Engelska

Roots of Chaos Box Set [Bok / Övrigt]

<b>The first comprehensive overview of Ralph Lauren's womenswear collections, from their 1972 debut to today, presented through original catwalk photography.</b><br/> <br/> Ralph Lauren debuted his first women's runway collection for Fall 1972 with a show that made his mark instantly, highlighting his exquisite tailoring and uncanny ability to mix opposites elegantly. Taking inspiration from New England's rusticity, the West's natural beauty and Hollywood's glamour, Lauren's designs are a gold-standard for timeless American style with panache. This book celebrates more than 50 years of Lauren's creations, which have garnered many awards, made him a much-loved global brand and influenced the way women dress all over the world.<br/> <br/> Ralph Lauren famously launched his menswear business in 1967 with an audacious tie collection, taken up by Bloomingdale's, from which his Polo brand quickly developed. This became, and has remained ever since, a benchmark for polished tailoring with rugged utility. With his dual collections of 1972, Lauren began his rise in the world of women's fashion; fourteen years later he opened his first Paris store on Place de la Madeleine, an affirmation of his ranking with the world's most famed couturiers. <br/> <br/> His consistent desire to create 'a way of dressing that redefines the meaning of timelessness' has made his label a by-word for luxury and class - as one critic said, Ralph Lauren 'made it possible to use the words slinky and tweed in the same sentence without risking ridicule'. <br/> <br/> Complete with an introduction, designer biography and collection texts by Bridget Foley, this book offers a unique opportunity to explore the work of a great American couturier and creator of one of the world's most celebrated fashion houses.

Max Alm-Norell är en svensk konstnär och fotograf känd för sina färgstarka, kvadratiska och energifyllda verk. Genom att kombinera flera fotografier i samma bild och bygga vidare med akrylfärg och olika material skapar han djupa, lager på lager berättelser som förändras med betraktarens blick. Hans bakgrund inom reklam- och modefotografi ger uttrycket en intuitiv skärpa och en visuellt kraftfull närvaro. Med över 80 utställningar i Europa och världen har han etablerat sig som en konstnär vars bildvärld både berör och överraskar. <br/><br/>Boken är tryckt i stort kvadratiskt format (280 × 280 mm) och omfattar 240 sidor på exklusivt 170 g Magnum Volume - ett högvolymigt premiumpapper som ger en unik taktil känsla och en djup färgåtergivning. Omslaget är tillverkat i Curious Metallics Gold Leaf, ett av världens mest exklusiva kreativa papper, och boken är trådbunden med 3 mm pärmband för maximal hållbarhet och lyxkänsla. <br/><br/>Bokblocket är skuret för perfekt precision och både inlaga och pärmpapp har försetts med färgat guldsnitt (Luxor 420 Gold), vilket ger boken en distinkt och samlarvänlig karaktär. Detta är en konstbok producerad med samma omsorg och material som internationella limited editions i betydligt högre prisklasser. <br/><br/>Upplagan är strikt begränsad till 500 exemplar och kommer inte att nytryckas. Detta gör boken till ett eftertraktat objekt för samlare och en unik del av Max Alm-Norells konstnärskap.

<strong>From the discerning editors of <em>FREDERIC</em> and the creative minds at Schumacher, a beautifully photographed and written exploration of an exciting new movement in French interior design and architecture, featuring visionary talents</strong> <br/><br/>Something extraordinary is happening in French interior design. Like the cinematic sea change that gave us the New Wave, the next generation of designers and architects is breaking with the past to forge something entirely fresh - a movement that feels as significant as it is seductive, as trailblazing as it is sensually refined. <br/><br/>From rising stars like Hugo Toro and Marine Bonnefoy to established names like Jacques Grange and Jean-Louis Deniot, the twenty-one French designers in <em>Arbiters of Style</em> are leading a bold new charge in the decorative arts: fluent in architecture, but fluent in feeling, too; refreshingly unafraid of color; obsessed with sculptural form; and confident enough to let a single perfect gesture speak volumes. They are proving that the most profound luxury isn't about having more - it's about knowing exactly what to leave out. <br/><br/>Lushly illustrated with nearly 200<em> </em>color photographs, this stunning survey showcases inspiring interiors in private residences across France, from Paris and Ormesson-sur-Marne to far-flung holiday locales such as Cap Ferret, the Pyrenees, Biarritz, Ile de Re, and Saint-Tropez. <br/><br/>This is more than a snapshot of French style - it is elegance and sophistication reimagined by interior designers and architects who think like artists and artists who understand structure, it is a cadre of talent rewriting the rules. In an era when design feels caught between maximalist excess and beige-washed banality, these spaces represent an aesthetic reawakening, a burst of creativity that seems light-years ahead of everything else, reminding us that true style isn't about following rules - it's about having the vision to shatter them beautifully.

