pierre berge

The Fashion Statement: Fashion's Priciest Coffee Table Books

What to get the stylish woman who has everything? (And let's just say you've exhausted gifts like precious gems, haute couture and yacht excursions to St. Barths) Well, then, what about a super collectible, really expensive fashion coffee table book? Here, a list of some of the priciest tomes out there.

1. Couture Fashion Drawings by Hubert de Givenchy, published by the house of Givenchy, Paris, in 1980: This is signed by the late designer himself and includes hand-colored haute couture fashion sketch plates from the period of the '70s to the '80s including original fabric swatches. The book was part of the Estate of Nan Kempner, a New York socialite who died in 2005. Price tag? $9,000

2. Valentino Garavani (hardcover) by Suzy Menkes, Matt Tyrnauer and Armando Chitolina, published by Taschen in 2007: This is the coffee table book version of Valentino: The Last Emperor, a documentary film by Vanity Fair writer Matt Tyrnauer. It's an homage to Valentino's legendary career and includes images from his archives, drawings, advertisements, portraits, documentary photographs as well as newspaper and magazine articles. International Herald Tribune's fashion writer Suzy Menkes interviewed 20 of Valentino's closest collaborators and friends, including his life partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Price tag? $4,500

3. Russell James (hardcover deluxe edition with Gisele Bundchen photoprint) with forwards by Heidi Klum, Donna Karan, and Sharen Turney, published by teNeues in 2009: Who wouldn't pay big bucks to Gisele in the buff? This book highlights the work of Russell James, a photographer who is well-known for his nudes and fashion portraiture. The volume is encased in a clamshell box and contains one of only two numbered and signed limited-edition large prints that show his study of human beauty. Price tag? $3,250

Tags: Anna Wintour, giancarlo giammetti, gisele bundchen, Givenchy, grace coddington, Matt Tyrnauer, Nan Kempner, pierre berge, Russell James, Suzy Menkes, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent

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Win A Copy Of The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Books

It's not often that personal taste can be described as exquisite, it denotes a rare confluence of means and sensibility. But there's really no other word that describe the homes put together by late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé quite so well. A new book, The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé has come out from Vendome Press. The book by Robert Murphy with photography by Ivan Terestchenko is a sumptuous exploration of Saint Laurent and Bergé's multiple homes and expansive collections.

If you've seen some of pieces from the collection which were sold by Christie's for record-breaking sums earlier this year then this is a chance to view the items in situ as they were used by Saint Laurent and Bergé. This is the sort of gorgeous coffee table book (280 pages, 11" x 12 1/4") that inspires dreams. We can't all afford the items that they did but the style, the way or arranging things and of pulling in various objects from different time periods and styles is something anyone can adopt.

Vendome Press was kind enough to send me a copy and I'm giving it away to one lucky reader. To enter leave a comment describing one of your most prized objects.

Some other important details:

* To enter, leave a confirmed comment below.
* The comment must be left and confirmed before September 25, 2009 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
* You may only enter once.
* One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
* One winner will receive a copy of The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé valued at $95.
* Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia.

See complete contest rules here.

This contest is now closed. Thank you for your participation.

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Tags: book giveaway, BookGiveaway, books, coffee table book, CoffeeTableBook, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Yves Saint Laurent's Moroccan Hideaway Up For Sale

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Recently I mentioned that a second auction of the belongings of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent would be going up for sale in November. The AP recently revealed that Saint Laurent's cliffside home in Taniger, Morocco has also hit the market. Christie's Great Estates has announced that Villa Mabrouka, or House of Luck is for sale for an undisclosed price. The five-bedroom home overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar and includes beautiful gardens which surround the home. The interior design was done by renowned decorator Jacques Grange and combines classic Moroccan arcades with details like a living room finished in blue chintz.

Listing pictures are scant but the Daily Mail has a couple pictures from a book, The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé by Robert Murphy with photographs by Ivan Terestchenko, which give more of a look into the home. This home's style was based on, according to Grange, "the house of an eccentric Englishman who moved to Tangier in the 1950s." The home does not feature much of the couple's famous art collection because as Bergé put it, the pieces that would have worked in the home were by Matisse and already hanging in museums. If they couldn't have the best, the pair decide to go for simplicity instead.

Gallery: Yves Saint Laurent in Tangier

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Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, morocco, pierre berge, PierreBerge, tangier, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Second Yves Saint Laurent Auction Planned

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Earlier this year the first sale of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Collection was a bright light in the art auction world achieving record sales of over $480 million. This fall Christie's will try their luck again with the second sale from the collection which will take place in Paris on November 17, 18 and 19. As with the previous sale, proceeds will go to the Pierre Bergé /Yves Saint Laurent Foundation which preserves the design legacy of Yves Saint Laurent, and to a foundation for medical research and the fight against AIDS.

