Founded in 1780 in Paris, Chaumet quickly made history by becoming the official jeweller to Empress Josephine, soon turning the house into the most sought-after jeweller in Europe with a loyal and prestigious clientele, from empresses and queens to Maharajas. Tiaras, as social symbols and fashion accessories, are Chaumet's speciality and were particularly sought after throughout the centuries - from historical pieces created for royalty to strikingly modern Art Deco pieces crafted for wealthy 1920s flappers. Rarely seen and exhibited, the tiaras illustrated in this book are presented thematically ('Nature', 'Skies', 'Graphic Lines' and 'Power') and are introduced by two short essays: V&A jewelry curator Clare Phillips examines the history of tiaras through the centuries, while fashion expert Natasha Fraser focuses on their role in the history of fashion. Presented in a luxurious, slipcased package, Chaumet: Tiaras is a unique tribute to that most elite of jewels. It will be a must-have reference for lovers of luxury and high jewelry.

Under the direction of the renowned milliner Stephen Jones, who has been working with Dior since 1996, this book explores Dior s relationship with the art and craft of creating hats. Christian Dior himself, who began his career by designing headpieces, wrote in his Little Dictionary of Fashion: A hat is essential to any outfit. It completes it. In a way, a hat is the best way to express your personality. Published on the occasion of the 2020 exhibition at the Musee Christian Dior in Granville, France, this sophisticated illustrated volume celebrates more than 70 years of exquisite creations. Opening with a focus on hats designed by the legendary couturier Christian Dior, the book develops to include the headdress created by the house over the years, exploring its pieces by styles, shapes, and inspirations from floral and exotic to masculine, traditional, or romantic. Dior hats have always been expressions of sophistication, from the first millineries that were part of the New Look silhouette, to the Venetian masks imagined by Yves Saint Laurent, the exquisite toques by Marc Bohan, the dramatic boaters by Gianfranco Ferre, the flamboyant and extravagant realizations by John Galliano, the graphic neck bow by Raf Simons, and the romantic designs by Maria Grazia Chiuri. Stephen Jones reviews such fashion history and reflects on his prolific relationship with the house. His insightful texts are accompanied by contributions by fashion specialists Alexander Fury, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, and Florence Muller, and enlivened by drawings and photographs from Dior s archives, shots by the most famed fashion photographers of the last decades, such as Richard Avedon, Erwin Blumenfeld, Mario Testino, and special, never-before-published images by Solve Sundsbo.

A collection of the lavish and iconic gowns of Christian Dior, from the 1950s and '60s, captured by the legendary photographer Mark Shaw. Iconic photographer Mark Shaw documented the ultra-exclusive Parisian fashion world, focusing on Paris's long-standing top couturier Christian Dior. Shaw's photographs-some of the first fashion photographs ever shot in color-capture the most stunning and extraordinary fashion of the era. This lavish volume embodies the glamour of that time, from rare moments of Christian Dior during fittings to editorial-style photographs of models, socialites, and actresses posing in Dior's ballgowns, day suits, and haute couture collections. Shaw's photojournalistic style changed fashion photography forever: his approach was to photograph wide, giving the subject a sense of context, creating an environment as exquisitely transformative as the subject and garment. With an eye for intimacy and opulence, this book features more than 200 color and black-and-white photographs, many never published before, having only recently been found in a secret vault by his estate. Dior Glamour: 1952-1962 captures the drama and elegance of the period's style and will be treasured by lovers of photography, fashion, style, history, and cultured living.

Monsieur Dior: Once Upon A Time is an exlusive behind-the-scenes look into the ten years Christian Dior ran his esteemed house. As women were starved for glamor following World War II, Dior's New Look was revolutionary in bringing femininity back to fashion with a bold use of fabric and silhouetted lines. In the short time he ran the house, Dior rose to superstardom and managed to expand his empire to perfumes, jewelry, and hosiery while opening boutiques all over the world. Author Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni interviewed dozens of people who had a direct relationship with the fashion designer such as Jacqueline de Ribes, Olivia de Havilland, John Fairchild, Pierre Cardin, Victoire Doutreleau, and many others, including his vendeuses or saleswomen, society clients, models, and muses, giving readers unique intimate insight into how this captivating house operated. With dazzling images by photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lord Snowdon, and Willy Maywald, as well as never-before-seen materials from the Dior Archives, this account is a fresh and surprising view into the House of Dior and life of its brillant founder. Monsieur Dior: Once Upon A Time is elegantly presented in a Dior grey box with silver tissue paper and a grosgrain bookmark.

Explore the varied and incredibly chic residences crafted by internationally acclaimed decorator Tino Zervudachi in his first monograph, Tino Zervudachi: A Portfolio, written by Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. Named one of Architectural Digest s 100 top decorators of 2011, Tino applies his unfaltering and flawless design to projects as diverse and all-encompassing as a Parisian chateau, a Swiss chalet, a zen refuge in Tokyo, a Mediterranean villa, and even a 45-meter long yacht, with a result that is never short of breath-taking. Tino s respect for the individual personality and cultural environment of each space he decorates, and his fearless ability to splash a room with a bold color, or to accent it with a striking piece of contemporary art, makes his work unparalleled. With a foreword by the internationally esteemed interior decorator and Tino s mentor, David Mlinaric, a preface by Lindy, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, and dazzling images of Tino s high-profile interiors, Tino Zervudachi: A Portfolio presents an immaculate and inspiring collection of understated glamour that will leave you longing for more."

