Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Chanel The Impossible Collection

About the Item

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. Complimentary white gloves and signature canvas tote bag are included with each purchase from Assouline's Ultimate Collection 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 Independent, i, 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).
  • Creator:
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 18.7 in (47.5 cm)Width: 15.6 in (39.63 cm)Depth: 3.1 in (7.88 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    2019
  • Production Type:
    New & Custom(Current Production)
  • Estimated Production Time:
    Available Now
  • Condition:
  • Seller Location:
    NEW YORK, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 97816142881071stDibs: LU2549316992622
More From This SellerView All
  • Rolex: The Impossible Collection
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    For more than a century, Rolex stands apart as the most coveted and most legendary brand of watches in the world. A Rolex connotes many things: the quintessence of the luxury timepiece, a tool of power for movers and shakers, the symbol of passage into adulthood. New labels pop up, styles come and go, but the brand at the top never changes. Ever the record setter—the Daytona that had belonged to Paul Newman was auctioned by Phillips in New York in October 2017 for $17.8 million—it comes as no surprise that Rolex is the most collected watch label in the world. The history of Rolex is rooted in the visionary spirit of its founder, Hans Wilsdorf. In 1905, young Wilsdorf founded a company in London for the distribution of timepieces, but his true dream was to produce wristwatches—in their infancy at the time, and not very precise—that would be technically durable and reliable, and supremely elegant. The company first concentrated on producing the highest quality movements, and this quest for precision rapidly led to the first wristwatch in the world...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Books

    Materials

    Metal

  • Formula 1: the Impossible Collection
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    A six-point safety harness wraps over your shoulders and between your legs, a head and neck brace clamps down your chest. The world ahead is visible only above a rim at eye level; the world behind is seen only through two mirrors little bigger than cigarette boxes. The start lights begin to illuminate red, and when they extinguish, your life will enter another dimension: this is not a fighter jet or a spacecraft, you are on the starting grid of a Formula One track, strapped into the world’s most technologically advanced racing car. The turbocharged engine, with more than 1,000 horsepower, is about to kick you in the backside, hurtling to 100 kph in 2.5 seconds, careening toward the first corner of the track. For the average reader, even driving a single lap of a Grand Prix would be impossible. But for the world’s twenty best racing drivers in the series’ ten teams, it is a way of life that is extreme in almost every facet. Selected by veteran F1 journalist Brad Spurgeon, Formula 1: The Impossible Collection chronicles the milestones that lifted Formula One from a gentlemen’s club in 1950 to a global sport with hundreds of millions of fans around the world, third in popularity only to the Olympics and World Cup soccer. Highlighting exceptional technical innovations, remarkable drivers’ achievements and exciting race finishes, this volume illuminates immortal names such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Bruce McLaren, Enzo Ferrari, Colin Chapman, Bernie Ecclestone, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Books

    Materials

    Metal

  • Yachts: The Impossible Collection
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    Since time immemorial, monarchs, nobility and the aristocracy have yearned to spend their leisure time on the water. From Cleopatra’s fabled luxury barge to Her Majesty’s Royal Yacht Britannia, from elegant Jazz Age vessels such as Nahlin, once chartered by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, to the swinging ’60s Hollywood royalty invited aboard Aristotle Onassis’ Christina O, the yachting scene has always attracted celebrities, high society and the top 0.1%. But with over three thousand sizable yachts currently in the global fleet, not to mention those legendary vessels that are sadly no longer in existence, how do we distinguish the crème de la crème of this exclusive breed? Yachts: The Impossible...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Books

    Materials

    Rubber

  • Cartier: The Impossible Collection
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    One of the world’s premier luxury jewelers since the nineteenth century, Cartier evokes a world of artistry and beauty, a legacy of unequaled prestige. By 1909, Cartier was the first...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Books

