

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ABOVE ARTHUR ELGORT 1991 RIGHT PAOLO ROVERSI 1985 PAGE 182 MARIO SORRENTI 2009 PAGE 183 DOMINIQUE ISSERMANN 1994

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LEFT ARTHUR ELGORT 1993

ABOVE TERRY RICHARDSON 2001

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CHANEL
THE VOCABULARY OF StYLE
JRME GAUtIER

JRME GAUTIER

CHAPtER 1 CHAPtER 2 CHAPtER 3 CHAPtER 4 CHAPtER 5 CHAPtER 6 CHAPtER 7 CHAPtER 8 CHAPtER 9 CHAPtER 10 CHAPtER 11

cONtENtS INtRODUctiON THE BODY LibERAtED LittLE BLAcK DRESSES BLAcK iNtO NiGHt BAROQUE INSPiRAtiONS 31, RUE CAMbON YOUtH AND EVOLUtiON SiMPLE CHic ANDROGYNE FROM TWEED tO TWEEDS THE TOtAL LOOK REbEL cREDitS

The ultimate denition of Chanels style, seen through the lens of the modern greats of fashion photography Coco Chanel created a look for her era and beyond. She was, without doubt, the most inuential fashion designer of the twentieth century, years ahead of her time. Chanels inuence is honoured here by celebrating the key elements that dened and still dene her style for every generation, through inspired pairings of classic and contemporary photographs. Putting together fashion plates from Chanels own time with the most recent contemporary creations by the houses visionary designer-in-chief, Karl Lagerfeld, the resonance between archive and contemporary photographs becomes sharp, vibrant and telling. The vocabulary of Chanels style the little black dress, baroque inspirations, androgynous chic is revealed and interpreted in eleven chapters that compare original forms in the 1920s and 1930s with the full range of their later expressions through every fashion era up to today. Chanels legendary fashion house continues to exert a powerful inuence over the imagination of todays designers and to captivate a huge and growing audience with an insatiable appetite for one of fashions undisputed style perennials.

THE VOCABULARY OF STYLE

THE fEAtURED PHOtOGRAPHERS ARE:

BERENicE AbbOtt CAMiLLA AKRANS MERt ALAS & MARcUS PiGGOtt DAViD ARMStRONG RicHARD AVEDON LAcHLAN BAiLEY PiERRE BAiLLY LAURiE BARtLEY CEciL BEAtON GiLLES BENSiMON CEDRic BUcHEt HENRY CLARKE CORiNNE DAY PAtRicK DEMARcHELiER GLEb DERUJiNSKY LUiGi DiAZ HORSt DiEKGERDES ARtHUR ELGORt SEbAStiAN FAENA SANtE FORLANO GiOVANNi GAStEL NAtHANiEL GOLDbERG HORSt P. HORSt DOUGLAS KiRKLAND GEORGE HOYNiNGEN-HUENE DOMiNiQUE ISSERMANN DANiEL JAcKSON KAYt JONES ARt KANE WiLLiAM KLEiN NicK KNiGHt FRANOiS KOLLAR KARL LAGERfELD SERGE LEbLON ANNiE LEibOVitZ ALEXANDER LibERMAN PEtER LiNDbERGH BORiS LiPNitSKY MAN RAY CRAiG McDEAN ALASDAiR McLELLAN HELMUt NEWtON IRViNG PENN HERb RittS WiLLY RiZZO PAOLO ROVERSi DAViD SiMS CARtER SMitH MELViN SOKOLSKY MARiO SORRENti EDWARD StEicHEN SLVE SUNDSb JUERGEN TELLER MARiO TEStiNO MAX VADUKUL WiLLY VANDERPERRE INEZ VAN LAMSWEERDE & ViNOODH MAtADiN ELLEN VON UNWERtH TiM WALKER ALbERt WAtSON BRUcE WEbER

This sales blad contains uncorrected proofs of sample pages (actual size and in miniature). The full specication for the book itself is: Trimmed page size: 32.0 x 24.0 cm Hardback 304 pages with 211 illustrations in colour and black and white ISBN 978-0-500-51581-5 65.00
(price subject to change without notice)

Thames & Hudson

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