The Grand Tourist Returns: The Assoulines

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Grand Tourist Returns – The Assoulines

Podcast: The Grand Tourist with Dan Rubinstein
Episode: The Grand Tourist Returns: The Assoulines
Date: October 8, 2025
Host: Dan Rubinstein
Guests: Prosper Assouline, Martine Assouline, Alexander Assouline

---

Overview

In this episode, Dan Rubinstein sits down with the Assouline family—Prosper, Martine, and their son Alexander—which founded the renowned art, travel, and lifestyle publishing house, Assouline. The conversation revisits the origin of the company, its evolution from an accidental passion project to an international luxury lifestyle brand, and the unique design philosophy that underpins their iconic books. The trio shares insights on style, curation, luxury, and how evolving tastes and new mediums like the metaverse shape their vision for the future.

---

Episode Highlights

The Genesis of Assouline Publishing

• Origins in Passion and Place

  • The first Assouline book immortalized the legendary La Colombe d'Or hotel in the South of France, born not from a business plan but love for the location and its people.
  • [03:50] Prosper Assouline:
    “It start with absolutely not the idea to create a publishing company. This is more important. And it start with love.”
  • Prosper emphasizes their outsider status in publishing:
    “We did not want to do a book…We didn’t know anybody. The industry zero. We didn’t know anything.” [05:19]

• Homemade Beginnings

  • The first book was “made in our kitchen in Paris” with Prosper shooting photos and Martine writing, aiming to capture the spirit rather than just the visuals.

• Unexpected Success

  • Despite initial resistance from the hotel, the book remained a perennial seller for nearly 30 years:
    “At the Colombo d’O r, they still selling in a hotel where they have only 25 rooms, around 1,000 books every year.” [06:03]

Family, History, and Heritage

• Growing Up Assouline

  • Alexander shares childhood anecdotes, including being schooled in style from a young age and assisting with boutique launches, stock rooms, and design.
    “At 10 years old, I started working with them…doing the stock room inventory and then designing or helping them to like set up corners and stores around the world.” [13:18]

• The Bergdorf Goodman Opportunity

  • A pivotal meeting with Bergdorf Goodman marked Assouline's early expansion into American retail and broadened their ambitions to become a luxury cultural brand.
    Martine recalls:
    “We started to need Alex, you know, in doing things, he help us. And that is the beginning of our afterboutiques.” [16:49]

Defining the Assouline Aesthetic

• Curation and Style Over Content

  • Prosper asserts that 80% of their books are about style, not just information:
    “People understand how to use a book. It’s not just to read. It’s going to open your mind…We are doing the editing and propose to the customer the best of the best about style.” [00:00, repeats at 19:28]

• Book as Lifestyle Objects

  • The Assoulines see their books as integral to interior spaces, serving not only as reading material but as visible objects of taste and identity.

From Passion to Business

• Revolutionizing Fashion & Art Book Publishing

  • Upon launching their first fashion collection in Paris (mid-'90s), they targeted affordability and accessibility for students, a stark contrast to the academic, expensive fare of the time.
    “It seems crazy, but 30 years ago it was no books [on fashion]…They were very expensive, super boring…We wanted to do for the student the best book ever, the best quality ever, with a very low price.” [20:45]

• Leveraging Personal Ties

  • Martine highlights how deep personal relationships with figures like Azzedine Alaïa and Karl Lagerfeld enabled unique access:
    “It was another time where the people, there was…more trust, more humanity in exchange.” [23:23]

On Style, Glamour, and Generational Perspectives

• Chicness Beyond Money

  • Prosper reiterates his belief that “chicness and glamour have nothing to do with money”, with the brand’s focus on quality and emotion over commercial ambition in its first decade. [25:01]

• Individuality and New Luxury

  • Alexander, representing the next generation, notes a shift in luxury:
    “My generation focuses much more on individuality, you know, showing off their personal taste through their own style…So in a sense being different is stylish.” [26:22]

The Editorial Decision Process

• Choosing Projects
  • Book curation is intuitive:
    “It’s obvious. We know immediately if it’s a solid book or not—an Assouline.” (Prosper) [28:21]
  • Alexander expands on commitment: every title is a “year plus” undertaking, requiring devotion and personal interest. [28:30]

