5 Design & Culture Books You Need To Have On Your Radar
Escape to a world of exquisite design, architecture and culture with these must-have new releases
Design and culture are inseparable—what we wear, build, archive, or sketch all become reflections of who we are and the world we inhabit. The right book doesn’t just sit pretty on a shelf; it becomes a portal into creative universes, a reminder of how aesthetics shape our lives.
From Coco Chanel’s revolutionary twenties to Wes Anderson’s pastel-hued frames, these five new and essential volumes are the ones to keep on your radar this season.
Coco Chanel’s Roaring Twenties
Flapper dresses, bobbed hair, pearls for day—Chanel’s vision in the 1920s was not just fashion, but liberation. This volume, accompanying the Grimaldi Forum Monaco’s landmark exhibition, plunges readers into a decade where Chanel remade femininity. Archival images, essays by leading fashion historians, and rare design sketches combine to create a portrait of Chanel at her most daring. A book that’s as much about cultural revolution as it is about couture.
Bijoy Jain / Studio Mumbai: Breath of an Architect
Indian architect Bijoy Jain is known for crafting spaces that breathe—structures that are porous, tactile, deeply rooted in craft and context. This monograph is a meditation on his design ethos, weaving photography, sketches, and reflections on materiality. Jain’s work, which often integrates bamboo, stone, and handmade details, challenges the pace of contemporary architecture by slowing it down, inviting silence and reflection. It’s the rare design book that feels like an act of mindfulness.
I Hear Music in the Streets: New York 1969–89
For lovers of photography and urban history, this is a vibrant window into two decades of New York grit and glamour. Through portraits of youth culture, protest, and everyday life, the book captures the soundtrack of a city in flux—when graffiti, hip-hop, disco, and punk all collided on concrete pavements. Every page vibrates with energy, making this book less an archive and more a time capsule of restless creativity.
Wes Anderson: The Archives
To enter Wes Anderson’s cinematic universe is to step into meticulous worlds of symmetry, whimsy, and melancholia. This official archive assembles behind-the-scenes photographs, annotated scripts, costume boards, and production design sketches spanning his career. It’s a visual feast for anyone who’s ever been charmed by a pastel hotel, a family of eccentrics, or a fox that talks. Beyond fandom, the book demonstrates how Anderson’s obsessive attention to detail has shaped contemporary design and visual culture at large.
In the Studio: Lee Lozano
Lee Lozano was as provocative as she was visionary, an artist who blurred the lines between painting, language, performance, and politics. This studio-focused book dives deep into Lozano’s practice, presenting sketches, private notebooks, and raw canvases that reveal her ferocious intellect. For readers drawn to radicalism in art, it’s a reminder that Lozano’s influence remains urgent today, decades after her withdrawal from the art world.
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