JACQUES HELLEU AND CHANEL by Jacques Helleu and Laurence Benaim
In 1965, Jacques Helleu was put in charge of promoting Chanel. Forty years later and with a body of sensational work, Helleu presents to the world once again the reasons for his success. In the book Jacques Helleu and Chanel, he reveals the sources of his creative vision and inspiration. Helleu provides glimpses not only into his work but the people who worked with him: the directors, photographers, models, and others.

Over 400 illustrations show the work of photographers: Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Dominique Issermann, Patrick Demarchelier, David Bailey, and Bettina Rheims—all for Chanel. Helleu’s accomplishments are well known and his choice of directors (Ridley Scott, Luc Besson, Jean-Paul Goude, Roman Polanski, and Baz Luhrman) demonstrates his canny ability to select sound partners to help promote the brand. “Rene Gruau said to me one day, ‘The best and most talented of us all is Jean-Paul Goude.’ He still manages to surprise me. What I like most is his work for Printemps and Franck Et Fils. His style, Toulouse-Lautrec revisited by Rodin, is astonishingly original. Hi there, JP!” says Helleu.

Captivating images will charm readers as Helleu revisits Chanel campaigns and the models who graced Chanel ads. “Monique Lefebvre was the 1950s blonde,” says Helleu. “She married a playboy polo player. Back then, I used to cut out her covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar to make collages. When I met her, I could not help blushing terribly.”

And in her introduction, Laurence Benaim shows us a glimpse of the man behind Chanel’s image and this worthy compilation. “Jacques Helleu is a risk taker, sharp-tongued, tenderhearted, intimidating yet vulnerable, a ‘willing victim’ of the women whose magical power of seduction has inspired a lifelong career. … He has an unparalleled talent for describing the delicate curve of a woman’s lips, the lightness of her foot, the turn of a shapely ankle. He is a . rm believer that ‘there is no point wearing a miniskirt if you don’t know how to cross your legs elegantly.’”
$125.00, hardcover, 280 pages, Abrams
PHOTO: STUDIOALEX

IL MODO ITALIANO: ITALIAN DESIGN AND AVANT-GARDE IN THE 20TH CENTURY edited by Guy Cogeval and Giampiero Bosoni
Il Modo Italiano: Italian Design and Avant-garde in the 20th Century provides a sweeping history of Italian design—arranged chronologically in four definitive periods—as well as a contemporary look at modern Italian works. Over 350 works of art are showcased within the book’s pages. From the chapter covering artist-artisans to architect-designers, “The wealth of art in Italy is unmatched: all ages since antiquity have contributed directly to the creation of its immeasurable heritage. Such continuity has meant that the applied arts have benefited from the handing down from generation to generation of a unique knowledge of craft and a manual dexterity nurtured over the centuries by the power and ambitions of princes and popes.”

The book also shows the impact of Italian design worldwide with a strong focus on the Americas, covering technology and product design to fashion and furniture design. “Most foreigners endearingly consider Italy the quintessence of style and elegance in all the categories that represent the Good Life, from clothing and household objects to food, bicycles, furniture and fancy cars. Italy’s powerful manual of style contains a whole set of cultural references and positive stereotypes for the use and consumption of worldly buyers. … Just like any dream, however, the power of Italian design lies in its unattainability. In the minds of consumers on the American continent, the bits of Italian culture that one can buy are exquisite, eccentric, and expensive, certainly not the stuff of every day. For this reason, while food and clothing have enjoyed better market penetration, Italian design objects have had a hard time gaining wide distribution.” Whether you agree with this reading of Italian design’s influence or not, Il Modo Italiano makes strong arguments for Italian design’s impact worldwide with extensive text and stunning photography.

Several insightful interviews with notable Italian artists such as Ettore Sottsass, Enzo Mari, Alessandro Mendin, Mario Bellini, and more end the book along with an easy-to-navigate list of works and biographies of featured artists. Each conversation with author Giampiero Bosoni is a discourse in design, theory, history, and future. From a conversation with Ettore Sottsass: “In any case [Italian design at the time] declared loudly, let’s remake the world,” he says. “Every country where an authoritarian rule or a war comes to an end for at least five years goes through a period of great hope, of great activity, of great—how to put it?—light.”
$75.00, hardcover, 384 pages, Skira, (www.skira.net, www.rizzoliusa.com)

PART ASIAN, 100% HAPA portraits by Kip Fulbreck
“If, like me,” says Sean Lennon (son of Yoko Ono and John Lennon) in the foreword for Part Asian, 100% Hapa, “you are half-Japanese and half-English, you will in Japan be considered white, and in America be considered Asian. This can be lonely at times, but it mostly makes for good conversation.” And within professor and chair of Art at UC Santa Barbara Kip Fulbreck’s book, the conversation evolves. It’s an introspective and touching look at how we sometimes see ourselves. Hapa, originally a derogatory term for part Asian, has also evolved to become a term of pride for the million Hapas living in the U.S.