    Materials

    Silk

  • Chinese Art The Impossible Collection
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    Over the last century, China has experienced a period of growth more rapid and utterly transforming than any other nation has experienced in modern history. How can we begin to understand the country that has emerged from such a dramatic era of change? Perhaps the answer can be found in China’s art. Certainly, that is what renowned art collectors Adrian Cheng and John Dodelande argue in their forthcoming volume, Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection. After all, China’s history as a land of enormous influence stretches back to its dynastic past, and the nation’s art has always been in conversation with its customs. The most highly anticipated volume in Assouline’s exclusive Ultimate series, Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection spotlights 100 works of contemporary art that reveal the social, political, and cultural evolution of a nation on the rise. Thoughtfully curated by Cheng and Dodelande, the 100 works are presented in chronological order, beginning with traditional paintings from the turn of the twentieth century and culminating with some of the most cutting-edge works by China’s “new generation” of artists, whose creations explore and often critique the politics that have defined China’s rapid growth into a new world power. The particular themes and conversations that these 100 works raise are glossed in essays and commentary from three of the world’s foremost experts on Chinese Art—Philip Tinari of the UCAA in Beijing, Alexandra Munroe of the Guggenheim in New York, and Karen Smith...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Books

    Materials

    Other

  • The Impossible Collection of Design
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in NEW YORK, NY
    In recent years, the decorative furnishings niche has become of tremendous interest to collectors, causing a surge in the auction market and bringing record sales. Chosen by design e...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Books

    Materials

    Linen

You May Also Like
  • Signals of the Twenties, 1988
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in North Hollywood, CA
    Signals of the Twenties. Modena, Happy Books, 1988 Measures: 12" x 8"5. Small book hard cover about signals.  
    Category

    Late 20th Century American Anglo-Indian Books

    Materials

    Paper

  • Pavlovsk: The Palace and the Park and the Collections (Book)
    Located in North Yorkshire, GB
    A very nice set of books in a very good clamshell box which were privately published with the support of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. Volume 1 - The Collect...
    Category

    Antique 19th Century Books

    Materials

    Paper

  • The Well-lived Life: One Hundred Years of House & Garden
    By Assouline Publishing
    Located in North Hollywood, CA
    The Well-lived Life: One Hundred Years of House & Garden by Dominique Browning. Assouline Publishing, Inc. 2008. Large hardcover coffee table book. Size: 12 1/8" x 9 1/2" x 1" 1/4. House & Home - 238 pages. Few magazines can lay claim to a century of history or to having published work by some extraordinary and distinguished photographers and writers as House & Garden. Now, straight from the pages of this well-loved periodical, The Well-Lived Life presents a lavish chronicle of a country and a culture coming into its own, documenting America's continuing education in matters of house, home and garden over the course of the 20th century. Selecting high points from the magazine, this book surveys the growing confidence and imagination reflected in American interiors and entertaining over the last century -the dinners, picnics and parties of a country dedicated to welcoming others- and the changing definition of home. It also illuminates the joys -sedentary or sporting- Americans have always found in the out-of-doors. The Well-Lived Life surveys the landscape of our lawns and gardens...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American American Classical Books

    Materials

    Paper

  • Sotheby's, the Collection of Patricia Kluge
    Located in valatie, NY
    Sotheby's, the collection of Patricia Kluge. Charlottesville: Sotheby's, 2010. Softcover. 617 pp. The single-owner sale of the contents of Pat Kluge's E...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary American Books

    Materials

    Paper

  • Furniture Collections in the Louvre (Book)
    Located in North Yorkshire, GB
    This is a deluxe edition in two volumes which does justice to the splendour of this incomparable collection. This collection has never before been the subject of such an important wo...
    Category

    Antique 17th Century Books

    Materials

    Paper

  • David Webb The Quintessential American Jeweler Hardcover Book by Ruth Peltason
    By Assouline Publishing, David Webb
    Located in North Hollywood, CA
    David Webb The Quintessential American Jeweler hardcover book by Ruth Peltrason c 2013. This large heavy hardcover luxury book is an amazing archive of Webb's extraordinary 20th cent...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Italian Hollywood Regency Books

    Materials

    Paper

Recently Viewed

View All