<strong>Deluxe slipcased edition of this previously unknown short satirical fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien, accompanied by illustrations from the author together with an essay, 'The Origin of Bovadium', by Richard Ovenden OBE, and featuring an exclusive foldout colour frontispiece.</strong> <br/><br/>As Christopher Tolkien notes in his Introduction, <em>The Bovadium Fragments</em> was a 'satirical fantasy' written by his father, which grew out of a planning controversy that erupted in Oxford in the late 1940s, when J.R.R. Tolkien was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. <br/><br/>Written initially for his own amusement, Tolkien's tale was a private academic jest that poked gentle fun at such things as 'the pomposities of archaeologists' and 'the hideousness of college crockery'. However, it was at the same time expressing a barbed <em>cri de coeur</em> against the inexorable rise of motor transport and 'machine-worship' that was overwhelming the tranquillity of his beloved city. <br/><br/>Enriched by a selection of illustrations by the author, and enhanced by Christopher Tolkien's notes and commentary, readers can enjoy at last this tale of an imagined Oxford viewed through the lens of future (and not wholly reliable) academic study. <br/><br/>Richard Ovenden's accompanying essay paints a vivid portrait of Oxford during that time. He also provides rich background to the <em>casus belli</em> which led to the furore that Tolkien witnessed first-hand, as the embers of debate between town planners and the university colleges were fanned into flame. <br/><br/>Playful, erudite, and ultimately tragically moving, <em>The Bovadium Fragments</em> is like nothing else that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, and its themes remain both provocative and timely. Within its lines may be found a concern for the fragility of our natural world, a love of which that was shared by both father and son. As Christopher Tolkien's final presentation of his father's work, it is therefore perhaps fitting that <em>The Bovadium Fragments</em> should be their coda.

<b><i>Junk </i>is a visual history of Spacemen 3 - the psychedelic rock band who are widely acknowledged as the Velvet Underground of the 1980s - as well as a definitive document of the alternative musical culture of the period. </b><br/><br/>With their mantra of "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to", Spacemen 3 established themselves as the ultimate cult band of the period by welding gospel and blues to minimalism and garage rock to create their own truly unique sound. <br/><br/>This book charts their story via co-founder J Spaceman's personal archive of band ephemera from their very first gig posters through to their 1991 posthumous album <i>Recurring</i> via battery receipts, reviews, contracts, personal letters and photographs. In short, all the junk associated with the band.<br/><br/>The book itself - designed in conjunction with Jonny Lu Studios - is designed to feel more like a museological archive instead of a traditional band book - each item being photographed forensically in exactly the same way, all meticulously catalogued by J Spaceman himself.

<strong>A stunning hardcover boxed set celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien's work inspired by the myths and legends of Europe, featuring double-sided dustjackets. This unique set contains <em>Finn and Hengest</em>, <em>The Story of Kullervo</em>, <em>The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun</em> and <em>The Battle of Maldon</em>, along with <em>The Old English Exodus, </em>reprinted for the first time in 50 years<em>.</em></strong> <br/><br/>This brand-new boxed set of five hardbacks includes: <br/><br/><strong><em>The Old English Exodus</em></strong>, a translation of the Old English <em>Exodus </em>poem telling the story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt, appearing in print for the first time since it was first published in the 1980s. Tolkien's aim with this translation was to interpret the poem, reconstruct what the original may have looked like, and demonstrate how it fits into the broader tradition of Old English poetry. Edited by fellow Old English scholar and former pupil, Joan Turville-Petre, this version gives readers the best sense of Tolkien's methods and his important contributions to understanding this poem along, and includes a new preface by the editor's son, Thorlac Turville-Petre. <br/><br/><strong><em>Finn and Hengest</em></strong>, the tale of two fifth-century heroes in Northern Europe, is told both in <em>Beowulf</em> and in a fragmentary Anglo-Saxon poem known as <em>The Fight at Finnesburg</em>, but so obscurely and allusively that its interpretation had been a matter of controversy for over 100 years. Tolkien reveals a classic tragedy of divided loyalties, vengeance, blood and death. <br/><br/><strong><em>The Story of Kullervo </em></strong>is a work of fantasy by J.R.R. Tolkien, which tells the powerful story of a doomed young man who is sold into slavery and who swears revenge on the magician who killed his father. 'Hapless Kullervo', as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny, and is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien's characters. <br/><br/>Set 'In Britain's land beyond the seas' during the Age of Chivalry, <strong><em>The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun</em></strong> tells of a childless Breton Lord and Lady and the tragedy that befalls them when Aotrou seeks to remedy their situation with the aid of a magic potion obtained from a <em>corrigan</em>, or malevolent fairy. When the potion succeeds and Itroun bears twins, the <em>corrigan</em> returns seeking her fee, and Aotrou is forced to choose between betraying his marriage and losing his life. <br/><br/>In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex. The attack was immortalized in the poem, <strong><em>The Battle of Maldon</em></strong>. Written shortly after the battle, the poem survives now as a 325-line fragment, and is an invaluable example of both a heroic tale and the vivid expression of the lost language of our ancestors. Tolkien's prose translation of the poem is presented by leading Tolkien scholar, Peter Grybauskas, alongside the definitive treatment of <em>The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth</em>, Tolkien's own dramatic verse-dialogue inspired by <em>The Battle of Maldon.</em>