A magical world in which we dream through the eyes of the incredible Paul Poiret. Forefather of all stylists, the eccentric and creative Poiret was already a star at just thirty years of age. He was adored and pampered by rich ladies the world over. He embodied joie de vivre, the light-heartedness of a time period which has been named la ‘belle époque’, but which could just as well be called the ‘époque Paul Poiret’.

His designs are light, the lines free and simple. He abolished the bust and in doing so completely revolutionised fashion and the feminine figure. He substituted black tights for skin-coloured tights, and was the first ever to create a signature scent. Poiret caused a scandal by introducing the pant-skirt, and also designed furniture and fabric for home decor and accessories on a vast scale. His muse was his wife Denise, tall and slender.

Poiret invented a style. He buried the frills of the Belle Époque opting for a natural un-affectedness which coincided with modernity. Everything signed by Poiret was a sales success both in Europe and in the United States. But when World War I broke out, Poiret was drafted and by the time he returned in 1919, he found a completely different world. Everything had changed. His famous parties, which had been considered incomparable by such socialites as Boni de Castellane, were now a distant memory. Nevertheless, Poiret did not give up working until the Expo of 1925, which was to be his ruin.

A wonderful mix of music, art, politics, friendship, love and irreverence as told by the marvelous artist Patty Smith. New York at the tail end of the 1960s —  its atmosphere is incandescent. Patti and Robert are walking about town to celebrate the Indian summer.

They meet an elderly couple who stop to gaze at them. “Take their picture”, says the woman. “Why? They are just kids” replies her husband. Just kids. Patti Smith knows how to look back and does so without sparing herself, with the quiet exuberance of an artist who has reached the apex of success and with the disenchanted passion of those who through fame have come to know life’s highs and lows all too well.

This rock priestess retraces the steps from her childhood in Chicago that would eventually lead her to New York. It was in the Big Apple that she met

Robert Mapplethorpe, a bold photographer who was to weave a life of art, devotion and initiation with her. Together, they discovered that rock, politics and sex were the essential ingredients of a coming revolution. Friendship was the real glue between Patti and Robert. A rare, pure, precious friendship. Theirs was an explicit pact of mutual support, based on the sharing of dreams, visions, and ideas on art.  These are the confessions of one of the greatest protagonists of American rock, of an original poet, a muse, a woman who knew how to live outside conventional borders.

The revelations of a man in love. Pierre Bergé portrays the strength and fragility of a great creative mind. Yves Saint Laurent, one of the most talented fashion designers of the last century, is remembered above all as the inventor of prét-à-porter and for adapting men’s clothing to the female body. In this book, Pierre Bergé, the companion of the great French tailor who lived at his side for fifty years, turns to his missing friend, and reveals the most secret aspects of his persona. This unusual correspondence – in which the recipient is no longer among the living – spans just over a year, starting from the days following the designer’s death on June 1st, 2008.

The letters are the account of an ever-present absence, as Bergé himself says, because the memory of Yves accompanies him everywhere: in the houses in which they lived together, in the gardens of Marrakech that they loved so much, even in places where Saint Laurent —sedentary and un-inclined to travel— has never been. Bergé reveals his friend’s fragility and excesses, yet recognizes Saint Laurent’s extraordinary talent and genius expressed through fashion.
In order to “create [fashion] you must be an artist, even if fashion is not an art”. With extreme simplicity Bergé recalls their first encounter, their love, the shared emotions that stirred within them when faced with beauty. Bergé also recalls the difficulty of Saint Laurent’s last years spent in solitude.