Results 1-20 of 28
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- A Portrait of Dorian Gray
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In his youth, Dorian Gray had his portrait painted, and because the painting wonderfully preserved a carefree moment, Gray begged for a trade-off: the painting would age and he himself would remain young and handsome forever. That’s exactly what happened until one day, in a rage, he stabbed the canvas and died. What remained was a flawless portrait of youth.
Karl Lagerfeld has staged the core of Oscar Wilde’s famous novel in his own way. He shows a luxurious Bohemian world as in the freeze-frames of a film. Young people celebrate, paying homage to beautiful bodies and devoting themselves completely to the moment. Right up until the metamorphosis begins. Then the young man changes into an old man and the pretty woman into her own death mask.
This book tells the story as a film. It reflects a world of fashion and glamour and suggests the aesthetics of Caravaggio or the pre-Raphaelites. With this publication, Karl Lagerfeld, one of the greatest protagonists of the fashion scene, makes his contribution — not completely free of irony — to the subject of the transitory nature of beauty.
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- Aktstrakt
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In Aktstrakt, photographer Karl Lagerfeld deals with the topic “Form”. In doing so, he takes the liberty of broadening, in the Beuysian sense, the concept of art, including man’s physicality. The strictly thought-out study Aktstrakt, consisting of 13 photo plates, formally takes up the tradition of Bauhaus photography.
The design and production of the book rigorously follow traditional rules: the photographs, varnish-sealed in the costly tritone process, were printed on Phoenixmotion-Xantur paper. The book block was laid out as Japanese brochure, cased in a cloth binding with a two-color brass-stamped plate.
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- Modern Italian Architecture
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Casa Malaparte
"A house like me" — announced Curzio Malaparte, a poet and egomaniac, describing his villa on Capri. There are only a few buildings in the world which illustrate such antique beauty and mystical charm; Karl Lagerfeld has photographed the most elegiac one.
The first section of the book illustrates the perfect integration of the house within the environment. In the second part Lagerfeld documents the house's interior and furniture. Lagerfeld worked for five days in November 1997 to produce these photographs of architecture and nature. He used a special photographic technique to reproduce his pictures: Polaroid-transfers on a special paper.
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- Escape from Circumstances
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Escape from Circumstances can be described as a "school of seeing". In the past Karl Lagerfeld's photographic work has been characterised by the following subjects: landscape, body-parts and architecture. These topics are reflected in some of his books, in Partipris and Casa Malaparte, to name but a few.
This study seems to be the logical consequence of this pursuit and the key to his current creative power. In full-bleed plates Lagerfeld presents the different forms of nature, alongside elements of the human body. The human body stands as a "model" for various types of buildings, which are, in an ideal case, in harmony with the human being and nature. The arrangement of these pictures illustrate the anthropomorphic form in its natural and artificial environments.
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- The S.L.ED
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Steinway & Sons has been manufacturing concert grand pianos for 150 years. To commemorate this anniversary, Karl Lagerfeld has designed an instrument that is unequaled in terms of beauty and sound: the Steinway Limited Edition, or S.L.ED. For the first time in the history of grand piano manufacturing, Lagerfeld has rethought the traditional form. By shaping the feet like the runners of a sled, Lagerfeld has given the piano a new silhouette and has simultaneously made substantial improvements in the instrument’s resonance.
This book documents the creative process of making the S.L.ED, from the first drafts and color tests, through the various production steps in the Hamburg Steinway factory to the finished instrument. It’s a sensorial study of function and design and a convincing new interpretation of a classic shape.
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- Tadao Ando — Vitra House
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"Architecture, which acquires tranquillity and balance thanks to geometric order, obtains dynamism thanks to natural phenomena and human movements."
Architect Tadao Ando's statement serves as an introduction to the architecture photographs in this small-format book. Ando designed the Vitra conference pavilion in Well am Rhein.
It's not the first time that Karl Lagerfeld has photographed architecture; the results in this book are truly impressive. It seems very difficult to transform Ando's architectural principles into a photographic form. But Lagerfeld transfers the basic ideas of Ando's architecture into his own photography. On one hand his pictures present us several geometrical forms and details as staircases or doorways. On the other hand we can find photographic views of the whole building and its environment. Lagerfeld has found a sensitive language showing us the characteristics of Ando's specific architecture.
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- Bold & Beautiful
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Last remaining first edition stock.
There are certain times in certain places when particular places come to the fore. Those times and those faces demand to be documented. Bold & Beautiful is the result of this impulse for social documentation that has led Ezra Petronio, Editor-in-Chief of Paris based fashion and arts magazine, Self Service, across borders, organically following the intricate web of the magazine’s ‘extended family tree’, attempting through his photographs to reveal the creative forces who share and shape Self Service magazine’s cultural landscape.
Over a few years, hundreds of people slipped through our doors to pose in front of the flash of his original 1970s Polaroid camera — intimate moments, one-on-one conversations, resulting in the revelation of each subject’s inner beauty and stature, a subtle combination of genuine sincerity, truth, and an inevitable touch of glamour. Not a pre-meditated grouping, but rather an organically unraveled network of people: designers, musicians, artists, photographers, writers, thinkers, people who make up our cultural world — establishment and avant-garde, artistic community and fashionable society, old friends, new friends and friends of friends. Unsuspecting members of the cultural community to which they all belong, they reflect individually and collectively the very essence of today’s creative soul.
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- The 7L Reminder
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The 7L Reminder is simply one of those really useful books. While traveling the world Karl Lagerfeld has, time and again, unsuccesfully searched for the perfect address/notebook.
So he conceived his own private notebook: with sufficient space for all those numbers one nowadays has to take down in order to communicate.