The “Ultimate” Collection and Craft

• Ultimate Books—Handcrafted Luxury

  • Their “Ultimate Collection” is hand-made in Italy, with tactile and editorial excellence:
    “If you create a marketing product, it’s going to have a short life...What we wanted is to create the sensibility, the emotion of something—a book on the ultimate subject made just for you. So it’s made by hand.” (Prosper) [29:36]

• Notable Ultimate Editions

  • Iconic commissions for brands like Rolex and Chanel are described as “the best book ever made on this subject” by the brands themselves. [31:49]

Curating the Travel Canon & Breaking Boundaries

• Emergent Destinations

  • Martine and Prosper discuss branching beyond well-worn destinations (Italy, France, Spain) to places like Athens Riviera, Jaipur, and even the Moon and the metaverse.
    “We just did…a book on the moon in this travel series…what could be the ideal weekend in the moon.” (Prosper) [33:49]

• Looking to the Metaverse

  • Alexander is cautiously optimistic:
    “I’m excited about it…a new way of showcasing products, of telling our story.” [34:55]

• Persistence of Physical Books

  • Alexander stresses the continued demand for beautifully made, curated physical books over digital:
    “People tend to start focusing more on books…they like that tangible product, they like the tangible aspect and they like also that curation.” [35:36]

Upcoming Titles and Passions

• Most Anticipated Titles (Fall 2025)

  • Martine: Excited about the Virgil Abloh tribute—an emotional, collaborative project with writer Christian. [36:55]
  • Prosper: Loves the ongoing “style” collection, with Art Deco, Orientalism, and Pop Art as standouts—“an education of style with style.” [37:47, 38:39]
  • Alexander: The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Anniversary book—which he also personally connected with after receiving the watch as a gift.
    “So super excited for this book to…be happy.” [41:01]

• Forging New Categories

  • The family discusses oversized, “insane” editions (e.g. 70kg store book for Audemars Piguet).

The Future of Assouline

• From Publishing to Full Lifestyle

  • Alexander sees Assouline controlling the “entire room”—envisioning objects, accessories, candles, and potentially furniture.
    “Now that you know, I'm here on the strategy side…create a lifestyle brand...not about the bookcase, it's about the entire room.” [43:57]

• Maintaining Family Values

  • As Prosper notes, even as they scale globally, the business remains a family endeavor grounded in passion:
    “The emotion is still here…We continue to cook and we continue to make the bread in the same way with the smell and with the best quality.” [46:59]

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Creating with Authenticity:
  “We wanted to show the shadows, the smell, something really what was interest to us, not to the people.” – Prosper [04:39]

• On Book Collectors:
  “Part of our books are almost closed 80% of the time, okay, so they are part of your apartment, they are part of your life, they are part of your lifestyle.” – Prosper [19:28]

• On the Publishing Marketplace:
  “There was no book on fashion at all at this time...it was a moment of delirium and freedom and different of today, which is more business, marketing.” – Martine [23:23]

• On Making Decisions:
  “It’s obvious. We know immediately if it’s a solid book or not—an Assouline.” – Prosper [28:21]

• On Future Directions:
  “To bring the book to life. So every project that we take is going to have way more time and effort put into it, distribution worldwide and so on. So yes, we have big plans for the next few years.” – Alexander [43:57]

---

Key Timestamps

• 00:00 The Assouline philosophy—editing style over pure content
• 03:50 The accidental beginnings at La Colombe d'Or
• 06:30 Martine’s motivation and initial skepticism
• 08:28 Alexander’s upbringing and the family's “ingredients”
• 13:18 Alex’s earliest publishing memories
• 14:32 The Bergdorf Goodman opportunity
• 20:45 Reinventing the art/fashion book category
• 25:01 Chicness and glamour are independent from money
• 29:36 The “Ultimate Collection”—making books with emotion, by hand
• 33:49 Not just real places—the Moon and Metaverse as travel books
• 36:55 Fall 2025 most anticipated titles from each family member
• 43:57 The strategic vision: From book publisher to lifestyle brand
• 46:59 Final reflections on maintaining family emotion and quality

---

Tone and Takeaways

True to their brand, the Assoulines convey a conversational, passionate tone—articulate, candid, and at times playfully French in their phrasing. While firmly rooted in luxury, style, and heritage, they emphasize emotional connection, storytelling, and crafting tangible, enduring objects of beauty. Their approach, shaped by intuition and personal relationships, continues to challenge and evolve the definition of culture, travel, and a life well-lived—one elegant book (or room) at a time.

