BELLAS ARTES

From The Crown to Downton Abbey, the country house speaks to our fantasies of rustic splendour, style, and escape. Featuring three hundred photos from the National Trust, this lavish book draws back the curtain on the finest and most important historic homes in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, revealing these great houses' intriguing pasts, grand interiors, and vi-brant reinventions for the enjoyment of modern-day visitors, residents, and armchair travellers. Locations include Knole, Cragside, Castle Howard, Chatsworth, Polesden Lacey, Petworth, Castle Bodiam, Blenheim, Longleat, and dozens more. Illuminating essays by country house expert Jeremy Musson, legendary British author and historian David Cannadine, and contributing writers and scholars provide unique insight into centuries of life in a historic home. This is a rich visual resource for lovers of sumptuous interiors on a human scale, as well as grand exterior architecture and gorgeous landscapes. For Anglophiles, royals watchers, and lovers of the country house lifestyle, architecture, and interior design, this is a magnificent new look at landmark British country houses, the treasures they contain, and how they speak to our fantasies of rustic splendour and escape today.

Wu is one of China’s most recognized and awarded interior designers, and the proposer of an original holistic design language at the crossroads of East and West. In a modern era when tranquility has become a luxury, his work seamlessly blends traditional Eastern aesthetics with Western modernism, creating majestic spaces with a distinctive calm and soothing atmosphere. This book showcases a selection of W.DESIGN recent projects: the elegant Riverside Mansion, the spectacular Deqin Meri Poodom Hotel in the majestic mountains of South China, an estate in the Sanya Haitang Bay, and city apartments. Mindful of the relationship between man and nature, these sophisticated houses integrate the essence of Chinese traditional landscape and garden architecture into modern open layouts with clear lines, fluid transitions, and a dynamic interplay between interior and exterior. The results are superb and elevated interiors of grandiose volumes, precise proportions, elegant details, and a keen sensibility for the combination of luxurious materials.

In celebration of the world’s favorite animal, we bring you over 400 photographs of or about dogs. With pictures from the 19th century to today, the collection includes works by Man Ray, Eric Fischl, Wolfgang Tillmans, Donna Ruskin, Fatima NeJame, Vincent Versace, and of course Elliott Erwitt and William Wegman. Together, their pictures, unique in style but united in canine affection, are testimony if ever there was one that dogs are not only best friends, but also pure photographic inspiration.

Produced with the Yves Saint Laurent museums in Paris and Marrakech, this book examines how flowers served as the designer’s muse throughout his life and work. Yves Saint Laurent’s passion for flowers and gardens was the source of endless inspiration. From a thousand and one rose buds to sprigs of lily of the valley, from an avalanche of bougainvillea to delicate poppy blooms, and from sheaves of wheat to majestic lilies, he metamorphosed nature in his creations. Employing flowers as a palette of patterns and techniques, he adorned women in floral appliqués, prints, and embroideries.

Since opening her eponymous firm a decade ago, Okin has established herself as a powerhouse in the design industry. Her interiors are both approachable and sophisticated and have helped her garner an ever-growing social media following, as well as a place on House Beautiful’s Next Wave list and Luxe and House & Garden’s Gold Lists. Okin’s first book is an exploration of her belief that the best homes reflect the stories of their inhabitants. The houses featured include projects from across the country—from Southampton to New Canaan, Palm Beach to Park Slope—as well as Okin’s own house in New York. As a design journalist in addition to her interiors work, Okin has written the book herself, and it’s rich with advice and inspiration for creating spaces that are as welcoming and personal as they are functional. Whether it’s a young family who just purchased their first home or a design connoisseur with an extensive library, this book will appeal to everyone seeking to transform their house into a warm and inviting home.

In this celebration of style, from the moment she entered the public eye during her husband’s U.S. Senate campaign through her time as the first Black First Lady and today as one of this country’s most influential figures, Michelle Obama shares how she uses the beauty and intrigue of fashion to draw attention to her message. Featuring the voices of Meredith Koop, Obama’s trusted stylist, as well as her makeup artist Carl Ray, hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway, and many of the designers who have dressed Obama for notable events, The Look brings readers behind the scenes not only to reveal how her most memorable looks came together but also to tell a powerful story about how we present ourselves. Obama’s intimate and candid stories illuminate how her approach to dressing has evolved throughout her life—from the colorful sheath dresses, cardigans, and brooches she wore during her time as First Lady to the bold suits, denim, and braids of her post-White House life and all the active looks and beautiful gowns in between.