Joan Dejean: 4 books
The Essence of Style
How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour
Language: English
Release Date: November 1, 2007
What makes fashionistas willing to pay a small fortune for a particular designer accessory -- a luxe handbag, for example? Why is it that people all over the world share the conviction that a special occasion only becomes really special when a champagne cork pops -- and even more special when that...
How Paris Became Paris
The Invention of the Modern City
Language: English
Release Date: March 4, 2014
"This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel."--New Yorker
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Paris was known for isolated monuments but had not yet put its brand on urban space. Like other European cities,...
The Queen's Embroiderer
A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis
Language: English
Release Date: May 1, 2018
From the author of How Paris Became Paris, a sweeping history of high finance, the origins of high fashion, and a pair of star-crossed lovers in 18th-century France.
Paris, 1719. The stock market is surging and the world's first millionaires are buying everything in sight. Against this backdrop,...
The Age of Comfort
When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began
Language: English
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Today, it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in seventeenth-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age...