Paris Deluxe

Book excerpt: In text and photographs, Paris Deluxe traces the history of the Place Vendome, from the square's beginnings as a high-risk property speculation, to its life in the twentieth century as Paris's center of fashion, jewelry, high finance, and art, a playground for international society that converges at the Paris Ritz, undoubtedly still the most elegant, expensive, and comfortable hotel in the world. The cast of extraordinary personalities who have left their marks on the square covers the spectrum from fashion and jewelry - names like Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Frederic Worth, Cartier, Boucheron - to financiers J. P. Morgan and John Law, and every prominent name in art and high society - Edward, Prince of Wales, the Vanderbilts, Baroness Guy de Rothschild, Lillie Langtry, Rene Lalique and the Crozats, whose art collection was bought by Diderot for Catherine the Great.