A tortured genius and one of most influential designers of the twentieth century,Yves Saint Laurent was responsible for revolutionising the way women dressedand viewed themselves. During a wildly creative career stretching from 1958 to2002 Saint Laurent established a reputation for accessible, flawlessly cut clothes.He became an overnight sensation in 1958, aged 21, when he showed his 'Trapeze'collection, his first for the House of Christian Dior, following the master's death.Four years later, Saint Laurent opened his own couture house and within a fewseasons was hailed by Vogue's Diana Vreeland as 'the pied piper of fashion'.Viewed as a master colourist and admired for his choice of sultry fabrics,his great gift was creating lasting styles - described by Vogue as 'stockpiles ofessentials in times of famine' - that flattered all shapes and sizes. As well asdesigning wardrobe classics like the 'Le Smoking' tuxedo for women, the Safarijacket, the trench and the pea coat, and introducing trousers into haute couture,he also dressed international style icons such as Catherine Deneuve, MarellaAgnelli and Lauren Bacall. With his nose for the zeitgeist, Saint Laurent recognisedthe global power of street fashion and launched Rive Gauche, his ready-to-wearboutique line in 1966. Christened 'The Saint' by Vogue, every element of his fashionempire, which included exhilarating couture collections, exquisite accessories andsought-after perfumes, was captured by Vogue's writers and leading photographerslike Richard Avedon, David Bailey and Norman Parkinson.

Drawing inspiration from Indonesia's rich heritage, fashion designer Biyan Wanaatmadja's first book is a master class in ethereal elegance. Indonesia's most celebrated fashion designer, Biyan Wanaatmadja, learned his craft in Germany at M. Muller and Sohn and in England at the London College of Fashion before returning to Indonesia to launch his acclaimed label BIYAN. Combining classic and sophisticated tailoring with a profound appreciation for the handcrafting traditions of his home country such as batik, weaving, and embroidery, Biyan creates a feminine, fairy-tale-like look that is at once romantic, captivating, and modern. Refined and enchanting, this book serves as a gorgeous introduction to the singular oeuvre of the lauded designer and will be a must-have for fashion lovers.

The incredible life and times of Hollywood's most iconoclastic producer, the miracle worker who went from penniless refugee to show biz legend, and made possible "The African Queen, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia, " not to speak of many more, including movies as distinct as "Suddenly, Last Summer; Nicholas and Alexandra; The Last Tycoon;" and "Betrayal;" all of them sharing the unique vision that earned Spiegel twenty-five Oscars: star-filled, bigger-than-life, conceived on a vast scale, intensely dramatic, and overwhelmingly ambitious.

In this rich and brilliant biography, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, who had the advantage of knowing and working for Spiegel, brings into sharp focus a Hollywood legend who was at once crafty, unscrupulous, mendacious, and equally capable of great charm and petty meanness, who was sentimental and ruthless, a shrewd judge of talent, a gambler on a colossal scale, a man of almost unique artistic vision and courage who was, in the final analysis, that most elusive and rare of movie producers, a genius.

The story of a how a Jewish refugee without a penny to his name managed to produce several of the greatest films of all time is alone worth telling, but Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni has done more; she has drawn the definitive portrait of the man himself -- the elusive, witty, cynical adventurer who, like so many refugees, was able to live, succeed, and raise money everywhere, but who was at home nowhere. Spiegel surrounded himself with luxury and beautiful women but remained a loner despite his countless friends.

Spiegel was mysterious about his origins, prompting Arthur Miller to refer to him as "The Great Gatsby." In reality, he was born of middle-class Jewish parents in the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Raised in Jaroslav, in western Galicia, Spiegel left home in his late teens and quickly became a hero of the Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth movement.

Step by step, with immense research and a vast number of interviews, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni recreates the world of Sam Spiegel's childhood and youth, separating often self-serving fiction from fact. She follows Spiegel's dramatic flight from the Nazis in Berlin, a prison sentence in London, problems with the police in Paris and Mexico City, and finally his arrival in Los Angeles. In America his career languished for a time, though he acquired a reputation for being a supreme "fixer," a brilliant luftmensh on the fringes of Hollywood power, the ultimate party-giver who knew everybody's secrets and was always quick to charm women and take advantage of men. Billy Wilder called him "a modern day Robin Hood, who steals from the rich and steals from the poor."

With a brilliant sense of time and place and a deep understanding of Spiegel's complex personality, Fraser-Cavassoni traces his disasters, successes, romances, friendships, and tangled finances in a narrative that is rich with colorful Spiegel stories, scandals, and bon mots.

The cast of characters in Spiegel's life includes Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Robert De Niro, Barry Diller, David Geffen, Katharine Hepburn, John Huston, Elia Kazan, David Lean, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Mike Nichols, Harold Pinter, Otto Preminger, Elizabeth Taylor, Gore Vidal, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Darryl F. Zanuck, bevies of beautiful women, three wives, countless members of high society, and, most important, Sam Spiegel himself -- the last of the great independent film producers who, in the swashbuckling tradition of David O. Selznick and Sam Goldwyn, operated alone, aimed high, and believed, above all, in their own star.

More than a major book about the movie business, "Sam Spiegel" is an intricate and engrossing biography, comparable in its richness, depth, and attention to detail to A. Scott Berg's acclaimed biography of Samuel Goldwyn. It is a marvelous, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience and an astonishing debut for Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni.