One of the better-kept secrets of the fashion industry is that hidden behind the rows of conspicuously logoed leather goods at Louis Vuitton is Editions, a low-key but excellent selection of travel tomes and city guides. Now, the brand’s busy publishing arm is launching Fashion Eye, a collection of photography books bound in tinted silk-screen cloth covers. Each of the five volumes features a city or a country as seen through the eyes of a leading 20th-century or up-and-coming fashion photographer. Whether the dreamlike sequences of Guy Bourdin’s stark sensuality of 1970s Miami, Henry Clarke’s legendary excursions through India for American Vogue in the ’60s, Jeanloup Sieff’s evocative black-and-white renderings of Paris, or more recent work shot by Kourtney Roy in California and Wing Shya in Shanghai, the 50-plus large-format images in each book are a snapshot into a familiar world from an unexpected angle (US$56).
This article originally appeared in the October/November print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“The Eyes Have It”).
