Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People

by Hamish Bowles (Introduction), Calvin Klein (Foreword)

Lavishly illustrated in full color, a book of thirty-six spectacular houses and gardens—whose owners come from the worlds of fashion, music, art, and society—drawing on stories from the pages of Vogue and Vogue Living  as well as never-before-published images by iconic photographers.

Vogue Houses, Gardens, People takes you to the private realms of style-makers around the world, captured by such celebrated photographers as Miles Aldridge, Cecil Beaton, Jonathan Becker, Eric Boman, Oberto Gili, François Halard, Horst P. Horst, Annie Leibovitz, Sheila Metzner, Mario Testino, Tim Walker, and Bruce Weber, among many others. Their dazzling photographs bring to life interiors and exteriors, modern and classical, that are both inspiring and transporting. Writers like Hamish Bowles, Joan Juliet Buck, Dodie Kazanjian, Eve MacSweeney, Julia Reed, Marina Rust, and Vicki Woods take us behind the scenes to give us an intimate view of the owners and how they live.

Here are Madonna’s romantic rural retreat in the depths of the English countryside and the Oscar de la Renta’s coral-stone Palladian mansion on the coast of the Dominican Republic; Michael and Eva Chow’s epic Los Angeles manse and shoe maestro Christian Louboutin’s magical houseboat on the Nile; Donna Karan’s Zenlike Manhattan aerie and legendary tastemaker Marella Agnelli’s enchanted villa and gardens in the Palmeraie of Marrakesh; Julian and Olatz Schnabel’s operatic downtown loft and childrenswear designer Rachel Riley’s miniature château on the Loire; celebrated landscape gardener Fernando Caruncho’s innovative Spanish gardens and Houghton, David Cholmondeley’s magnificent English stately home; Janet de Botton’s idyllic Provençal estate; and four decades of Karl Lagerfeld’s endlessly surprising houses, both innovative and palatial.

Vogue Houses, Gardens, People is an irresistible voyage through some of the world’s most beautiful and private gardens and interiors.

Genres: Interior Design, Fashion, Design, Coffee Table Books, Art, Photography, Nonfiction

400 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2007

About the author

Hamish Bowles is European editor at large for Vogue and editor in chief of Vogue Living. He was curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2001 Costume Institute exhibition, “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years.” He lives in New York, London, and Paris.

Reviews

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should first report that I have an aversion to huge books that are oversized and weigh a small ton. With that said, I strongly feel they should be bound properly so they don't fall apart, which this book is doing after seven years. Being a Vogue reader, I would say I saw many of these photographs and write-ups when they were issued originally, so the book is redundant, for me, in that sense. Irony in how things have changed in a decade. Madonna divorced, Oscar de la Renta (and many others) demised. Probably the saddest entry was on Gianni Versace and his Miami home. Lush photography and you really get a feel for the interior spaces and what he did to create all of this from a crumbling manse. Sadly, all most of us remember is the blood-stained steps of this property, which his family sold not too long after his death--and who can blame them.?

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great photos.

[Manny Villa · Rating 5 out of 5]

1543782

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

1543782

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

that julian schnabel really knows how to inhabit a space! also who knew that cy twombly was such an integral part of these vogue-types' decor? when the revolution comes I will liberate that awesome chalkboard-style gray Twombly that hangs over Giancarlo Giammeti's fireplace in Paris. also cool: Francois Halard's house in Arles with the Louis XV & Louis XVI furniture, bright distemper walls and Matisse-en-Morocco bathroom & Rachel Riley's light blue Mauny's 1930's design wallpaper in her bathroom in Loire.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not great. The book suffers from trying to be and do too much. Is it a biography of the big names of Vogue? Is it a book full of the lush interiors of the rich and famous? It was enjoyable, but never quite successful.

[jennifer]

okay this book is the best thing ever. i want to live in cy twombly's apartment in rome, circa 1965.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rich really are different from you and me - they have better real estate.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

not worth buying -

[Samantha Penrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a handful of fantastic gardens, beautiful staircases, and a few fabulous pairs of pants.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for anyone that loves to look at incredible real estate!

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Castle porn.

[Bahram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a nice coffee table/picture book.