Reading List
Whether you want to indulge a new passion or dive deeper into a lifelong love, let us fill your year with ideas from the worlds of art, culture and luxury style.
The Rake is a place of truth and integrity, which is why we enjoy recommending a reading list that will help you go beyond the stories and characters in the magazine. Books are also the first indicator of a civilised society, so consider this curation as a warranty in the process of developing a civilised man.
Ahead of the long Easter weekend, here are some Rake-approved titles to consider...
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James Bond Cars by Assouline Assouline love a series, and Alex, the scion of the founders Prosper and Martine Assouline, has an eye for this kind of thing, having been the brains behind their ‘location’ series of books that are so wildly popular there is barely a hotel or tasteful home without one on the shelves. This book joins the James Bond Style and James Bond Destinations books (the former contains some input from yours truly). You can get the three as a set, and aside from the box set of 007 films, these are serious compendiums of wonderful imagery and leading opinion on our favourite fictional secret agent. |
Natura Sacra by Alexi Lubomirski
While Lubomirski’s fashion pedigree is evident in the polish of these photographic compositions, Natura Sacra is quieter and more meditative. Shot against richly saturated backdrops, the blooms appear suspended in time, somewhere between Dutch Golden Age painting and contemporary graphic art. For those accustomed to Alexi’s portraits of royalty and Hollywood, this book reveals another register entirely. What’s more, 100 per cent of the proceeds go to Hope and Play, a U.K. charity dedicated to supporting Palestinian children.
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Rowing Blazers by Jack Carlson Carlson has built a cult around a garment that most men last encountered on school speech day. Rowing Blazers — now in its revised and expanded edition — is a love letter to classic style’s eccentricities, restoring subversion to a tradition too often reduced to, and dismissed as, costume. Carlson, himself a former U.S. national rowing-team member and a DPhil from Oxford, approaches the subject with scholarly rigour and a collector’s zeal. The result is a riot of stripes, badges and house colours, each carrying stories of rivalry, rebellion and occasionally outright scandal. More than a catalogue of cloth, this is a cultural history of sporting pageantry and insider codes. If you’ve ever wondered why certain men can wear a shocking-pink-and-white-striped blazer without irony, the answer is likely to be found in these pages. |
Ralph Lauren: A Way of Living
There are designers, and then there are world builders. Ralph Lauren belongs emphatically to the second category. A Way of Living is less about seasonal collections and more about atmosphere — the rooms, ranches and rituals that have shaped one of the most enduring visions in modern luxury. The photography moves from Colorado to Jamaica, from Manhattan townhouses to western lodges, all threaded together by the singular idea of aspiration. What emerges is a reminder that Lauren’s achievement has never been simply clothes but coherence. He does not just sell jackets; he promotes a way of arranging one’s life. This volume makes the case that the myth — painstakingly constructed over decades — remains as persuasive as ever.
