Books

IDEA Books Predicts the Future, One Rare Book at a Time

If there is a crystal ball of the design community, it might be the inventory at IDEA Books. Here, in the form of a gorgeous lineup of fashion and design titles, the owners forecast what we will see on mood boards in 2015.
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December is that pivotal time when we reflect on the year that was and make predictions for what lies ahead. To get the scoop on what the design community has been referencing as it prepares for furniture fairs and fall 2015 shows, we turned not to a 24-hour psychic or a cool-hunter, but to David Owen and Angela Hill, owners of IDEA Books (an acronym of the first letters of the first names of the Owen-Hill family). The two have an outpost at Dover Street Market in London, and incredible presence on Instagram, where their listings of catch-them-while-you-can rare books sell, literally, within minutes.

While the pair aren’t in possession of a crystal ball, they do admit to having a sort of ESP, or, as Owen puts it, “an instinctive understanding of what other people will find inspiring.” They are also unable to “leave a good book on the shelf.” In fact, it was overfull shelves—and an invitation from Colette’s Sarah Lerfel to vend in her Paris store in the mid-nineties—that finally gave the one-time journalist (David) and photographer (Angela) their start in the book business. “We enjoy selling books to people who work with them,” Hill says. “We love the fashion business because twice a year (and more so now with pre-collections) we get to see the results of their work. We love to sell books by people whose work we respect. Ultimately we want everyone to enjoy what we think is enjoyable.”

Here from IDEA Books, a list of the books that have most excited the forward-thinking creative community—hints of 2015?—plus the gift of inside information: IDEA will expand their empire in the coming year, opening their new permanent space at DSM New York in January.

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Amber Valletta and Georgina Grenville as inseparable (as in indistinguishable) ladies of luxury. Nineties Meisel was a year long obsession culminating not in any of our Instagram posts, but in Jonathan Anderson and M/M (Paris) revisiting Meisel’s Alex Katz-inspired editorial as Loewe advertising.
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Every time we find copies of this book, we sell them out and make them super scarce again. There are few better books of teenage girls in such effortless, insouciant style. There are few stylists who do not want this book when they see the images, but by then, of course, it is sold out and impossible to find again. And so the legend is built.
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Walter Van Beirendonck and Ann Demeulemeester were two of the Antwerp Six. The plus of the title is Martin Margiela, who graduated from the same Antwerp art and fashion college before the self-styled six. Between the seven of them, they reinvigorated fashion in the late eighties and early nineties. In doing so, they became heroes to a later generation of fashion students, who are now most avidly buying this book and any other materials and reliving not just the designs, but their reinventive spirit.
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Only one image need ever be shown to sell this book. David Bowie in Burberry mac with a briefcase and a copy of The New York Times, as if a commuter on the subway. Only it was shot by Sukita in a studio in Japan and there is no train—just a reminder that Bowie started in mime and never ever looked better than in this rarely seen set of pictures. Google this book and you find reference only to @ideabooksltd Instagram!
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In September, we opened a special event space of Comme des Garçons books and catalogues at Dover Street Market New York for Fashion Week. It was the largest collection of CdG publications ever put on sale and the most exhaustive. Comme is unique as a fashion brand in that their archive collections are incredibly influential, but so are their stores, their packaging, and their printed materials. The books could not be more important!
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“Hélène" was the title of an exhibition staged in Japan in 1997 and curated by Purple magazine co-founder and editor Elein Fleiss. The title possibly came from the model Hélène Fillières. The inspiration now comes from every page. Paris was the center of the fashion world for the whole of the twentieth century. In the nineties, it was the center of the anti-fashion world, too. And right now, that is most important.
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This year’s most popular book. If we could have found more, we could have made this a bestseller—thirty years after it was published. Jane Birkin as sixties ingenue is one enduring archetype. Jane Birkin in the seventies and eighties is more complex and ultimately a more rewarding proposition.
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Just when we had thought we had seen all the punk books and punk pictures there were to be seen, we found another one. And to make it a little more exciting, this book is actually/arguably better than all others! It was also a very welcome reminder that the punk scene embraced reggae acts as well, both in Don Letts DJ sets and "Live at the Roundhouse" or Dingwalls in Camden, as this book so faithfully records. Punk in black and white.
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A book which was an auction catalog, which has in turn become the great visual reference for modernism into mid-century French furniture design. All great design is inspired by great design. Serge Mouille’s lamp and Jean Royère’s chairs may not directly influence a fashion designer, but the quality of the designs do. And none more so than this book - at least not this year.
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An Instagram smash hit! All the photographs in this German book of the New York City subway circa 1984 are brilliant but one picture is exceptional. A group of high school girls who have surely outgrown their uniforms bathed in summer sunshine, as the train travels to or from Coney Island (perhaps). Perfect example of how one photograph could spark a whole collection.
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It is our favorite book, and Tina Barney is our favorite photographer. That should be enough. It is, after all, our Instagram account. But that is not enough, and Barney’s seemingly documentary but actually staged photographs have an incredible hold over our customers, and pretty much everyone who sees them. If Barney is many more people’s favorite now, then we have done our job well!
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French Vogue has had guest editors of its December issues since Françoise Sagan in 1969. 1983’s issue by Princess Caroline of Monaco is an absolute dream. The Andy Warhol portrait cover is world class, and the editorial shot by Guy Bourdin and Jeanloup Sieff is equally so. This is one of those perfect examples of a magazine becoming a designer artifact in its own right. You just need this issue on an Ettore Sottsass Poltronova marble table, and your house/studio/company headquarters is complete.

All photos: Courtesy of IDEA Books