Lennon continues, “Why does it matter if you’re white or yellow or both? Well, it matters when you’re being degraded or insulted or ignored simply because of your ethnic identity, or lack thereof. But in the end it would serve humanity best to try to understand the ways in which we are the same, not the ways in which we are different. Let us remember, as we raise our proverbial freak flag high, that the reasons we fight racism and bigotry are to erase the stereotypes by which we have been falsely defined and to usher in a new era of peace, love, and ethnically diverse television programming.”

This will not be the book to end racism, nor will racists likely purchase it. But like any good book, film, or media, it’s thought-provoking, capturing attention and possibly hearts. The stark, head-on portraits and honest answers from the participants are moving. Each, in his or her own way, answered (and interpreted) the question, “What are you?” A Thai, Lao, Irish, Italian young man replies, “I am, yes, an American kid who celebrates Hanukkah with his Jewish stepfather, prays to Buddha with his Buddhist momma, and then goes to midnight mass with his Christian father and waits for Santa Claus to come down the chimney. Yeah.” Another man answers, “I am constantly debating whether the Chinese half is better than the Vietnamese half.” The book is filled with photos of, and answers from, a range of ages, races, and sexes. “I’m a girl. I’m American. I’m seven. I’m Hanna.” And it really doesn’t matter that she’s also Filipina, Yugoslavian, Norwegian, Irish, too. Does it?
$19.95, softcover, 264 pages, Chronicle Books

WORDS FAIL ME by Teresa Monachino
“While there are many cases where a double negative conveys a positive, there is no case where a double positive conveys a negative … yeah, right.” This questionable rule of the English language and many more can be found in award-winning designer and typographer Teresa Monachino’s Words Fail Me, a humorous look at the quirks of English. Monachino wonders “Why is abbreviation such a long word?” and “Why does monosyllabic have five syllables?”

Monachino’s love of wordplay grew from her Italian mother’s struggles with English. “The genesis of this book lies with my mother and her uncertain grasp of English over the years. In my attempts to explain the often extreme differences in meaning between similar-looking words I often found myself equally befuddled. English hoodwinks us into believing one thing while concealing something quite different. All is not what it seems. This book is my attempt to bring these illogical ideas to the fore, not as an academic study of our language, but as a visual treat.”

Within the book’s pages, questions of spelling, pronunciation, and more are illustrated through clever visual representations. For example, the middle letters of believe spell lie. Minute, with differing pronunciations, is both a measure of time and miniscule. And what of “pleonasties”? Free gift. Advance warning. End result.

Or perhaps, it’s dark and the lights are out. No problem, we can still see since the stars are out. “Quite a lot is a large amount but quite a few is also a large amount. Being blunt can result in a cutting remark.” Words Fail Me is now out on shelves.
$12.95, hardcover, 144 pages, Phaidon Press, Inc.

COMMUNICATING WITH PATTERN: STRIPES by Mark Hampshire and Keith Stephenson
According to designer Ben Kelly in the foreword of Communicating with Pattern: Stripes, “Stripes communicate many things. Mostly they draw attention to whatever they are applied to. I could never have predicted the impact that painting stripes on columns in The Hacienda nightclub would have in 1982. The image of stripes on columns in The Hacienda has bounced around the globe and has reappeared in too many appropriated settings to mention.” So what do stripes mean to graphic design?

The authors of Stripes promote these pairings of lines as “highly versatile communication tools” that are “timeless, gender neutral, and appealing to all ages.” There’s no arguing with the authors when they tout stripes as making a thing stand out. They grab attention quickly and simply. The book “explores the language of this graphic pattern. Each chapter looks at different applications, showing stripes in situ and showcasing design work that features stripes. It’s a visual mood board that will inspire you to experiment with the range of communication opportunities that stripes offer.”

A range of examples is covered in the book: classic stripes, membership and identity, themes and moods, signals and information, form and function. The book contains over 250 pages of full-color photos showing the standout power, versatility, and quality of stripes. Kelly adds, “Stripes are like an extrusion, you cut them off as and where you need them, long or short, wide or narrow, vertical, horizontal, or at an angle. Stripes to fit any occasion.” $30.00, softcover (flexibind), 256 pages, RotoVision

NEW JAPANESQUE GRAPHICS
Neo Japanesque Graphics is a unique look into contemporary Japanese graphic design, providing colorful examples of modern advertising, packaging and store graphics, book design, CD and DVD jackets, product design, and more. The thematically arranged examples show how Japanese graphics are moving away from traditional Japanese design and mark the new direction it is taking.

This is not a book by American authors who selected works from Japanese design. Rather it is Japanese editors selecting the examples to best represent current Japanese styles, as only those who live and breathe a culture can. Text is in both English and Japanese. “With antique kimono, Japanese housewares, rakugo, and Kyoto undergoing mini booms, things Japanese have become something of a worldwide movement,” say the editors in their introduction. “Needless to say, the trend is also having its effects on work in the field of design. It is our hope that by assembling the works shown herein from the perspective of ‘new Japanese-style design,’ this book will act as a reference and inspiration to people in the creative workplace.”
$79.00, hardcover, 208 pages, PIE Books (www.piebooks.com, www.lastgasp.com