Aside from clothes, the most immediate extension of the human body is the decor in which it evolves. From interior architecture to interior life, the distance is often slight. It is to this coming together of the mental and the ornamental, as well as to the dialogue between form and content, that this work, with its abundant and eloquent iconography, is dedicated The chapters wed the chronology of the styles that followed one another using, as examples, the most beautiful houses in the world. The first part starts with the Medieval era and ends with the twentieth century, while the second is devoted to the roots of design from the Belle Époque to contemporary aesthetics.
Each style has its own elegance, its function, and its reason for being. Each style comes back, at one time or another, to haunt new decades short of references. Thus, the periods overlap each other: yesterday via nineteenth century's historicism, and today with the rise of all the retro fashions.
But regardless of the choices one makes, what is fascinating in the organization of an architectural volume is that it always speaks of its own time. And it often does so very well.
François Baudot, special correspondent and adviser to the editors of Elle magazine, lives with, observes, and comments on the fashions of his time. He has written Mode du Siècle (1999), as well as various monographs in the "Memoire of Fashion" collection, in particular those on Elsa Schiaparelli, Poiret, Alaïa, Thierry Mugler and Yohji Yamamoto.
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