Marie-Amélie Sauvé’s First Monograph Is Here

A new book, decades in the making, captures the breadth and impact of Mastermind founder Marie-Amélie Sauvé’s career in fashion.

Published by Assouline, The World To Come is Sauvé’s first monograph, collecting the most important campaign, editorial and personal photos from throughout her career. The 336-page book features images by 28 photographers and essays by a selection of writers, who consider the influence and significance of her life’s work. 

The World To Come begins with images from the late ’90s, when Sauvé began her creative partnership with Nicolas Ghesquière – a bond that led to the revitalization of Balenciaga. Alongside campaign images by Inez and Vinoodh, David Sims and Steven Meisel, the book includes a series of polaroids and behind-the-scenes photos that shed light on Sauvé and Ghesquière’s collaboration. “Those Balenciaga years changed not only how we dress, but how designers design,” journalist Alexander Fury writes in an accompanying essay.

A second section, titled “An Anchor in Time,” explores the sociological function of fashion photography, and what viewers can deduce about our world through Sauvé’s images. “Her photographs do not merely accompany changes in fashion, visual culture and society – they anticipate and formalize them,” writes journalist Sophie Abriat. “Through her work, viewers can trace the gradual shift in representations of the body, the emergence of new codes of femininity and gender fluidity, as well as the affirmation of a conceptual fashion nourished by artistic, cultural and intellectual references.”

Then, philosopher Emanuele Coccia examines Sauvé’s work as it relates to time, and her use of fashion to imagine and anticipate the future. “Like a dowser who rummages ceaselessly through the real of the world, Sauvé studies collections with religious attention, seeking to divine the desires and imaginations that will nourish the world to come,” he writes.

The book finishes with a consideration of Mastermind, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this month, as the culmination of her editorial vision.

Photographers featured in the book include: David Armstrong, Richard Burbridge, Hans Feurer, Robin Galiegue, Ethan James Green, Jamie Hawkesworth, Inez and Vinoodh, Mark Kean, Steven Klein, Annie Leibovitz, Glen Luchford, Julien Martinez Leclerc, Craig McDean, Alasdair McLellan, Steven Meisel, Mert and Marcus, Stef Mitchell, Jody Rogac, Paolo Roversi, Karim Sadli, Scheltens & Abbenes, Collier Schorr, David Sims, Juergen Teller and Bruce Weber. 

To celebrate The World To Come, Sauvé will be signing copies of her book at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris’s Le Marais neighborhood on October 8, from 6.30-8.30pm. See you there.