---

Transcript

[Prosper Assouline]

People understand how to use a book. It's not just to read. It's not a math book which you are going to learn something. Who is going to help you for the day to day. It's going to open your mind. So it's like a collection of movies. It's not Amazon movie with 5 million of movies what you can see we are doing the editing and we are proposed to the customer the best of the best about style. On the 2000 books what we did 80% are really just about style.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Hi, I'm Dan Rubenstein and this is the Grand Tourist. I've been a design journalist for more than 20 years and this is my personalized guided tour through the worlds of fashion, art, architecture, food and travel. All the elements of a well lived life. And welcome to our first episode of the Grand Tourist Returns. You know, it's been one crazy fall here at the Grand Tourist. We're planning two print issues in 2026, not to mention dozens of new podcasts. It's hard to think that since we launched the podcast back in 2021, we've done almost 150 episodes and some of our more popular ones predate our current website, which got me thinking. Now might be the perfect time to revisit some of these absolute classics. One of my personal favorites, and definitely a favorite of those listeners out there would be the time I met the powerhouse family behind the art, fashion and travel publishing house at Founded by French couple Prosper and Martin assouine in the mid-1990s and now joined by their son Alexander, their publishing house broke the mold in so many ways. To date they've made almost 2,000 books. But it started with a single project that was so on the money it's still in print today. Even for this special rerun episode, a title on the famed ultra exclusive hotel in the south of France, La Colombe d'.

[Alexander Assouline]

Or.

[Dan Rubenstein]

More on that later. Starting in Paris and later expanding to New York where the company is based today, Asseline publishes books that are never academic, but instead distill the essence of a place, person or brand into a visual format that itself is a work of art, whether it's a book about the Amalfi coast, the high jewelry of Cartier, or the works of Picasso. Today, the publishing house of Aseline is evolving into a fully fledged lifestyle brand with flagship stores, various gifts and accessories, and even a library curation service. And this fall in 2025, they're launching their own collection of vintage design objects and little artworks curated by Prosper Himself cold from his many travels. During my interview, I found the Asselines to be gracious, passionate and inspiring. To me, their words are definitely worth a second listen. So many people out there told me that they were fascinated to hear the actual voices behind this incredible creative enterprise, to hear their stories and give their glamorous world a human dimension. I caught up with Martine, Prosper and Alex from their respective homes and offices in New York to talk about how they accidentally found themselves starting a publishing house, why true style has nothing to do with money, and why the Metaverse might be the next great destination for the fashionable set in the world of sort of publishing and style, you guys, the assunline name has become so well known and so synonymous after such a long period of time. But I'm sort of fascinated with the early days of the publishing house and the hotel that I believe you guys were just visiting. La Colomm d'.

[Prosper Assouline]

Or.

[Dan Rubenstein]

How did that begin? When the genesis of your first book.

[Prosper Assouline]

