ESPRIT: The Making of an Image

First printing of this scarce and remarkable overview of the brand's design sensibility at the height of its dominance and power. Jaunty visual portrait of the iconic sportswear brand of the '80s: with photography by Oliviero Toscani, also of Fiorucci and Benetton fame; hairstyles by Valentin Mordacq, "an authority on women and motorcycles"; a young François Nars for lead makeup artist; Esprit employee profiles by Beth LaDove; and vignettes by PR director Robertson written in the voice of the young Rocco Toscani, the then-four-year-old son of photographer Oliviero and model Kristi Toscani. To the young and the forgetful, this book may be no more than a vital and astonishing piece of fashion history; but to those cursed with long and living memories, the proportions - the layering - the gleaming pastel cheer - the sheer visual impact strikes like a bolt of lightning. A testament to the days when wearing one pair of pleated shorts over another pair of pleated shorts was a reasonable thing to do; when a pair of culottes began at the natural waist and ended at the shins; when simply putting on a puffy E S P R I T sweatshirt and bright headband was enough to summon a tennis-y gentleman in gleaming white polo shirt and white trousers out of the aether to your side, like some diabolical incantation in a language no longer known to us, or which we no more care to know. From a bygone era of print advertising, the glory days of catalog photography, now sunk beneath the oceans like another Atlantis. Iconic, as they say. 14.25'' x 9.75''. Original color photographic wrappers. In original publisher's plastic slipcase. Color photo-illustrated throughout. 199, [1] pages. Spine sunned, as common, mild edgewear. Overall, clean, sound, and bright.…