Lance Avery Morgan
Thames & Hudson USA has unveiled a dazzling array of Fall/Winter books that celebrate art, design, and culture in all their forms as the seasons shift toward cozy evenings and festive gatherings. Known for their exceptional craftsmanship and thought-provoking content, Thames & Hudson’s latest releases are the perfect companions for the season—whether you’re looking to inspire your own creativity or find a gift as sophisticated as your recipients. From iconic art histories to contemporary design showcases, these books will be the highlights of any bookshelf or coffee table this holiday season. Of course we know you’ll be gifting these chic titles, yet sometimes gifting ourselves can be the greatest present of all, according to our resident bibliophile Lance Avery Morgan in his Top 10 List of picks, along with a few bonus books to dazzle you.
Yves Saint Laurent: Inside Out is an intimate exploration of Yves Saint Laurent’s creative world, captured by photographer Carlos Muñoz-Yagüe. This beautiful new bookdraws back the curtain on the iconic fashion house in the sumptuous latter phase of Yves Saint Laurent’s career, between 1989 and his final collection in 2002. Photographer Carlos Muñoz-Yagüe—whose mother Anne-Marie Muñoz managed the house’s design studio for more than forty years—reveals rarely seen moments in previously unseen and unpublished images, including Saint Laurent drawing at his desk and conducting fittings in the studio; the stunning artistry of the ateliers; and the whirlwind of haute couture shows. This lavish volume includes unseen archive materials—letters, documents, drawings, and ephemera—that capture an extremely rare snapshot of one of the greatest and most enigmatic couturiers of all time. $85. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
CHANEL. The Allure of Makeup is the first book dedicated to Chanel makeup, celebrating the House’s inspiring story of makeup creation which began in 1924. Written by eminent journalist and author Natasha A Fraser, this stunning volume presents a wealth of visual material—with unprecedented access to the Chanel archives—from historic images of Gabrielle Chanel and seldom-seen early product shots to cinematic campaigns starring legendary women. In the book’s Introduction, Fraser writes: “Defying the rules of tradition and the need to please others, Chanel revolutionized the twentieth-century wardrobe, imposed a new vision of jewelry, transformed the world of beauty, and introduced a modern attitude that filtered through to all areas of her life.” In 1924 Gabrielle Chanel launched the House’s first makeup products, marking the beginning of a century of creativity, excellence and innovation. This fascinating story unfolds in seven chapters that represent the quintessential colors of Chanel’s visual vocabulary: Black, White, Beige, Red, Pink, Gold and Blue. Each chapter highlights the talents driving the brand’s lasting impact across the decades. Iconic products such as the black and white compact or Rouge Allure lipstick in timeless red punctuate the chapters and claim their rightful place in the pantheon of beauty. $175. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
The World According to David Hockney is a collection of insights into art, life, nature, creativity, and more from legendary British artist David Hockney. From everyday observations—“The eye is always moving; if it isn’t moving you are dead”—to artistic insights, such as “Painted color always will be better than printed color, because it is the pigment itself,” as well as musings about other image-makers, including Caravaggio, Paul Cézanne, and Walt Disney, Hockney has a knack for capturing profound truths in pithy statements.A beautifully designed and attractive small-format hardcover book, illustrated with works from throughout Hockney’s career, this will enchant art lovers everywhere. $19.95. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Comics 1964-2024 is a brilliantly illustrated survey of the international comic book landscape. Starting in the mid-1960s, comics rapidly evolved from humble populist roots into a highly creative art form for a sophisticated readership: in France, the magazine Hara-Kiri provided new terrains for graphical humor, while the adventures of Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella were published in albums by Éric Losfeld; in Japan the 1964 launch of Garo, an avant-garde monthly, introduced the concept of auteur comics; and in the United States, the release of Robert Crumb’s Zap Comix in 1968 established his reputation as the leader of the underground comics movement. A major historical survey of the so-called “ninth art,” the tome establishes a dialogue between the three leading regions of comic book culture—Europe, Asia, and America—and offers readers an immersive odyssey into the medium through its development over the past six decades. $64. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Carla Sozzani: Art, Life, Fashion is the first full-length, illustrated biography of the legendary figure in the international worlds of fashion, art, and design. It’s a fascinating look at the remarkable life and work of the visionary icon, magazine editor, gallerist, and founder of famed Milan department store 10 Corso Como, it chronicles the key moments of her highly successful career, from Sozzani’s early years in fashion to her groundbreaking forays into publishing, curation, and retail. Photography and fashion writer Louise Baring draws on interviews with Sozzani to take readers from her bourgeois childhood in Italy, early love of fashion, and passion for travel to her trajectory as a magazine editor, including her decade-long work on special issues of Vogue Italia (her sister Franca Sozzani would edit the magazine for 28 years) and launching the Italian edition of Elle. She covers Sozzani’s struggles embracing unmarried motherhood in conservative Milan and founding her own publishing company, as well as a gallery that has staged hundreds of exhibitions, including of her own extensive photography collection. $65. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
In The 1980s: Image of a Decade, author and visual culture writer Henry Carroll (Read This if You Want to take Great Photographs) tells this story in a wholly original and highly immersive way. By mixing and matching images of design, art, fashion, music, video games, sport, iconic photography, global events, and technological innovations in playful and often unexpected ways, this new book uncovers a fascinating ecosystem of influence between high and low culture that has shaped the world today. These juxtapositions act like a perfectly curated mixtape. Readers can fast-forward from the bold and bizarro designs of the Memphis group to the backstreets of Madrid with its post-fascist counterculture movement La Movida Madrileña; experience a new-look New York shaped by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Madonna, and peek inside hedonistic London clubs frequented by gay icons like Boy George. The pages of this decade-defining book take them to the edge of the solar system with the Voyager probes before crashing back down to Earth and facing the realities of Apartheid, AIDS, a catastrophic famine in Africa, and the constant threat of nuclear Armageddon. $60. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Drawing on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s photography collection, Calling the Shots: A Queer History of Photography offers an unprecedented view of photographic history through a queer lens. It includes a broad range of global LGBTQIA+ representation from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, showcasing images from pioneering LGBTQIA+ photographers and subjects alongside work documenting activism and hard-won legal battles over a century of performance, nightlife, and diverse queer communities, collectives, and subcultures. Following an introductory essay by curator Zorian Clayton, the book unfolds across six thematic chapters: “Icons,” “Staged,” “Body,” “Liberty,” “Making a Scene,” and “Beyond the Frame.” The book features the work of a variety of photographers and artists from the V&A’s collection including Liz Johnson Artur, Henri Cartier Bresson, Nan Goldin, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Catherine Opie, Maud Sulter, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Ajamu X, among many others. $60. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
The Lives Of Lee Miller is published as a tie-in with the release of the film LEE, starring Kate Winslet, which debuted in theaters September 27. A compelling chronicle of the many lives of artist and photographer Lee Miller, written by her son Antony Penrose, this book is the inspiration for the new major motion picture, and has been praised by The New York Times as “An excellent memoir;” by Art in America noting it “should ensure Miller the place she deserves in future histories;” and by Library Journal for “bring[ing] to life a uniquely talented woman and the turbulent times in which she lived.” Starting in 1927 New York, the book recounts how Lee Miller was first discovered as a model by Condé Nast, hit the cover of Vogue, and was immortalized by such acclaimed photographers as Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Horst P. Horst. Readers then follow Miller to Paris where she, along with Man Ray, invented the solarization technique of photography, and where she developed into a brilliant Surrealist photographer herself. The outbreak of World War II saw Miller become a war correspondent, traveling with the Allied armies to cover the siege of Saint-Malo and the liberation of Paris, ultimately leading to her photographs of the Dachau concentration camp that shocked the world. $16.95. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
