By all means, I am delighted that this book exists. The design, paper quality, and sheer size of this album compliments perfectly what the author, Justine Picardie, has captured in its contents. A real créme de la créme for every fashion aficionado. To be precise, this multi-talented magazine Editor has compiled a rather extraordinary history of fashion. An evolution, chronologically represented by 3 influential designers from the house of Dior, and lensed through decades by the definitive Richard Avedon.
Picardie first guides us through Dior’s postwar launch of the ‘New Look’ (and what revolution it caused on the streets of Paris). Then she explores Saint Laurent’s couture designs worn by Jacqueline de Ribes and Audrey Hepburn, and finally Marc Bohan’s designs created over 15 years, modelled on Veruschka and Lauren Hutton to name a few. All this accomplished by encyclopedic yet fascinating descriptions of collaboration between the designers and the photographer, whom owed all credits of trust and support to the legendary Editrix of Harper’s Bazaar Carmel Snow. It was Snow who encouraged Avedon to shot the Couture collection for her magazine spreads. The rest is history.
Justine Picardie is the author of this album. She is also the Editor of Harper’s Bazaar UK and Town and Country magazine.
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