Founded as a luxury leather goods house in 1913 in Milan, Prada entered the field of fashion when Miuccia Prada took the helm of the family company in 1979. After initially focusing exclusively on accessories, she presented the house’s first fashion collection in 1988. She would soon transform Prada into one of the world’s most influential luxury brands with a deeply personal, sophisticated and subtly subversive approach.

This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house, followed by a brief biographical profile of Miuccia Prada, before exploring the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images that showcase hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs – and, of course, the top fashion models who wore them on the runway, from Naomi Campbell and Gisele to Kate Moss and Kaia Gerber. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes the book.

Read more

Read more

Curated by novelist Julian Barnes, the celebrated cult diary explores the mysteries and complexities of family bonds

The 2024 Redstone Diary opens a window on that most enigmatic part of our everyday lives: the family. It has been an essential subject for artists, writers, singers, therapists and psychoanalysts. Tolstoy wrote: “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” But was he right? Perhaps Dodie Smith got closer to the truth when she wrote that the family was an octopus “from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.” Together or alone, we cannot escape the family.
These bonds are explored in a marvelous array of texts selected by Julian Barnes, from writers including Willa Cather, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Philip Roth.
Images feature still captures from home movies; photographs of Depression-era group prayer; psychological tests; and artworks such as Paula Rego’s disturbing imagery of fatherhood, Frida Kahlo’s reimagining of her genealogy and John Lennon’s lyrics to his absent mother.

Read more

A reverse colouring book is a unique twist on the traditional colouring book. Instead of colouring in black-and-white images, the pages are already filled with vibrant watercolour images. All you need to do is use just one pen and draw around the colourful shapes, and create what ever you see personally as each person will see something different. With a reverse colouring book the possibilities are endless, making it a fun and engaging activity. It is also a great way to help relax and unwind from a busy day.

• 50 Stunning individual original watercolour designs
• Travel friendly as you only need 1 pen
• Helps promote mindfulness and relaxation
• Single sided pages to help minimize pen bleed through
• Makes a great gift for any adult or teen
• Durable paper
• Large 8.5×11 inch pages (A4)
• Hours of fun and less screen time

Read more

Read more

Read more

This interactive colouring book takes you on a ramble through a garden created in beautifully detailed pen–and–ink illustrations by Johanna Basford.

There are pictures to colour, mazes to solve, patterns to complete and lots of space for you to add your own inky drawings. Use felt tip pens to add a splash of colour or a black pen with a fine nib to create your own doodles and details.

Johanna Basford has sold over 21 million books worldwide. Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book was her first book. It has been translated into over 44 languages.

‘Colouring in isn’t just for kids. These intricate, magical drawings from Secret Garden by Johanna Basford are just waiting to be brought to life.’ The Guardian

‘Joanna Basford’s Secret Garden is an ‘inky treasure hunt and colouring book’ filled with intricate drawings waiting to be brought to life. It’s the colouring–in book you wish you had the hand–eye coordination to do, aged two.’ The Independent

‘Prepare yourself to get lost in a magical world with this interactive activity book that takes you through a secret garden of incredible drawings by Johanna Basford.’ Buzzfeed

‘Coloring books for adults have been around for decades, but Basford’s success…has helped to create a massive new industry category.’ The New Yorker

Also available by Johanna Basford from Laurence King Publishing:
Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest and Colouring Book (9781780674872)
Secret Garden: Journal (9781856699853)
Secret Garden:12 Notecards (9781856699471)
Enchanted Forest: Artist’s Edition (9781780677842)
Enchanted Forest: Journal (9781780679181)
Enchanted Forest: 12 Notecards (9781780677835)

Read more

The couturière Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was a key figure in Paris fashion between the two World Wars. Following in the footsteps of her mentor Paul Poiret, she designed her first knitwear collection in January 1927. Decorated with trompe-l’oeil motifs in black and white, her sweaters were an immediate success in both France and the USA. In 1935, the Maison Schiaparelli opened in the Place Vendôme in Paris, selling collections designed for sports, city and evening wear.

Like her arch-rival Gabrielle Chanel, Schiaparelli also worked closely with artists, including Man Ray, Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí, with whom she created a lobster dress. Taking a cue from Surrealism, her creations were hugely imaginative and made use of innovative new materials. The ‘Schiap’ style continued to develop through the 1930s. Her most famous collections had themes including the circus (summer 1938) and astrology (winter 1938–39). In 1937, Schiaparelli launched the fragrance Shocking, named after shocking pink, which had become her signature colour.

Alongside vintage photographs, sketches and contemporary features from Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, this volume presents specially photographed masterpieces from the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. All 120 garments and accessories from the Schiaparelli archive are illustrated, along with a selection of her drawings dating from 1933 to 1953.

Read more