In 1927, when 24-year-old Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) walked into Le Corbusier's studio and asked him to hire her as a furniture designer, he responded, "We don't embroider cushions here." After seeing her remarkable designs, however, Le Corbusier enjoyed a long collaboration with Perriand, who would go on to work as an architect, town planner, and political activist. This revelatory book is the first to show Perriand's photography, an important tool in her creative process and intellectual development, and a reflection of her political views. Made from the late 1920s through 1941, these...

Charlotte Perriand is one of the foremost figures in twentieth-century interior design. Together with her contemporaries and collaborators Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, she created many pieces of furniture we now consider classics, including the instantly recognizable LC4 chaise. Her pioneering work with metal was particularly instrumental in paving the way for the machine-age aesthetic popular throughout the 1920s and 30s.
The first volume in a planned four-part series, this lavishly book looks at Perriand s early life: her education, her work in photography, her early interest in...