A book about the brilliant designer James Taffin de Givenchy: 300 jewelry images out of the ordinary.
It is unlikely that a book can be the mirror of a person. Even the biographies, inevitably, fail to capture exactly what the appearance and character of the subject they are talking about. A picture book, however, has some advantages: it leaves to the eye of those who browse the judgment and reduces the descriptions written to a minimum. This is the case of Taffin, book written by James Taffin de Givenchy with the journalist Stephanie LaCava (Rizzoli USA, $ 115 or € 118 on Amazon, 413 pages, 4.1 kilograms). The book collects 20 years of career of the designer which is grandson of Hubert de Givenchy, founder of the fashion house and cosmetics. Instead of dealing with perfumes or clothing, Taffin, after studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, is went to Christie’s, in the jewelry department. After the auctions, he went to work from Verdura, a brand that has also inherited the drawings by Suzanne Belperron. But another of his myths is Jar. In 1996 he founded his own Maison in New York, with the idea of producing jewels worthy of his creative patterns. The book contains over 300 images of the greatest works of Taffin, with drawings, pictures and atelier of the designer. A designer who has successfully combined the finest materials with surprising choices, such as metal of a military rifle, wood and ceramics. And that is now immortalized in the pages of a book. Federico Graglia