The Met Gala Red Carpet. Photo Courtesy of Kevin Tachman/Vogue.

Each year we look forward to The Met Gala for two reasons: 1) It means the opening of an amazing new exhibit curated by the folks at the Met’s Costume Institute and 2) Because the red carpet is always amazing. The annual opening night shindig is basically the Oscars of the fashion world, so you know that everyone will be dressed to impress. There were a number of ladies wearing designs by the woman of the evening, Miuccia Prada, whose inventive work makes up half of the exhibition – Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations. Our favorite Prada look was worn by Carey Mulligan, whose gold and silver paillette-covered dress glittered beautifully amidst the flash bulbs. We also loved Anna Wintour’s Prada gown that paid homage to the late Schiaparelli with a gold, beaded lobster.

Carey Mulligan and Anna Wintour – both in Prada. Photo Courtesy of Getty Images.

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Words of literary wisdom greet you at Assouline.

During our time in New York for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Fashion School Daily had a chance to stop by the Assouline offices for our latest Industry Interview! We’re sure you all know Assouline by now – remember our Impossible Collection of Fashion Contest? But in case you don’t, Assouline is a leading publisher of luxury books on subjects including art, fashion, design, photography, travel, and so much more. They have a unique way of capturing beauty and bringing it to life in the pages of their books. If you’ve ever seen their books in person – you know exactly what we’re talking about. And if you know how beautiful their books are, just imagine how gorgeous an office full of them would be. Lucky for you – you don’t have to imagine because we’re going to show you!

The first thing we noticed when entering the Assouline office in Chelsea was the gorgeous view. The entire office is covered in windows, showcasing the beautiful New York City skyline. Filled with items brought back from travels to exotic locations, a trip to Assouline is like a quick trip around the world – there is inspiration at every turn. The Assoulines have created a world of the things they love, and have been kind enough to share it with us. Seated at a gorgeous table – glass cut in an outline of Paris, complete with the Seine (etched glass) separating the Left and Right Banks – we chatted with the Assouline team about creative inspiration, publishing, and everything in between.

The beautiful view from the Assouline office.

Where does the inspiration for all of the amazing Assouline books come from?

The majority of our books come from the ideas and experiences of founders Prosper & Martine Assouline. For example, our new book The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, was published after they went to Istanbul for the first time and visited the Grand Bazaar. They were so inspired by the colors, the flavors, smells and the textures at the Grand Bazaar, that they came back and said, “This is our next book – we want this in our library.”

And once you have an idea, what are the steps to publishing?

First, it’s a process of either sending someone to shoot the images, or sourcing images and obtaining rights. For The Grand Bazaar, our in house photographer went to Istanbul and shot everything, which was amazing.

As we gather the images together, our editors work on finding an author – someone who is well versed and somewhat of an authority on the subject. For our book on the Hudson’s Bay Company, we reached out to Graydon Carter, the Editor in Chief of Vanity Fair, because he is filled with Canadian born pride, knows the brand well, and clearly has an eye for fashion and culture.

And from there, the editorial team works on all of the text and our creative team designs the layout. Each book is unique, customized down to the last detail, from the texture of the paper to the font. And covers are always a huge process because they are what sell the book and draw people in. They are the first impression.

Prosper and Martine are very involved in the process – Prosper is the Creative Director and Martine the Chief Editor, so she takes charge of the text and images and he concentrates on the overall package presentation.

Each element is created in house – the only aspect Assouline doesn’t physically do is the printing.

Once the books are printed, our sales & retail teams focus on getting the books to not only all of our Assouline boutiques, but specialty book stores, gift shops, museum exhibitions, and private properties all over the world. The public relations team works on promoting the book through press, Social Media, events, partnerships, and contests, like we did with The Impossible Collection of Fashion.

A very successful event was 2011’s Fashion’s Night Out. We celebrated Brazilian Style at our Plaza Hotel Boutique with caipirinhas, festive colorful apparel, and Brazilian Samba Dancers! The pages were truly brought to life in the boutique, and author Armand Limnander was there signing books through the night.

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L – George Hoyningen-Huené (Russian, 1900–1968), Portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli, 1932. Hoyningen-Huené/Vogue/Condé Nast Archive. Copyright © Condé Nast. R – Guido Harari (Italian, born Cairo, 1952), Portrait of Miuccia Prada, 1999. Guido Harari/Contrasto/Redux.

They have just released a preview of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations – and we like what we see. The exhibition points out similarities in the imaginative designers approach to fashion, focusing on seven specific themes. For each theme, a fictional conversation has been imagined and created by film director Baz Luhrmann. The exhibition will open with the fashion industry’s version of The Oscars - The Costume Institute Gala’s Met Ball – taking place on May 7th, 2012. Now, if we could just snag an invite to the Met Ball!

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The incredibly stylish woman above is indeed Elsa Schiaparelli – which was correctly guessed by Aja! (Sorry, we don’t have your last name on the comment!) Mrs. Schiaparelli was born in Italy, but her true artistic talents were realized when she moved to Paris. Mrs. Schiaparelli first began designing with encouragement from the famed couturier Paul Poiret. Unfortunately, after only a few years her business closed despite glowing reviews. Not to be deterred, she launched a collection of knitwear in 1927, featuring sweaters with surrealist images. Her first collection was featured in Vogue, and her career took off. She expanded her line to include sportswear and evening wear – a few of her evening wear pieces even made it into The Impossible Collection of Fashion. Schiaparelli was lauded as one of the most innovative fashion designers of her time, which brings us to the clues.

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Our friends over at Assouline have announced the the release of their latest book: Pierre Cardin: 60 Years of Innovation by Jean-Pascal Hesse.

Cardin worked briefly with Elsa Schiaparelli and then went on to work at Dior before starting his own couture house in 1950. Down the road, Cardin would be known for his architectural and futuristic aesthetic. According to the book his “geometric motifs, asymmetry, oversized buttons and collars, hooped dresses, vinyl inserts” made Cardin “an original in every sense of the word.”

I bet you all you fashion history buffs are drooling over this right now.

For more info visit www.assouline.com.