La Pausa

Discover Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's vacation villa on the French Riviera, where she entertained the leading lights of the French cultural scene in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1928, Gabrielle Chanel built La Pausa, a magnificent villa in Roquebrune in the South of France. Designed and decorated by the couturiere herself, it was her refuge for decades, and where she welcomed many friends—leading artistic, cultural, and high-society figures such as the Duke of Westminster, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Jean Cocteau.

Plunging the reader into the bustling atmosphere of the Cote d'Azur in the 1930s, this book showcases all facets of her Mediterranean home—its conception and construction, unique architecture and gardens, and the artists and creatives it inspired. The luxurious tome is bound in Orient blue cloth with an inlaid portrait of the villa, seven-color printing on two paper stocks, and three facsimile inserts—Chanel's correspondence with Picasso and Dali and an architectural plan of the villa. Expert essays and rare archival materials are completed with a conversation between Yana Peel and Peter Marino (who recently restored the villa) and a chronology. Reflecting the creativity and singularity of the iconic fashion designer, La Pausa is a monument to the private world of Gabrielle Chanel.