It start with absolutely not the idea to create a publishing company. This is more important. And it start with love. It was a place. It is a place in south of France named La Colombe d' or with full of history. Just because Martin and me love this place so much and love the family and the people. We wanted just to make a book after they agree to do. They did not agree to do the book. They said, no, we don't want to do a book. All the publishers in the world wanted to do a book on the history of La Colandor. And I was afraid about the matuvu, you know, something too nouveau riche. And the painting, the people, et cetera. And we wanted exactly the opposite. We wanted to do a book like a movie. So I did all of the pictures and Martin wrote the text. We show it to the family and we wanted to do it like a private book. So it was really made in our kitchen, real kitchen in Paris. And we wanted to make it like a movie. So we wanted to show the shadows, the smell, something really what was interest to us, not to the people. We did not want to do a book. It was not the fact. It was. We wanted to create something interesting, but we didn't want to do a book to be in the bookstore and to be sold, etc. It was not. We didn't know anybody. The industry zero. We didn't know anything. So we did this book. They was very surprised. I love it. We print this book with no idea about the rights. Because after Martin can explain to you when you Do a picture of someone with a Picasso on the back. You need to paint Picasso. We had no idea about that. So we did the book. We published a book. And the book had a big success in the press because people was very surprised to say how this book is so interesting because it's like a movie, it's like a video clip. It's not just picture with text. And it was a big surprise because 29 years after at the Colombo d', or, they still selling in a hotel where they have only 25 rooms, around 1,000 books every year in the same small hotel. So the start is that. And it's true.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Yeah. Martin, what did you think about this idea in the early days? Did you think it was crazy? Why a book of all things, especially to do any book is a big undertaking. But even if you're doing it independently, that's quite the challenge.

[Martine Assouline]

I think that we felt so well the place that it was a way for us to apply that on pages, bring the spirit of the place and to bring a little bit of the mind of this family that we love and create. Created this place which is so different from and still is. When we. We finished the book, they were on heaven. Because I understood that it was not just to. To show people who comes to the. The. The clients, et cetera, who are very well known. It's. It was not about that. It was really the spirit, quality of Lifestyle of the Provence, which there is at the best. So we did the book and so we start to have interest by the press. And I said, okay, there is a television who wants to go and to show something. And then they said, okay, we are going to ask Cesar, you know, the big French artists who are going to be. Ask Cesar to make an omelette in the kitchen. And that was the launch of the La Colombe d'. Or. So for you to understand the spirit.

[Prosper Assouline]

And just to finish on that. We published this book 29 years ago and we reprint this book, I don't know, maybe 20 times. We never change anything, we never update it. So it's the same layout. So the DNA of this book is the same as the DNA of the book publishing today. And in the meantime, we publish more of 2000 books. So it's the same layout, the same font, and we continue to use exactly the same ingredient to do our books.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Alex, you know, as you're someone who's been raised in this, I don't know if you're as old as that first book, but how do you describe to someone that you meet that maybe doesn't know as well. How do you describe the ingredients of the company?

[Alexander Assouline]

So the publishing hearts started the year I was born, actually. So, yeah, exactly that age. I think that just this particular story is important. That means that it starts with passion. And when a luxury brand starts with passion, it's inspiring to the people working in it and, and focuses a lot on, on that heritage. So this is like the main point that, that I take to describe it.

[Martine Assouline]

But I can, I can, I can add a little story because Alex was, you know, raised, you know, in, at La Colom d' or, going every year. And he almost became a bartender because the bartender felt in love with Alex. And so he was, you know, four or five years old and he was on a, on a big box with him on the bar and he started to do everything and he loved to do that. So the clients loved Alex.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Can you make a good martini, Alex?

[Alexander Assouline]

As I heard.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Good, good. Prosper, I've read that you were born and raised in Morocco and it's sort of easy to see that connection between that and many of the books and the sort of love of the Mediterranean and that sort of sense of sunshine and sky and landscape. What was your life like before that book? Before La Colomme d' or and the birth of the publishing house?

[Prosper Assouline]

To tell you the truth, it was the same because I am in the creative world from 16 years old. I started to work at 16 in the back office of a magazine, on a magazine in France. So I was always working, mixing words and images. So it was really my day to day, etc. So to do books, it was more important because the magazine, you put it in the garbage and the book, you always keep them. But it was always the same, the same Oxygen.

[Dan Rubenstein]

What magazines were you working on?

[Prosper Assouline]

It was Parimatch, photo magazine and a lot more, but always in the art direction department.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Martin, you worked in the law before, before, you know, starting your company with Prosper, if I'm getting that right. How did, how did you find yourself becoming working in the law and becoming a lawyer?

[Martine Assouline]

I was student before to, to, to start laws. I, I, I am also study interior architecture. But I was trying to, you know, like a lot of people of my age, I didn't had like Prosper, you know, some real idea of what I wanted to do in my life. So my father said, you know, he was, he did so many studies, he wanted me to, to be independent in life as a, as a woman. And he said, you study law and laws is a is going to open every kind of. Of after, you know, of. Of it's not to be a lawyer, but any kind of doors. You're so it. And it is true because it. It form your completely your. Your mind. And it was good. But after I tried a lot of things, you know, I didn't want to be a lawyer. It was boring for me, you know.

