Gigi and the Cat by Colette published by Penguin
With a Lea Peckre postcard
Welcome back to Sendb00ks for our first book announcement of 2019 as we look forward to a fresh new year of exciting collaborations. While it’s common to spend this time of the year resolving to make improvements to ourselves, this critical process can be overwhelming and problematic for the best of us, leaving us languid and uninspired. Although being self-aware is nothing to be scorned at, the act of asking what you want to change about yourself in the year ahead can be an extremely uncomfortable experience. So, this month we are turning a blind eye to resolutions and atonement, to what we can change and modify about ourselves, and instead encourage you all to embrace everything that is messy, vital and bewitching about yourself, and life, as it already is. For this reason, we have chosen an author and an artist who are as bound by their extraordinary style and talent as they are for their unwavering individuality and strength of character, The Vagabond by Colette as our book to be accompanied to your door with a postcard by the French fashion designer Lea Peckre.
Leas clothing is both strong and vulnerable, a resolute form of armour and a soft celebration of the female form. Harnessing this dichotomy is no mean feat and a skill shared by our two artists. The Vagabond written by Colette (real name Sidonie-Gabrielle) is a semi-autobiographical book following Renee (literally meaning reborn!) at thirty-three years old as she attempts to make sense of her own life and rediscover her vivacity while dancing her way through the music halls of Paris. Written by Colette after her emancipation from her foppish husband (who plagiarised much of her earlier work -see Kiera Knightly for details), The Vagabond is an example of a woman at the height of her powers, balancing acerbic wit with poetic prose and absolute vulnerability with self-empowerment and a will of steel. This instantly reminded us of Lea and her otherworldly designs that explore and lionize feminine duality.
Although Lea exists in a time very different to Colette’s, her brand retains strong ties to the past. Her new collection All Women Are Witches muses on the implications of witchcraft. Inviting and encouraging her models and artists to celebrate themselves by inventing a ‘coven,’ she subverts the derision that witches or women