Bound by the book

Make space on your coffee table for The Impossible

Collection of Fashion, by the luxury book company Assouline. Priced at Dh2,940, the book showcases 100 of the most iconic dresses of the 20th century.

From Poiret to Pucci, Doucet to Dior and Vionnet to Valentino, the author Valerie Steele offers an inside look at how these dresses shaped the world of fashion. This and a host of other fashion-friendly tomes are now available at En Vogue, a newly opened showroom selling high-end furnishings, gi s and accessories on Jumeirah Beach Road in Dubai.

Assouline, known for its belief that a book, when artfully cra ed and carefully considered in its visual content, can help “open our eyes and minds”, creates products that are more akin to works of art. One of the company’s defining features is that each book is hand-bound – a rare process in an era where e-books and mass-marketed paperbacks reign supreme.

Paul Vogel, one of Assouline’s bookbinders, has been in the trade for 30 years and has streamlined the process, both for the books currently on offer and for customised texts. There are currently seven styles available, with the binding materials ranging from cloth to full leather, with a range of permutations in-between. Assouline’s books match every price range and Vogel stands by the idea that the binding doesn’t need to be the most expensive to be “the nicest”. Other titles on offer at En Vogue include Dior, a three-volume collection that features the most enduring images from the brand’s history, and Chanel, a fully updated trilogy that reveals the spirit and heritage of the House of Chanel.