This sale will feature around 1200 works of art from Château Gabriel à Bénerville as well as from the Parisian residences of the two collectors. Like the last sale this one spans many of Christie''s departments: Old Masters and 19th Century Drawings and Paintings, Impressionist and Modern Art, Prints, Contemporary Art, Decorative Art, Furniture, Sculpture, Ceramics, Silver, Asian and Islamic Art, Antiquities, African and Australian Art, as well as pieces from Natural History, Books, Jewellery and Textiles. The value of the sale is estimated between €3 million to €4 million.

The two gentlemen decorated their homes with exquisite taste and Château Gabriel à Bénerville features many important antiques including 19th century mirrors, a Ming Dynasty Chinese basin dating to the early 16th century and Napoleon III sofas and armchairs. Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by Marcel Proust and his private quarters at the chateau were named for Charles Swann from À la recherche du temps perdu.

The blockbuster items from the Parisian apartments were already auctioned off last February but many smaller pieces will be up for sale this time. If you want just a touch of St. Laurent at a reasonable price you can pick up an Art Deco box or clock for a few hundred euros. This sale won't attract as much attention as the other one but it features many more objects of understated charm. Imagine carrying St. Laurent's crocodile-skin Hermès suitcases or even owning his last car, a 2007 Mercedes Benz S Class 350L.

Tags: art, christies, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves st laurent, YvesStLaurent

The French Resistance: Paris Art Market Defies the World

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

In New York and London, art auction houses for ever dollar they can bring in, but the French have been able to fight back. The number of sales and lots brought to auction has remained stable year over year. And, in the first three months of the year, Paris put up better results than London or New York, thanks to the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint-Laurent sale at the Grand Palais back in February. Historically, Paris has lagged these two cities, but its resilience this year has changed the game a bit.

For the first quarter, art prices in France came down only 5 percent, a level that's been maintained through the rest of the year, so far. Christie's bears much of the responsibility for this success, with some solid auctions this year, though Sotheby's has helped, as well, with a Contemporary Art auction that moved 95.2 percent of the lots offered. Also, Parisian auctions aren't as up-market as those in London and New York, which has muted the effects of the global financial crisis.

In addition to the Yves Saint Laurent sale, which brought in €373.5 million (€255 million for works of art), the late May auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's did perform well relative to past years. The summer is likely to be quiet, with smaller auctions in Paris, but Christie's is bringing a private collection to market with pieces by Henri Laurens, Hans Harp and Henri Michaux, among others. The numbers won't be eye-popping, but expect the momentum to continue.

Vive la resistance!

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Tags: art, art auction, art auctions, art market, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, ArtMarket, artwork, auction, auction-house, auctionhouse, auctions, france, grand palais, GrandPalais, paris, parisfrance, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves saint laurent, yves st laurent, YvesSaintLaurent, YvesStLaurent

YSL Warhol Potraits Pulled Over Classification Fracas

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

Should Yves Saint Laurent be filed under "glamour" or "artists?" The debate over this distinction has caused YSL's partner Pierre Berge to pull four Andy Warhol portraits of Saint Laurent from a major Paris exhibition. "Warhol's Wide World" is set to open on March 18 at the Grand Palais (the recent site of the YSL art auciton). Berge told the AFP that he has asked that the series of 1974 Saint Laurent pictures be removed from the part of the show showcasing other Warhol portraits of designers, such as Giorgio Armani or Sonia Rykiel, under the title "glamour." Berge told the curator he did not think that Saint Laurent belonged in this category, the curator did not change the place and so the pieces which belong to Berge, were withdrawn from the exhibit. Berge has said the YSL portraits could have instead been hung in the "artists" section because Saint Laurent was a designer but as Berge puts it, "I think he was more than that."

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Tags: andy warhol, AndyWarhol, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves st laurent, YvesStLaurent

Winning Bid On Yves Saint Laurent's Bronzes Was A Protest Not A Promise of Payment

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Last week's Yves Saint Laurent art sale generated world record revenue but they may have to take one sale off the books. The much-disputed Qing bronzes which were part of the auction's final sale day were bought by Cai Mingchao, who says that although he placed the winning bid for the two bronze statues he does not intend to pay for them. The statues, one with the head of a rat and one with the head of a rabbit sold for €15,745,000 each. The National Treasures Fund, a group backed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture which seeks to buy Chinese art and antiquities from around the world and bring them home announced Cai Mingchao's identity at a news conference. He is an adviser to the National Treasures Fund and has said that he did his duty as a Chinese citizen by bidding for the pieces.

The Qing bronzes had been severed from a water clock by British and French troops from the Summer Palace in 1860 and many Chinese people saw the bronzes as stolen goods up for sale even though the bronze heads have been bought and sold multiple times since then. The Chinese government protested the sale but the French government ruled that the sale could go forward. According to an article on Forbes Pierre Berge had said he would give back the sculptures for free if Tibet is made free, an offer which did not sit well with the Chinese government.