To satisfy his aesthetic needs he has equipped the book with a photo sequence by Japanese photographer Okada Kuwabara.
Thus daily usage of the notebook turns into a perfect pleasure.
Printed on a light elegant paper — perfect for any writing implements — bound in soft dark blue leather, Smyth sewing for longevity, and covered in tissue paper, this is a must have luxury item.
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- La Brochure
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This book is a real gem: the reader opens a box to discover a gold edged album. The photos protected by a rustling greaseproof paper show people, undressed and yet adorned and covered by a great diamond studded golden brooch.
The most recent photographs of nudes by Karl Lagerfeld illustrate the language of the body. In some of the photos, the piece of jewellery is almost entirely covered by the hair; in others it is used to cover the sexual characteristics; in others the body has created a dialogue with the precious object. This book tells a little story about the conversation of the senses with jewellery and luxury.
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- Off the record
- German language edition only
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- The House in the Trees
- German language edition only
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- Casa Malaparte
- German language edition only
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- Faust
- German language edition only
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- V-Best. Best of V Magazine
- Last remaining first edition stock
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- Visionen
- German language edition only
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- Les Vases de Ciboure. L'Illusion de l'Ideal
- French language edition.
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- 7 Fantasmes of a Woman
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Champagne takes women one step closer to daring behavior. Karl Lagerfeld
In 7 Fantasmes of a Woman, Karl Lagerfeld brings to life his vision of a woman’s sensual fantasies. The starting point for the series of photographs was a commission to produce an advertising campaign for Dom Pérignon Vintage 1998. The rich history of the brand, deeply rooted in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the sensual, caressing bouquet of the 1998 cuvée, were the main elements for the conception of the advertising campaign. Karl Lagerfeld transformed the story board of a woman’s sensual fantasies and the 18th century origin of Dom Pérignon into a series of photographs filled with sensuality, mystery and sexual ambiguity.
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- Room Service
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Paris, Spring 2006, a modern-day fairy tale…
“I see this as pure fun, somewhat politically incorrect, but full of euphoria and laughter. That’s luxury, too, when it’s accepted without any complexes.” Karl Lagerfeld
Right from the beginning, Karl Lagerfeld conceived Room Service as a multi-track matrix: a series of photos, a short film and an unusual version of the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,“ all collected in the same book. It all started when Lagerfeld was commissioned to create a campaign for Dom Pérignon Rosé Vintage 1996. He conceived an elegant exercise in style with a story line in the form of an ultra-contemporary fairy tale recounting the irresistible attraction of two strangers: a man and a woman, two solitary, seductive hedonists in a world of luxury whose paths cross at one of Paris’s finest hotels. The woman is Eva Herzigova, and the man Brad Kroenig. “There’s a sort of equality between them that allows for all sorts of freedom,” says Lagerfeld. “Basically, this story tells how Dom Pérignon Rosé facilitates this kind of encounter.” Johan Renck’s film was shot at almost the same time, in the same hotel, the George V, and with the same models/actors, Eva Herzigova and Brad Kroenig. Says Lagerfeld: “Johan Renck is a music video genius. He liked the story and put it into action. He followed the script even more carefully than I could have done with still photos.” For the song, Lagerfeld chose singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart. “After Marilyn, who could have sung this song? A woman? I find Devendra’s low-high, ambiguous voice amazing and absolutely perfect. His version of ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’ is magnificent, unique and daring.”
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- Palazzo
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Palazzo is a sensual and luxuriant fable. Combining a short story by Amanda Harlech and a series of black-and-white photographs illustrating the story by Karl Lagerfeld, the book explores a glamorous yet equivocal romance. The narrative depicts Principessa Allegra and her American fiancé, who at first seem to be a beautiful and enviable couple. Yet as events unfold, we see that this relationship which initially seemed flawless and sparkling, is in fact complex and shaded with reluctance.
Palazzo is a contemporary drama infused with a sense of a theatrical past. Indeed the Palazzo Taverna in Rome is not only the setting for the story, but a vessel containing the complex history of the building itself, on which Lagerfeld elaborates in an epilogue in the book. While depicting a degree of decadence which many can only dream of, Palazzo also explores the disquieting emotional states present in many human relationships – expectation, compromise and
regret. The allure of Palazzo is thus underpinned by familiar emotions. This is seductive fiction into which we can read our own experiences.
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- Metamorphoses of an American
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In Metamorphoses of an American Karl Lagerfeld traces the physical and emotional development of Brad Kroenig, once an unknown but now the world’s most sought-after male model. Lagerfeld discovered Kroenig in 2003, took his first photographs of him in Biarritz, and since then has observed him through his photographic lens, month by month. In hundreds of photographs Lagerfeld explores Kroenig’s evolution from a young “All American Boy” into a professional model conscious of the subtleties of facial and corporeal expression. These photographs are however not simply documentation; rather Lagerfeld and Kroenig work together to create a new persona, one which Kroenig expresses without losing a sense of his own self.
Lagerfeld selects a spectrum of literary and cultural references for Kroenig to interpret: we see him as James Dean, as Rudolph Valentino, as a Gatsby-like figure from F. Scott Fitzgerald, and as Lieutenant Pinkerton from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. Yet throughout these transformations, there is never the sense that Kroenig is merely acting; instead he presents newly discovered aspects of himself through the guises of other characters.
Metamorphoses of an American contains photography made both within and beyond the fashion world. However regardless of the purpose of Lagerfeld’s images, each one evidences rigorous formal principles grounded in an
appreciation of early twentieth-century photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. Indeed Lagerfeld refers to his work more as “pictures” than photographs, conveying the graphic processes of construction and design from which each image emerges.