Books

Assouline: Emirati Women's Day Gifting

Estée Lauder: A Beautiful Life | Assouline | assouline.com

ESTÉE LAUDER: A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

Text by Aerin and Jane Lauder

"My grandmother, Estée, was an incredible role model. When she launched her business in the 1940’s, she was way ahead of her time and taught me so many of the important lessons I know today. She passed on the importance and value of family, passion, commitment and beauty in everything you do. This book is a personal expression of her ‘Beautiful Life’. I hope her story inspires you as much as it has inspired me." —Aerin Lauder

As a businesswoman, matriarch, and innovator, Estée Lauder was in a league of her own. From a humble background growing up in Queens as the child of Hungarian immigrants, Estée’s ambition and hard work found her tremendous success, transforming a small skincare cream business she started in her kitchen into a worldwide portfolio of beauty brands. Ever principled and determined, her charming ebullience took her far— she was the first to harness the power of word-of-mouth advertising, and to realize that a free gift with purchase would do well to win her customer’s loyalty.

Crafted like a personal album with the help of her granddaughters, Aerin and Jane, this book opens the door to the legendary woman who made her name known all over the world. As a true visionnaire, Estée Lauder succeeded in building her cosmetics empire through talent, determination, hard work, and kindness, while still maintaining a rich and fulfilling family life. Adding to her iconic legacy was her eye for interiors, a reputation for hosting fabulous dinner parties, and her countless notable friends such as Princess Grace of Monaco, Hubert de Givenchy, Diana, Princess of Wales, Nancy Reagan, and Frank Sinatra, among other luminaries. To celebrate her life and important influence in business, at home, and on the town, Aerin and Jane Lauder along with Assouline, present an in-depth look at what a beloved tour de force Estée was, as expressed through her personal letters, family photographs, company archives, and more.

A creative visionary, tastemaker, and working mother of two, Aerin Lauder is a modern-day style icon. Committed to living life more beautifully, she founded her eponymous luxury lifestyle brand AERIN in 2012. With a love for interiors and a talent for creating warm, inviting spaces, Aerin’s elegant, effortless aesthetic is a reflection of her unique upbringing. As she says, “Beauty is my heritage, but home and accessories are my passion. There was an opportunity in the market for a lifestyle brand based on feminine, modern and effortless products with strong heritage. I decided to launch AERIN and make the whole concept of beauty part of the way we live today. Aerin brings ease and beauty into all aspects of life and, as a dedicated philanthropist, into the lives of others.

Jane Lauder has over two decades of beauty industry experience, including more than 23 years at The Estée Lauder Companies. Formerly the Global Brand President of Clinique, Jane Lauder currently serves as the corporation’s first ever Executive Vice President, Enterprise Marketing and Chief Data Officer, responsible for developing company-wide strategies to accelerate ELC’s growth. She resides in New York City with her family.

 

Text by Aerin and Jane Lauder

11 x 14 in – 28 x 35.5 cm | 200 pages | 300 illustrations | hardcover in a luxury slipcase | ISBN: 9781614289753 | $195 – €195 – £150

NOVEMBER 2021

Images (from left): Estée poses with beauty advisors, who assisted customers at her beauty counters, 1975. Estée poses with beauty advisors, who assisted customers at her beauty counters, 1975.; Estée in her New York dining room. Courtesy of the Leonard A. Lauder Estée Lauder Companies Archives; Estée delighted in making over customers, like this one at the Famous-Barr department store counter in St. Louis, 1968. W.C. Runder, Courtesy of the Leonard A. Lauder Estée Lauder Companies Archives.
Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower | Assouline | assouline.com

VITAL VOICES: 100 WOMEN USING THEIR

POWER TO EMPOWER

Edited by Alyse Nelson, Paintings by Gayle Kabaker, Foreword by Amanda Gorman

"We need to be much more conscious of the power we have. We are power. What are we going to do with it?" —Kah Walla, Presidential candidate and opposition party leader, Cameroon

Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower is an unprecedented book and companion art exhibition celebrating 100 global women leaders who are redefining power. Edited by Alyse Nelson, with a foreword by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman and paintings by Gayle Kabaker, the book and exhibition feature a selection of original portraits, accompanied by thought-provoking excerpts of firstperson narratives from some of the most influential and insightful women in the world, including: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, Bozoma Saint John, Jacinda Ardern, Donna Langley, Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju, Joy Buolamwini, Megan Rapinoe and so many more. Candid and compelling, each leader shares personal stories, wisdom and ideas, showing us that women lead differently and that this difference is sorely needed in our world today.

While each woman is path-breaking in her own right, it’s together that these 100 voices illustrate the transformative power of women’s leadership across cultures, sectors and generations.