[Dan Rubenstein]

What was the craziest thing you tried?

[Martine Assouline]

Oh, I tried to. I was in many things concerning image. I wrote, I was doing pictures. Sometimes I was. I. I met pr. I enter in, you know, I start a PR company with some professional who wanted to do it with me. After I went to Rochas for three years and I was the director of communication and then all that, I married Prosper. And I loved what he was doing for years because we are friends and there is. And I start to say, okay, I'm very good in literature and in words. You are good in images. Let's do something together. And Alex arrived and I wanted to be, you know, a little bit at home with him. So I quit and I start to. And I start to do these books at home.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Alex, you've been growing up in this business your entire life. What are your earliest memories of the business and because it must be sort of omnipresent in your life. But do you have an early memory of. Of the publishing company?

[Alexander Assouline]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, pretty clear. I mean, me, as you can imagine, I met them at the hospital. So very different aspect. But yeah, I mean, when I got home the first day, I guess Martin's office was in my bedroom, you know. So I grew up a little bit, you know, surrounded by beauty and surrounded by all, you know, images, contact sheets and just training my eye into all this, just being exposed to interior design and into all the brands they were working on and, you know, fashion, art, architecture and so on. So that was very, very interesting on the early age and. Yeah. And at 10 years old, I started working with them, doing the stock room inventory and then designing or helping them to like set up corners and stores around the world and was really fun because every trips we were taking was related to a specific thing. So either an opening of a boutique or just working on the next book. And that was really, really interesting.

[Martine Assouline]

Growing up, I have a little anecdote who really, for me marked the starting of Alex. He was, I think, 10 or 11 years old and we were in New York and we. Prosper was doing the catalog of Bergdorf Goodman and he. He met the CEO and had lunch with the CEO. And the CEO asked him what you do? La la la. And he said, okay, I'm doing books. But my idea is to make the first, the first luxury brand in culture. So enlarged completely the idea and making something about culture through books, but also through lifestyle. And he explained what he was starting to do. And the day after the. Oh no, it was in the afternoon, the CEO called him and said, can you come to Bergdorf tomorrow? And so he said, yes, okay. And he arrived at Bergdorf and the CEO was one thrashed at that time. I love this guy because it was at the beginning of something very important. And it was, you know, like in the movie. It was a big table with six persons with, you know, the notebook. And they were, okay, when are we going to start? We are going to give you a big place on the seventh floor of the, of the, the, the. The Burgdorf Goodman. So we started. They said, okay, September. We said, no, we are not ready. So he said, okay, October. So we didn't go to invocations and we started to, to do everything, you know, for this opening for us it was a fantastic chance. He was opening for the first time having everything we like and we are in the same place all together. So Alex, we needed Alex, we start to need Alex, you know, in, in doing things, he help us. And that is the beginning of our afterboutiques.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Alex, did you do so willingly or was this more? Was this a chore for a young.

[Alexander Assouline]

Man with no resistance? No, no, I actually enjoyed doing it, you know, being having a seat at the table, you know, bringing ideas together, making a little sketches and everything. I was very, very young at the time, so yeah, every year I was trying to help in one way or another. And, and when I finished college, I immediately came to start as a designer and prosper.

[Dan Rubenstein]

You must, you know, obviously all three of you know the business very well. And you know, like in fashion, people say, oh, there is a, a girl that someone designs for. So I'm curious, is there a classic Asulene consumer, someone who collects your books and is the most likely to run out and buy them? How would you describe that Asulene reader, which I think is so key to your success, is that you understand that crowd very well because you, you in a sense are. You are, you're also. You are the living the life of the people you are making these books for?

