What person doesn’t enter the new year with hope that their life will change for the better? A new year holds the promise of a better you. Discover Vogue‘s new year reads that will accompany you on your health, culture, and style journey, starting with the book that made the difference to Joanna Laura Constantine, 2017 Fashion Prize accessories winner.
Retox: Yoga Food Attitude Healthy Solutions for Real Life
by Lauren Imparato (Penguin)
“I read this international bestseller last year when the pressures of being a designer were becoming all-consuming. Its author, Lauren Imparato, is something of a wellness pioneer. The former Vice President of Morgan Stanley left the world of finance ten years ago to offer healthy solutions for real life with practical health and wellness strategies. It taught me how to control anxiety, meditate, and even eat. Rather than focus on detox cycles, Imparato offers guidance on how to edit existing approaches to food, technology, and exercise. Her teachings are based on facts and science—anatomy, biology, and physiology—and ancient philosophical texts, and offer basic tenets as a foundation to ‘take charge.’”—Joanna Laura Constantine
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The Impossible Collection of Warhol. Courtesy Assouline
The Impossible Collection of Warhol
(Assouline)
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art,” said pop art movement pioneer, Andy Warhol (1928-1987). The American artist, who started his career as a commercial illustrator, explored celebrity culture and advertising as an artistic expression. In this tome, unveiled at Art Basel Miami, 100 of the artist’s thousands of works are curated by former Andy Warhol Museum director, Eric Shiner, and serve to trace his career from the Forties to the Eighties. Popular works like the Marilyn Diptych and Campbell’s Soup Cans are featured alongside more unknown paintings, prints, sculpture, films, and photography. The limited edition tome is hand-bound using traditional techniques and is offered in a linen clamshell case.
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Fashion and Versailles. Courtesy Rizzoli
Fashion and Versailles
(Rizzoli)
When director Sofia Coppola made the 2006 film Marie-Antoinette, she explored the French Queen’s astonishing closet with such minute detail that the movie took home an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. From the wigs decorated with ostrich feathers to the hundreds of shoes crafted especially by Manolo Blahnik, the movie showcased how the clothing and accessories at Versailles were a reflection of the grandeur of the palace in which the French court lived. Under the rule of Louis XIV, the Sun King, the world’s first dress code was established. It was vital that the Queen’s guests adhered to it when attending her lavish balls in the gardens of the Trianon. The clothes also offered a view into the political climes of the times and the influence of neighboring countries—particularly England—with pannier skirts becoming de rigeur. The fashion at Versailles has since remained a constant source of inspiration for fashion and design worlds. The cinched waists that emerged in the ‘50s were labelled “Neo-Trianon” and Karl Lagerfeld staged his Cruise 2013 collection at Versailles and featured crinoline dresses and brocade jackets.
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Illustration from The Grand Tour. Golden Age of Travel. Courtesy Taschen
The Grand Tour. The Golden Age of Travel
(Taschen)
In the Agatha Christie mystery Murder on the Orient Express, viewers dive into a bygone era of luxury travel aboard a locomotive, whose interior wagons are decorated with gilded gold and hand-embroidered cushions. Tables are covered in white linen and set with sterling silver, and guests arrive in black tie for fine cuisine. The landscapes smoothly evolve from mountain ranges to rolling valleys. The promise of romance and adventure exude with each blow of the conductor’s whistle and reminds of a more gracious and elegant way of travel. All aboard. Alas, today, travel serves to shuttle voyagers from point A to B. For the nostalgic, or even those curious about the history of vintage travel, this tome recalls the golden age with posters, tickets, menus, and photochromes from 1869-1939. Six classic tours favored by adventurers such as Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and Goethe, are featured and take readers on voyages like the Grand Tour of Europe or the Trans-Siberian Railway.
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Peter Lindbergh. Shadows on the Wall. Courtesy Taschen
Peter Lindbergh. Shadows on the Wall
(Taschen)
“A journalist asked me how I would describe a beautiful mouth. ‘A mouth is beautiful when it says intelligent and sensible things,’ I replied.” Along with his musings, in his latest book, famed Vogue photographer Peter Lindbergh offers a selection of black and white images that invite readers to consider a different kind of beauty—away from society’s obsession with youth and perfection. Portraits feature leading ladies such as Uma Thurman, Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Alicia Vikander, and Lupita Nyong’o. Remarkably–for our times–the images are almost not retouched and the women wear little to no makeup. The result makes for powerful meditation. Some women look directly at the camera, others look past it while all appear to be entirely engaged with their inner selves. The viewer is encouraged to emulate not the subjects’ outer beauty, but rather their courage within. “It should be a duty for every photographer working today to use his creativity and influence to free women and finally everyone from the terror of youth and perfection,” writes Lindbergh.
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Ettore Sottsass. The Glass (Italian edition featured). Courtesy Skira
Ettore Sottsass: The Glass
(Skira)
In the home, an Ettore Sottsass piece creates a singular dynamism and almost seems to pulse with positive vibrations. After a first glance of an organic-shaped glass piece, it’s hard to not get hooked on the “Memphis” way off living and the man who founded the kitsch and at one time, futuristic-looking design movement. “I’ve tried to get away from the everyday object and sought to make Glass works with a capital G. Of course, that’s a dangerous approach, because I don’t want to be an artist, or a sculptor, but in the end the objects I produce look like glass sculptures, and yet they aren’t: they’re a mix that’s hard to fathom.” Some concepts are meant to be seen, not necessarily understood. The award-winning architect and designer Ettore Sottsass “made glass throughout his career, from 1947 until his death in 2007. His inspiration often came from travel and he took many conceptual photos that later served as a foundation to abstract pieces. Spanning the entire period of his glass works, a wealth of images and analysis of design and painting, make this the most comprehensive book on Sottsass’s glass oeuvre.
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