Vfiles: Style, Fashion, Music

Following Rizzoli’s popular Fashion Lives: Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis this second volume documents a new roster of no-holds-barred interviews with the...

Edited by Martina Mondadori and Stephan Janson, Contributions by Claude Arnaud and Hamish Bowles and Amy Fine Collins The world’s leading authorities on fashion and design celebrate the 60th anniversary of YSL’s first runway presentation with a lexicon that includes many images from the designer’s extraordinary archives. Yves Saint Laurent (1936–2008) is credited with reviving French haute couture in the 1960s, with making ready-to-wear reputable, and with using non-European cultural references. In addition to the kaleidoscope of images in this book, a coterie of tastemakers have supplied listings that encompass YSL’s style inspirations (C is for Costumes, as exem-plified by the Russian theme of the famed autumn-winter 1976–77 collection; T is for Tuxedo, which the designer initially referenced with his 1965 “Le Smoking”) and important facets of his life (J is for Jardin...

Exceptional and Rare Symphonion Music Box. This stunning and highly rare Symphonion music box is a true masterpiece, famously known as the “Symphonion Eroica”. Its unique mechanism p...

Tiny dancers twirl to the melodious tunes produced by this Swiss station cylinder music box. The cylinder is joined by a drum and bells that give richness and depth to the wonderful music the box creates. Music boxes were at the height of fashion in the late 19th century and served as a status symbol for the European gentry. Switzerland was the birthplace of cylinder music boxes and home to the great majority of the most renowned manufacturers. This example, in its finely crafted English walnut case, boasts two combs, allowing the box to play in harmony for a richer, more complex song. This particular style, commonly referred to as a “station” or “showcase” box, was used to entertain guests in hotel lobbies, train stations and other similar public places, and as such would have been coin-operated. This example, however, does not accept coins. This, combined with its overall quality, complexity and beauty, indicates it was made for a private household of significant means. Today, these ingenious musical masterpieces are highly sought-after by collectors of musical automata...