[Prosper Assouline]

If that sounds, if it's not pretentious, I'm going to tell you something. But if it is not pretentious, because I really think Our book collection are really a book collection and not just shelled with books. So if someone like one book and have a chance to see a lot like in a store, he's going to buy 10. And if someone like 10 book is going to buy 100, not in the same time, but he's going to go in this direction. Why? Because I always say something very important. The reputation, it is a repetition. So the reputation equals the repetition. And it's exactly what you do. We do only three collection. So we have the ultimate collection made by hand etc. And we have, I don't know, 60 or 70. We have the travel and it's a big collection we have. So it's collection. So the customer what we have really when he start to understand and to love Asulin we have it completely for a long time. Because we. We have a lot to tell. It's not a surprise about what will be next. We understand what would be next and.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Who is that person. If you have to describe that person that collects and really loves what you do.

[Prosper Assouline]

It's somebody who is around 35, I would like to say who like quality and understand what is design. Because part of our books are almost closed 80% of the time, okay, so they are part of your apartment, they are part of your life, they are part of your lifestyle. So people understand how to use a book. It's not just to read. It's not a math book where you are going to learn something. Who is going to help you for the day to day. It's going to open your mind. So it's like a collection of movies. It's not Amazon movie with 5 million of movies. What you can see we are doing the editing and we are proposed to the customer. The best of the best about style. On the 2000 books, what we did 80% are really just about style.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And in the early days of the business, how did you convince these many fashion houses to create these books? I mean, what was the landscape like at the time? Was that was it today? It sort of seems obvious, but obviously you were doing something very new back then.

[Prosper Assouline]

It was no book on fashion at all at this time. It was really. It seems crazy, but 30 years ago it was no books. It was few books and there was very expensive, super boring and like made for museum by museum conservator. So it was really something not very sexy and happening, et cetera. When with Martin we decided to touch this subject on fashion, it was in 1994, exactly 95, the first set of collection we decided to Touch not the public who is interested by fashion to buy book at $100, etc. But for the student. So we wanted to do for the student the best book ever, the best quality ever, with a very low price. So we did a book. It was a small size, but not so small. 80 pages, hardcover, beautiful, well done, excellent paper, etc. And one book by designer. And we decide, because we come from the magazine somewhere, we don't come from the publishing. We still don't know anybody in the publishing world today. I have no idea who they are. So we decided to sell this book and to show this book four by four. So every four months we published four by four. And we mixed the energy. So it was Alaya with your Chanel and Madeleine Vionnet. So it was the first set and a text, very short, but something like 20 page, 18 pages of text with the best writer on this moment and the energy of the brand. And after we have six pages just for the caption. This book was completely new. It's like you bring something completely new on the table. Nobody saw that before, etc. And it was so much success with. We sold this book not just to the student, but really to everyone. So today it was, I don't know, 100 books on this collection. You don't have any fashion house in the world who don't have this collection. It was completely insane. It was translated 11 languages and it was really the first big start for Asulin in the world of the publishing people take us very seriously to say, who are these people?

[Martine Assouline]

The fact is that we could do that also because we knew very, very well, you know, we were in Paris at that moment. So we knew very well the people. As Dina Laya was the best friend of Prosper, the people at Chanel, we were very friend. Prosper was friends with Karl Lagerfeld and with Marie Louise de Claremont Tonaire, you know, all the. And it was another time where the people, they were. It was more trust, you know, more, you know, humanity in exchange. And so it was possible to do it. And I wanted to do a book with Thierry Mugler. I was with Thierry Mugler the day after, you know, and so understanding, you know, more and more his spirit, you know, to make it visually. So that was very important to know all those people. And we were plunge in the fashion. We love that it was a moment of delirium and freedom and not the. And different of today, which is more, you know, business, marketing.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Was there a book that you did in the early days that you thought okay, this is now a business. This is now not a passion project like La Colom d'. Or.

[Prosper Assouline]

This collection. No, no, this collection. We understood with this collection when it was translated 11 languages and we sold million, we understood this is a business. This collection make us make a. It was really the first step.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And. And you were. You were quoted back in the day in our beloved Departures magazine. I think you said that chicness and glamour have nothing to do with money. And. Sure. How do you think that sort of outlook has impacted Asulin the business today?