For the fashion designers whose homes are featured in This Creative Life, being creative is more than a career: it’s a deep-seated need that has no bounds. In this lavish volume, bestselling photographer and author Robyn Lea (A Room of Her Own) skillfully presents the homes of twenty of the world’s most exciting designers through intimate photographs and profiles that allow readers to discover stunning interiors. As boldly individual as the designers who call them home, these residences represent thirteen different architectural styles that span more than five hundred years, from a 14th-century Italian palace to a 21st-century renovation in the English countryside. Across six countries, they range in size from studio apartments and compact country cottages to mansions, villas, and palazzos. Among them are Gilles Massé and Andrea Tartaglia’s mid-century modern apartment in Milan; Bella Freud’s west London warehouse conversion; Alice Temperley’s Regency manor; Edgardo Osorio’s palace on the banks of the Arno in Florence; Luke Edward Hall’s stone farmhouse in the Cotswolds; Gary Graham’s restored historical property in the Catskills that serves as a home, workshop, studio and retail space for him and his partner; and a sumptuous resort on the shores of Lake Como, JJ Martin’s preferred home-away-from-home, where she recharges her creative spirit. $55. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Tropicality: Houses by Andra Matin is the first monograph from Indonesia’s most celebrated and exciting architect. Showcasing sixteen of the best residential projects designed by architect Andra Matin and his studio over the last two decades—including his own astonishing home—this lavish volume reveals how the allure of the tropics can be harmonized with the spatial efficiency of modern design. Chosen for their exquisite craftsmanship and lush tropicality, each house represents the architect’s vision of relaxed living and innate feeling for tactile materials and illustrates his ingenious use of shifting levels and space. These are cool environments, in every sense of the word, that exist effortlessly in harmony with their surroundings. From a house elevated on stilts that’s completely open to the outdoors to one topped with a giant, overhanging concrete roof to a hexagonal weekend villa hidden amongst the trees, these are homes that will delight and inspire anyone with an interest in beautiful spaces. $75. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Magnum America: The United States is drawn from the stories and photographs in the Magnum Archives and spanning from the 1940s to the present day, this epic visual book offers a compelling and multifaceted portrait of the United States, past and present, that places ordinary and extraordinary people and events side by side—a moving interpretation of the nation as it stands once again at the crossroads of history. With more than 600 images from photographers that include Bruce Davidson, Wayne Miller, Eve Arnold, Martin Parr, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Bieke Depoorter, Paul Fusco, Susan Meiselas, Sabiha Çimen, and Leonard Freed, among many others, the book’s decade-by-decade chapters present powerful visual timelines; spotlight individual “Moments” of each decade; highlight long-form, individual photographer portfolios on significant issues and people; and showcase thematic collective portfolios that provide deeper views into historical events from the perspectives of multiple Magnum photographers Magnificent in scope, This landmark photobook—with its breathtaking scope, abundant photographic riches, and the insightful authorship for which Magnum’s photographers are renowned—is edited by Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael and Professor Laura Wexler and includes commentary from leading scholars unpacking the myth and mystery of The United States of America. $150. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
I. M. PEI: Life is Architecture, published in collaboration with M+, Hong Kong (where an exhibition of the same name is on view through January 4, 2025), goes beyond the building-by-building format of most architectural monographs to explore the life and work of internationally renowned architect I. M. Pei (1917-2019) through six issues that were central to his unique approach: transcultural identity; urban redevelopment; art and civic form; material and structural innovation; politics and patronage; and regenerating cultural and historical archetypes. Extensively illustrated, this volume brings together previously unpublished archival materials, specially commissioned essays, new photography, and personal contributions from those who knew and worked with Pei, examining a legacy that includes the realization of some of the most high-profile projects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from the modernization of the Louvre in Paris and its instantly recognizable glass pyramid to the National Gallery of Art’s extension in Washington, DC to the design of the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. $85. