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Richard Avedon, Made in France. Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, 2001. Stated First Edition, trade edition of 5,000 copies. Essay by Judith Thurman of The New Yorker. Oversized folio, approximately 15 x 11 inches, 40 quadratone plates. Includes the original 2001 Fraenkel Gallery exhibition poster.
About the photographs
Made in Paris between 1955 and 1959, when Avedon was shooting the collections for Harper\'s Bazaar and French couture had reclaimed its place at the center of world fashion. Christian Dior dominates the book, appearing in more plates than any other house, from Dovima with the elephants at the Cirque d\'Hiver to Suzy Parker at Maxim\'s and Carmen on the Pont Alexandre III. Also represented: Balmain, Patou, Lanvin-Castillo, Grès, Jean Dessès, Guy Laroche, Jacques Griffe, Nina Ricci, and Heim.
The models are Suzy Parker, Dovima, Carmen, Barbara Mullen, Dorian Leigh, China Machado, and Audrey Hepburn. Avedon shot them in his Paris studio and across the city at night: the Moulin Rouge, the Sheherazade, the Café des Beaux-Arts, Au Réveil, Maxim\'s. Several plates are marked unpublished, among them a Dorian Leigh in Dior that never ran in the magazine. The book is dedicated to Carmel Snow, Alexey Brodovitch, and Diana Vreeland.
Why this edition is unusual
Rather than reprinting finished magazine pages, Fraenkel published the original engraver\'s prints made for Avedon by the French master printer André Gremela. Each plate appears at the exact scale of the working print, uncropped, still on its mount, carrying Avedon\'s own notes in pencil and red crayon: house names, garment names, and the page numbers where the image would run. The cover reproduces one of these mounts, annotated for a Dior look called \"Musique de Nuit.\" You are seeing the collections exactly as they traveled from the studio to the printer, which makes this a document of the couture houses as much as a photography monograph. Closing pages show the images as they appeared in the magazine.
For the Dior collector
A serious gift for anyone who loves Dior, the New Look, or 1950s Paris couture. It works as a coffee table book, a reference for designers and stylists, and a display piece in its own right at this scale. Fashion historians, vintage clothing dealers, and photography collectors all want this title, and despite the 5,000-copy run it was never widely distributed.
Condition
Very Good. Binding tight and square, text block clean and unmarked, no ownership marks, no library markings. All 40 plates bright and free of foxing or offsetting. Printed boards clean and unfaded, with the cover image intact as issued. Wear to two corners, both photographed in detail. No other flaws. Issued without a dust jacket, as published.
Included: original exhibition poster
The Fraenkel Gallery poster published for Richard Avedon: Made in France, the exhibition held in San Francisco from November 1 to December 29, 2001. Pristine: stored flat, never displayed, no pinholes, tears, creases, or fading. Ships flat between rigid boards with the book.
Packed with corner protection and shipped in a rigid box.