[Prosper Assouline]

To tell you the truth, it was a before and after. But this part of before, the only interest for us we could understand this collection will be a business, etc. But it was not important. The most important was the glamour, the style, the quality. It was absolutely not the business. Absolutely not. Today Alexandre is on the hand and driving the business. So now we are driving differently the company. But this first part on these first 10 years was really about the qualities, the glamour and the style and how all of these books could work together and to have a sense and absolutely never to do book for books.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Never. And Alex, what you're. You're this next generation. So to you, do you have a different outlook on this sort of sense of style and glamour that maybe is different from your parents?

[Martine Assouline]

Yeah, in terms of style, I mean.

[Alexander Assouline]

I think my generation focuses much more on like individuality, you know, showing off their personal taste through their own style. We like products, experiences that can be personalized to our own taste, you know, so in a sense being different is stylish. So that's like style for me at the moment. Glamour is something more, you know, of the past. Yeah, we keep searching for that makes us learn also about the old days, something we cover because it's part of culture. But yeah.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Do when you kind of have a discussion with your parents about artists or designers or things like that, do you have like, what is your kind of your taste and who do you think is sort of in our culture today is kind of like driving this sort of conversation. Because something like Astralene has to constantly evolve or else, you know, that's. You're doing so many books and so you're constantly having to make these decisions of like, you know, who's next, who.

[Alexander Assouline]

To cover and what next, who to cover and. Yeah, what? Yeah, yeah. And also we have a kind of like a responsibility of. Because we work mostly on collection responsibility of who to pick on these things. Because now that we're becoming more and more of like that authority in Terms of, you know, funnels and I would say culture in editing, we need to pick the right people that are going to be next to, you know, the Cartier, the Bucciarati, the Dior and so on in that same collection because they are really like shown together. But yeah, style is really, you know, it's not just fashion for us, it's, it's in terms of design. It's also, you know, the curation and so on.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And so you guys must be pitched ideas for books all of the time. So I'm curious when you guys are sitting around the table and deciding, okay, what should we do this next book or not?

[Prosper Assouline]

It's obvious. It's obvious. We know immediately if it's a solid book or not. An Asoline. Yes, we, it's obvious. It's crazy, but it's obvious.

[Alexander Assouline]

And also it, I mean when we embark on a project, it's something that's going to be for a year plus, you know, because there's the whole conception of it and then there's the development, distribution, marketing of it. So it's at least one to two years of like full time job just like on that specific product and project. So it needs to be something that we, we want to jump in that's something that interests us to the fullest or something that we actually like and want to cover. Something that we want to learn more on because we're going to spend a year creating it.

[Dan Rubenstein]

You mentioned before the ultimate collection, when was the first one? And I'm curious as to why you think it was such a big success. Because sometimes, you know, in the world of book publishing, things that are too, that have a really high price tag, people tend to say, well you know, you're not going to sell as many copies. There is a sort of a limit and a market. So what do you think that this sort of ultimate collection, how did that start? And what do you think is why are yours so successful that you've been able to do them for so long?

[Prosper Assouline]

Number one, what is important is not to create a marketing product because if you create a marketing product, it's going to have a short life. Okay, so number two, what we wanted is to create the sensibility, the emotion of something a book on the ultimate subject made just for you. So it's made by hand. So this collection is all of the picture, almost all of the pictures are stifled by hand. It's really to make boxes like that with this textile, etc. It's made in Italy, in Milan and it's really artisan work. Each book, not the collection. It's really each book and you have a tag, a label in each book to say made in Italy. It's completely insane this collection because if, if we are serious we need to sell it a little bit more expensive. But I really wanted to have this collection with, with all around the same price. They are all around $1,000 or $1,200 et cetera. But they cost a fortune. They are made by hand. And this is very important. This is for the production part, for the editorial part. It was always something very important is to do the best of the best and the ultimate book on this collection. So when we did Rolex, it's 100 books on Rolex. We wanted to have the best 100 watches, the best author for the text. At the end the CEO called me and told me thank you is the best book never done on Rolex. And he didn't know we are going to do this book. So Chanel, when we did Chanel we wanted to make it like an exhibition. The owner call us, text us to say best book on the chanel ever made etc. So we try each time to, to. To make this book real between the production and the editorial part. So it's really. The word ultimate is not fake. We try each time to do the ultimate on this subject.

