PARIS 1962 – YVES SAINT LAURENT AND CHRISTIAN DIOR, THE EARLY COLLECTIONS

Writer: Tuija Seipell

It would be a mistake to think that Paris 1962 — Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, The Early Collections is just a coffee-table decoration featuring two gorgeous fashion collections. Published by Rizzoli in April 2008, the 176-page volume is more like a still life. It allows the reader a secret little viewing of a slow-motion film documenting a crucial moment in the world of fashion.

During the week of January 26, 1962, Esquire magazine’s dashing photographer, Jerry Schatzberg pointed his lens at the scenes beside and behind the catwalk and captured the mood of one of fashion’s turning points.

The main occasion was the presentation of Yves Saint Laurent’s first independent collection in the former residence of the painter, Forain, on rue Spontini in Paris. That same week, while Yves Saint Laurent established himself as a star in his own right, Marc Bohan showed his latest collection for Christian Dior. The book covers both shows.

BAT FOR LASHES

Writer: Melanie Kramers

Crowned with feathers and glittering with gold face paint, Bat for Lashes is a British singer-songwriter pedalling a whimsical line in alternative folk melodies with a sombre gothic edge. The woman behind it all is Natasha Khan, a talented musician and visual artist based in Brighton. She chose the band name because she liked how the words sounded together, and a similar method informs her debut album, Fur and Gold, which freely mixes eerie strings, autoharp and piano with electronic beats and tribal drumming. Natasha’s influences span decades and cultures - from growing up in the stifling Greater London suburbs, the exotic flavours of childhood trips to Pakistan, cult movies of the eighties and the empty highways of California road trips - resulting in a timeless, otherworldly music. In her own words: “I love the dark, ethereal things. But there’s an element to me that also loves Bananarama.”

VALENTINO: THEMES AND VARIATIONS

Writer: Tuija Seipell

Published last month by Rizzoli, Valentino: Themes and Variations is a delicious dose of eye candy. The book celebrates the 45-year career of the fashion icon Valentino, born in May 1932 as Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani in the town of Voghera, Italy.

There are many reasons to publish and read this 300-page tome right now. Valentino presented his last couture collection this spring in Paris, so there will never be another chance to see a collection of new Valentino creations in real life. Until September 21, the famed costume department of Museé des Arts Decoratifs of the Louvre in Paris hosted an exhibition of 225 mostly haute couture pieces, also called Valentino: Themes and Variations. The book is an integral support feature of the exhibition and the book’s author, Pamela Golbin, is also the curator of the exhibition and the Curator in Chief of the costume department of the museum.

WHAT’S GOING ON, MARVIN GAYE, 1971

Writer: Simon Morgan

Why am I here? How is each of us a part of each other’s pain and sorrow? Is it too late to help heal the world? Nearly 40 years ago, Marvin Gaye’s brilliant soul/jazz/rock soliloquy lifted the lid on the corruption and complacency at the heart of Vietnam-era America. It’s a document that may not wholly answer what it’s like to be a human being in the modern age. But to this day, I can’t hear this collection without questioning whether I could be making a better job of my life.

Angry yet forgiving, insistent yet tender, graphic yet ethereal, specific yet universal, What’s Going On is as integrated and contradictory as the human condition itself. Yet through it all, the pure conviction of a single soul struggling to make sense of the chaos that life is rings as true as a clap of thunder. From the opening clarion call of the title track’s saxophone to the apocalyptic gospel of the closing Inner City Blues, Marvin ruthlessly bares his own troubled soul and so helps us reconnect with our own. No cut-and-dried tracks here. Instead songs fuse and merge till the whole becomes a symphonic mantra. Strings and piano interweave to evoke both our interdependence and the moral complexities of the issues we face. Rhythms pulse, posit and provoke. Choruses tumble down like cresting waves to clear our eyes and revitalise our consciousness. Less a simple piece of music, What’s Going On offers sustenance to the spiritually famished. For the lost we all sometimes are, it’s a glimmer of light.

CARTIER: INNOVATION THROUGH THE 20TH CENTURY

Writer: Tuija Seipell

Cartier: Innovation through the 20th Century is a 280-page catalogue of 175 objects that epitomize the trend-setting influence Cartier has had in the world of serious bling. It was originally published to coincide with the summer 2007 exhibition by the same name at The Moscow Kremlin Museums.

The book’s main author, François Chaille, has penned four of Rizzoli’s Cartier books and is an authority on high-priced accessories such as neckwear, timepieces and writing instruments - that’s ties, watches and pens for the rest of us. Other authors of Cartier: Innovation through the 20th century include Michel Aliaga, Cartier’s Deputy Director for Information and Research, and Larissa Peshekhonova, Curator of Modern Jewellery, Kremlin Museums. Their essays manage to make history interesting, even to me.