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Azzedine Alaïa: A Couturier’s Collection is a stunning showcase of Azzedine Alaïa’s remarkable fashion collection, built up over decades, now published for the first time. Azzedine Alaïa (1935–2017) was not only a world-renowned fashion designer but also an avid collector of vintage fashion. Now a major exhibition at the Palais Galliera, Paris, the book showcases the extensive collection he built over the decades, driven by his fascination with the history of couture and his desire to conserve its heritage for future generations. Accumulated in utmost secrecy and never revealed during his lifetime, the sumptuous selection of garments ranges from the nineteenth-century elegance of Jacques Doucet and the House of Worth to the names that shaped twentieth-century fashion—Chanel, Balenciaga, Dior, Schiaparelli—and contemporary innovators such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen. Captured in specially taken photographs, these meticulously crafted pieces are a tribute to Alaïa’s unerring tastes, to the couturiers who inspired and influenced him, and to his endless respect for the craftspeople who created such objects of lasting beauty. $60. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
How Banksy Saved Art History is where author and art writer Kelly Grovier presents a new take on the history of art through the eyes of the international phenomenon that is Banksy. It’s a new take on the history of art through the eyes of the international phenomenon that is Banksy. Few would dispute that Banksy is the most famous urban artist in the world today. That he is also a perceptive art historian might come as a surprise to many. What illuminates Banksy’s audacious murals, impromptu urban sculptures, and vandalized paintings, however, is a deft understanding of the story of art. The book brings into focus the dark satirical lens of Banksy’s mischievous reimagined masterpieces. From his droll lampooning of the Lascaux cave paintings to reinventing Monet’s enchanting water lily pond, a reboot of Géricault’s tragic, gut-wrenching vision to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring now instilled with street cred, everyone’s genius is grist for his unmerciful mill. Far from being diminished in their significance, however, the artworks that Banksy ruthlessly parodies are ultimately refurbished by the ordeal. Banksy’s iconoclastic works force us to rethink our affection for and appreciation of great works of art that define cultural history. $35. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
The future meets the past. Harnessing the power of drone cameras, Versailles from the Sky presents an aerial view of the iconic palace with 200 full-color photographs. Photos from this vantage point reveal the spectacular geometry of Versailles’ various spaces while also offering a panoramic view of the estate in all its immensity. We love that the intricate design of the classical gardens comes alive with an aerial view, showcasing the symmetrical “Grande Perspective,” the fountains, the winding paths, and the parterres. The wooded groves seem to take on new forms with a view from above: the Domes, Colonnade, and Obelisk groves resemble watch faces; the Chestnut Grove shrouded in snow assumes the shape of a violin. The book also highlights interior spaces of the palace, with drone photography allowing unique perspectives on the ceiling of the famous “Hall of Mirrors,” behind-the-scenes glimpses of the Royal Opera, and spiraling views of the palaces’ numerous lavish staircases. $40. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
Man Ray: Liberating Photography, published to accompany an exhibition at Photo Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, focuses on his studio and portrait work from the 1920s and 1930s, showcasing his radical photographic experiments as well as offering a dazzling who’s who of Paris’s avant-garde of the era. Its more than 150 images include portraits of Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Coco Chanel, James Joyce, Elsa Schiaparelli, Igor Stravinsky, Virginia Woolf, and Lee Miller, among many others; a selection of his fashion work; and a selection of “rayographs” and images created using solarization, double exposures, and other forms of distortion. As an innovator of photographic techniques and compositional form, Man Ray found the studio portrait—be it of the artists and writers with whom he had longstanding friendships or of the objects and sculptures he collected—to be the playground in which he could express the visual wit and experimentation for which he is renowned. Please see the attached press release for more details about the book. $50. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
The Tapestry is the new book from award-winning photographer and artist Erik Madigan Heck. Inspired by historic tapestries as well as Impressionist and contemporary paintings, Heck re-examined his past imagery by re-coloring, cropping, and re-imagining his photographs. This lavish volume presents more than 180 works in a richly colorful and tactile experience that’s characterized by a bold embrace of additive color and results in a stunning array of beautiful and vivid images. The book is a meditative exploration of Heck’s fusion of photography and painting, and the flowing, lyrical pages weave a visual narrative that traces the evolution of Heck’s craft and the interconnections between photography, fashion, and the broader world of contemporary art. $95. At Thames&HudsonUSA.com.
