Gucci: The Art of Silk

The first book devoted to the Gucci silk scarf. Given rare access to the Gucci Archive — housed in a fifteenth-century Florentine palazzo — Gucci: The Art of Silk traces the scarf from its origins through its reinvention under Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, Alessandro Michele and Sabato De Sarno. Along the way it tells a larger story: a family who aspired to be modern Medicis, the long pull of Renaissance Florence, and an unbroken line of craft documented here with never-before-seen imagery from inside Gucci's ateliers.

Written by Jo-Ann Furniss, former editor-in-chief of Arena Homme+, with reportage from Florence, Milan and Como. The slipcase and cover carry the house's most famous print, the Flora — forty-three varieties of flowers, plants and insects in thirty-seven colours, every one painted by hand. Inside, a first look at “90x90,” nine limited-edition scarves by thirty-eight contemporary artists. 332 pages, over 250 illustrations, hardcover in a luxury slipcase. From Assouline's Legends Collection.