2020 has laid bare the critical value of leadership at every level; from heads of state to community healthcare workers and racial justice activists, we have witnessed remarkable courage and compassion in the face of historic challenge. Global crises have shown us that the solutions we seek already exist, so often being championed by women leaders like those featured in this book.

This year we also commemorate the 25-year anniversary of the historic United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which sparked a new wave of activism in pursuit of gender equality. As we look to the future, and the great unfinished business that remains, we turn to 100 of the most daring and creative leaders of our time, who share their vision and solutions in Vital Voices: 100 Women Using Their Power to Empower.

Alyse Nelson is President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an organization that invests in women leaders solving the world’s greatest challenges. A co-founder of Vital Voices, she has worked with the organization for more than two decades.

Gayle Kabaker is an award-winning illustrator, writer and visual storyteller. She has had five New Yorker magazine covers, beginning in 2012 with “June Brides,” celebrating the legalization of marriage equality.

Images (from left): Manal Al-Sharif is a courageous activist who defied a cultural norm and was imprisoned after deciding to film herself driving in Saudi Arabia. She led a national campaign for women’s right to drive.; Tarana Burke is the founder of the “Me Too” movement.; Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the second woman in history to be appointed a U.S. Supreme Court justice, founder of the ACLU project on women’s rights, and a lifetime advocate for the rights of women and marginalized.

Edited by Alyse Nelson, Paintings by Gayle Kabaker, Foreword by Amanda Gorman

7.5 x 11 in. – 19 x 28 cm | 220 pages | 100 illustrations | hardcover | ISBN: 9781614289784 | $60 – €60 – £45

SEPTEMBER 2020

 

Chanel: The Impossible Collection | Assouline | assouline.com

CHANEL: THE IMPOSSIBLE COLLECTION

Text by Alexander Fury

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." —Gabrielle Chanel

More than any other designer of her era, Gabrielle Chanel had the ability to predict the evolution of contemporary fashion. Self-inventor extraordinaire, Chanel revolutionized the lifestyle of her time by inventing a modern concept of luxe minimalism, elevating humble fabrics such as jersey and tweed to couture status, giving birth to a new silhouette both sophisticated and discreet, setting her stamp on the twentieth century with her modern spirit of understated luxury.

The house of Chanel represents modern fashion. Under its founder, the style of the modern woman was invented, through the image of Gabrielle Chanel herself. She dressed women to be free, and her emancipated clothes reflected the shifting landscape of society. Her designs fundamentally affected what we wear, and how we wear it. The work of the house under her successor Karl Lagerfeld has transformed fashion anew: He drew the template for a fashion designer reviving a moribund house with elements from its own history. Just as Chanel created modern fashion, Lagerfeld in turn established the blueprint of the modern fashion house. She reshaped the clothes women wear, he reshaped the industry that makes them.

This book is a literary museum exhibition, a curated selection of 100 iconic and signature looks of the house of Chanel, from the timeless Little Black Dress to the impeccably simple tweed suit, the apothecary-style perfume bottle, two-tone pumps, abundant strands of faux pearls and stones, and diamond-quilted leather handbag, from Mademoiselle’s revolutionary designs to Karl Lagerfeld’s unexpected and even irreverent variations on her original codes.

Selected by fashion journalist Alexander Fury, Chanel: The Impossible Collection showcases the best images from the world’s foremost editorial photographers, specialist museums, and private collections, including rarely seen archival photos, this handcrafted Ultimate Collection volume is the quintessential compendium for fashion aficionados.

Alexander Fury is a fashion journalist, author, and critic. He is Fashion Features Director of AnOther Magazine and Men’s Critic for Financial Times. From 2016 to 2018 he was the first Chief Fashion Correspondent at T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and from 2013 to 2016 he was fashion editor of The Independenti, and The Independent on Sunday newspapers. In 2018, Fury received the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. His previous books include Dior by Gianfranco Ferré (Assouline, 2018); Dior: Catwalk (Thames and Hudson, 2017); and Catwalking: Photographs by Chris Moore (Laurence King, 2017).

 

Text by Alexander Fury

14 x 17 in – 35.5 x 42 cm | 232 pages | over 180 illustrations | handcrafted limited edition in a luxury clamshell case ISBN: 9781614288107 | $895 – €820 – £695

OCTOBER 2019

Images (from left): Leather and satin shoes. Chanel designed these famous two-tone pumps in 1958, executed with the couture shoemaker Raymond Massaro. © Laziz Hamani; Gabrielle Chanel and Italian jeweler Fulco di Verdura, 1937. © Verdura; Evening suit, Haute Couture, Spring 1984. © Daniel Jouanneau/Vogue Paris.