BOOK CLUB vol. 1: French Clothing brand Sessún

Stalking the book stacks of French clothing brand Sessún.

Brands have been using books as props for ages and I find myself guilty of doing the same. A stack of books speaks for itself. It’s a subliminal message of: “Hey, this is what I’m interested in! In the vast, huge, great, wide world, this is what I gravitate toward!” For some people, a book can be something that only sits as a pretty object on a shelf or coffee table—never to be read. While that thought sends a dagger deeply through my heart, I can’t blame anyone for it. Books are intrinsically pretty! Whenever I see a stack of books photographed for a clothing brand’s lookbook or in a video tour of someone’s home, I pause. What kind of good stuff are they interested in (or at least interested in displaying)?!

First up is French clothing brand Sessun, primarily because I happened to be online shopping (they got me here—this knit skirt was immediately in my cart), and also because I noticed that their latest lookbook used the names Charles and Ray Eames in its AW2023 storyline. I felt immediately connected to it. French, California, mid-20th century design, experimental architecture, books. What the heck—this is my entire life poetically woven into a clothing brand book. Am I a cliché? Eh, who cares! Sign me uuuuup!

“The architect on the experimental architecture site Cantercel is visionary, passionately driven, and somewhat idealist.
She measures and traces. She sketches and outlines.

A contemporary wardrobe, chic and elegant, adorned with artisanal touches. Precise, clean cuts, organic hues, guided by the influence of the great designers, their colour palettes, their fabric compositions…

This is our homage to the work of the designer architects of the mid-20th century craft modern movement - Charles & Ray Eames, J.B. Blunk, Georges Nakashima, Albert Frey…

and, of course, to our boundless passion for contemporary craftsmanship, the interplay of fabrics, colours and textures.”

Sessun also created a lookbook from a previous season called BOOK CLUB, which shows two models sitting on, leaning against, and piling up books as if there is absolutely no respect to be had for them. This is probably a lesser offense than letting a book exist uselessly on a shelf, but hey—here they are looking good, drawing us in curiously, and helping elevate the ethos behind the brand.

Gorgeous Sessun photographs by Charlotte Lapalus and Isaac Marley Morgan.

Sessun’s list*

*The books are in French, so I tried my hardest to find an English version or at least one that seems very similar.

• Sophie Taeuber/Hans Arp and Jean Arp by Ionel Jianou- My English replacements: Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction OR Sophie Taeuber-Arp: A Life Through Art OR Hans Arp

• Nouvelle Vague by Hazan - My English replacement: A History of the French New Wave Cinema

• Michelangelo Antonioni by Seymour Chatman - My English replacement: The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema

• Pablo Picasso Mon Ami Sublime by Michel Murat - My English replacement: Goodbye Picasso. Honestly, I have used Goodbye Picasso mostly as a decorative prop in my homes ever since I bought it in 2013 from Book/Shop in Oakland (when the shop was brand new and I was too poor to afford anything in it). The book cover is a thick woven orange textile and it is so, so, so divine! The story inside is just as good/sentimental.

• Nicolas de Stael by Jean Pierre Jouffroy - My English replacement: Nicolas de Staël: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings

• Tapis Modernes et Art Déco by Susan Day - English version: Modern and Art Deco Rugs

• Izumi Kato Monograph by Perrotin - A bilingual version, including English.

• Plus lots of books about Egypt, Cappadocia in Turkey, Le Loup et Les Trois Petites Chèvres (the wolf and the three goats, a children’s story), sculpture, and…flamingos. I love it when a book collection has a goofy outlier.

Three books I would add to this stack:

1. Anni Albers: On Weaving

2. Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction

3. Barbara Hepworth: The Sculptor in the Studio

**

More books and other things soon, soon, soon!

Kelsey

PS - Some of the books above are linked to Bookshop.org, which is my absolute favorite place to buy books online. Bookshop.org works to connect readers with independent booksellers and stores all over the world. Since 2020, they’ve raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores—which is 28 million times better than supporting Amazon. You can see/shop my Bookshop here! I do get a teeny, tiny commission off of every book sale purchased directly from these links or from my Bookshop store front.