Total Living: Art, Fashion, Design, Architecture, Communication [Paperback]

Dietmar Steiner (Author), Michele Ciavarella (Author), Emanuela De Cecco (Author), Ricardo Dirindin (Author), Roberto Monelli (Author), Herbert Muschamp (Author), Chee Pearlman (Author), Michelle Serenini (Author), Dejan Sudjic (Author), Mario Lupano (Editor), Stefano Tonchi (Editor), Paola Antonelli (Editor), Francesco Bonami (Editor), Maria Luisa Frisa (Editor), Ettore Sottsass (Photographer), Lina Bo Bardi (Author), Alberto Mollino (Author), Gio Ponti (Author), Vanessa Beecroft (Author), Andreas Gursky (Author), Dan Flavin (Author), Issey Miyake (Author), Philippe Starck (Contributor), Herzog & De Meuron (Contributor), Le Corbusier (Contributor), Rei Kewakubo (Contributor), Calvin Klein (Contributor), Moschino (Contributor), Giorgio Armani (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2002

Styles and lifestyles are fast becoming uniform under labels and definitions of fashion, and as an industry and a cultural form. Total Living is the point of no return in a project which, step-by-step, develops strategies whose goal it is to offer an even more sophisticated and targeted lifestyle. It is a place where there are definitions for clothes, behavior modes, and even the atmoshpheres and spaces in which one moves. Assuming the contours of a landscape of the future, this scenario raises topical themes and problems connected with the overwhelming power of consumerism. Accompanying scholarly essays consider the thematic universes of fashion designers and brands; models of total living in 20th century history; references to total living in mass culture; living and eating; arty fashion and fashionable art; the world of fashion design; the languages of shopping; urban fashion districts; and advertising as a narrative. A fabulously rich and interconnected iconographic passage visually narrates the various forms and ramifications of total living today and in the recent past through a succession of utopias, life-projects, urban visions, architecture, special homes, stores, art galleries, museums, and editorial pages and ads from fashion and lifestyle magazines. Total Living shows life for the show that it is--or has become. Published in collaboration with Pitti Immagine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Charta (August 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8881583712
• ISBN-13: 978-8881583713
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #636,487 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Never tell a book by it's cover, November 2, 2002

By 

A. J. Kee "Insomniac" (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Total Living: Art, Fashion, Design, Architecture, Communication (Paperback)

Inspite and not despite the cover this book is an innovative and artistic compilation of images meant to provoke critical thought and thinking. The cover is a brilliant documentary of the ever increasing blanket of uniformity or branding, labels and marketing. The cover provides minor shock value in good taste relative to much of what is used by advertisers today and is a preview as to the consumerist phenonema that you are drawn to conclude from making your own connections between related images that are placed in a seemingly random fashion throughout the first 350 pages of this book.

Entertaining and insightful if you are familiar with popular culture.