Bloomberg quotes Christie's Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Kate Malin as saying that the auction house "would work with the buyer and vendor to come up with a solution." Christie's could sue Cai Mingchao to get the money but he is adamant that he will not be paying.

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Tags: auction, bronze, china, pierre berge, PierreBerge, qing, qing dynasty, QingDynasty, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Yves Saint Laurent Sale Sets Many Records

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

The three-day auction of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé has closed and the numbers are impressive. The sale brought in 373,935,500 euros (around $483 million) over three days. The sale was estimated to bring in 300 million euros total. . ArtDaily reports that 95.5% of lots sold by lot, and 93% sold by value (for comparison, art sales rates last fall during the Christie's and Sotheby's sales were in the 50-70% range). The sale set a world record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction. It was also the highest grossing sale on record in Europe setting records in a variety of categories.

The public exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris was attended by 30,000 visitors over three days and over 1500 people gathered for each of the sales. The top sale item was the "Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet" which sold the first day for 35.9 million euros. A record was set for a Marcel Duchamp ready-made "La Belle Haleine – Eau de Voilette" by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance by Man Ray in 1921 which sold for 8.9 million euros setting a record for the artist. James Ensor's monumental Le désespoir de Pierrot sold for 4.9 million euros, a world record for the artist at auction. Hean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' Portrait de la comtesse de la Rue, 1890, sold for 2 million euros which was also a world record for the artist at auction.

The sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's silver collection set a record as the most valuable silver sale ever in the world. The auction of 20th Century Decorative Arts set a record for a collection of 20th century decorative arts with 95% of lots sold by lot. It saw 12 individual artist records set and set a a world record for a collection of 20th century decorative arts. The February 25th sale of Sculpture and Works of Art brought in 24.2 million euros. The top lot was a 16th century bronze double head of Janus which sold for 2 million euros, a record for a 16th century French bronze. There's no denying this was an impressive sale and we will likely not see quite an amazing breadth and quality of work in a single collection hit the market again for a while.

The proceeds of the sale will go to the Pierre Bergé /Yves Saint Laurent Foundation which preserves the design legacy of Yves Saint Laurent, and to a new foundation for medical research and the fight against AIDS.

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Tags: auction, paris, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Yves Saint Laurent's Seat, $28 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

The hits keep coming from the Paris sale of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge by Christie's. The three-day sale set records for a second day in Paris including one for the leather armchair shown at right which sold for over $28 million (21,905,000 euros), the most for any piece of 20th-century design at auction. And as Bloomberg News reports, the buyer was the dealer who sold it to the Saint Laurent in the early 1970s.

The chair, is an Art Deco piece by ~~French~~ Irish designer Eileen Gray made around 1917 to 1919. It had a presale estimate of that topped out at three million euros. The second day haul for the event was 101.3 milliion euros which was more than double the top estimate. The sales are fantastic news for Christie's and have brought renewed enthusiasm to the art world (although I do agree with the WSJ's Robert Frank that these sales result, while phenomenal, don't indicate a general art market upswing but rather the impressiveness of this one collection). The sale finishes up today with sculpture and Asian arts.

Tags: art, auction, christies, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Christie's Yves Saint Laurent Show Photoblog

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

The much-anticipated auction of the collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé starts Monday in Paris and Christie's is pulling out all the stops for the event. For those of us not able to be there and see the art ourselves, Christie's had created a handy Flickr sideshow of the public viewing going on this weekend at the Grand Palais. The viewing is a chance to see the astounding breadth of the collection which includes works by Mondrian, Léger, Picasso and Matisse as well as Art Deco furniture, fine silver, Old Master paintings and antiquities. The exhibition also recreates parts of the apartments in which the collection was housed. The Christie's blog will chronicle all the auction including shots of the sale room and images of the big sales through the final sale on Wednesday February 25.

[via Art Market Monitor]

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Tags: auction, christies, pierre berge, PierreBerge, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Yves St. Laurent's New York Pad, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Today's estate comes to us from the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties section. It is the elegant apartment of Yves St. Laurent and his business partner Pierre Berge. The apartment is located in the swanky Pierre hotel which is home to that blockbuster $70 million listing. The apartment was decorated by the late Jed Johnson, whose client list included Mick Jagger and Richard Gere. The home has a combined living-dining room with hand-stenciled linen wall coverings, leather-lined mahogany dressing areas and Central Park views. St. Laurent and Berge bought the New York apartment in 1978 but haven't stayed there a lot recently. The home has two bedrooms each with custom leather-lined mahogany dressing areas and mahogany and marble ensuite baths. It was recently reduced to $7.75 million. After the jump, how a gentleman bathes.

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Tags: estate of the day, new york real estate, pierre berge, pierre hotel, ysl, yves st laurent, YvesStLaurent

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