[Dan Rubenstein]

You know, the three of you are I would say the best travel experts I could probably ever turn to. So where do you think is the next hotspot today in this sort of new post pandemic travel period that we're in? What is the next place we're all going to be talking about doing books about like what is the. Is there a hotspot is now emerging in this time?

[Martine Assouline]

Emerging? It's always difficult to say but interesting because we, we have done until now all the, the very known, you know, places which represent our like brands, you know. But now it's, it's a new, it's a new. Since we, we did Athens Riviera because Athens Riviera, I didn't even know that it was so interesting and beautiful and close to Athens. And so you had all the joy of the Athens, you know, which is such a, such a culture, ancient culture but you know, all the, the islands also feeling. So this kind of places are. We know them now by people who come to us and, and make and explain and, and make them make us curious. But so we go. We are traveling a little bit further than, than the Mediterranean and but keeping Italy, Italy and France and Spain like, like the really the spots we, we went to Jaipur. We are going to, going to places like that, you know, and try to find the DNA with also what happened today, you know, so it's the mix to make the spirit of the place understandable and sexy and prosper.

[Dan Rubenstein]

What do you think is the next, the next big spot for travel?

[Prosper Assouline]

We just did something, we had exactly this question, exactly your question six months ago and we say, well, why we don't go to the moon. And we did a book on the moon in this travel series and it's about why we don't go to spend three days in the moon. So it was all about this methodology analogy about what could be the ideal weekend in the moon. So the idea is really to break the rule sometime. We need to continue what we do on the travel. We are not going to stop, but it's good to break the rules rules. And we are going to break the rules like we just did the moon. The next one is metaverse and we are going to create more like this.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Oh, Alex, that brings up a good question. The metaverse, which is seemingly like a, a topic some people enjoy and some people, some people roll their eyes at.

[Alexander Assouline]

What do you and struggle to understand.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Yeah, yeah, I struggle to understand. Are you, are you, would you say you're in the pro or con side of the, of the sort of metaverse crazy craze?

[Alexander Assouline]

I'm excited about it. I'm not like overjoyed and, and going to achieve our entire like, you know, brand strategy and so on for that. But I'm excited for like a new medium and a new way of, of showcasing products of telling our story. That's what I would say.

[Dan Rubenstein]

You know, speaking of the virtual, I mean obviously book publishing is one of those things that's doing so well yet even though we've been told for years that you know, everything was going digital and print was not going to survive, but you guys have done so well and so are you interested in sort of exploring these kinds of virtual things more or is it.

[Alexander Assouline]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean again, it's part of experiences. It's part of telling a story after making a book digital. No, that's not something that we are just an add on of an experience. Absolutely. People tend to start focusing more on books for the past few years when we were all saying that everything was going digital because they like that tangible product, they like the tangible aspect and they like also that curation that you don't find online. You type the name of a brand or like A specific subject and you're going to find hundreds of thousands of pictures on Google. What we do here is the perfect curation and also with the point of view and with the right text from the right author and so on. So that's what people turn to now. More on the quality factor.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And you guys have a lot of amazing titles coming out this fall. So I wanted to ask each of you which. Which title are you the most excited about? Personally, Martine is there.

[Alexander Assouline]

From the ones we can talk about already.

[Dan Rubenstein]

From the ones you go. The ones in the catalog, I guess you could say for the fall. For this fall. This fall catalog. Martine, is there one that you. You are very excited about?

[Martine Assouline]

There's many. But I think that the one which is interesting to see what going to happen with is the one and. And took us the most, you know, passion that time. It is about the book about Virgil Abloh because, you know it was such person very, very different and the emotion of his. Of his him living. You know, we. We did that because it comes with an idea of a friend and we plunged totally in that with our editor Christian. And it has been all a story to make this book prosper.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Which. Which fall title are you are you. Are you passionate about?

[Prosper Assouline]

I am in love with a new collection what we have on the style and we have three now and it's going to be three every year. And I love the COVID I love everything. It's about style. I and one was on Art deco. The second one was on Orientalism and the third one coming I think in the next month is about pop art. And the three book together are fantastic because it's really a cocktail on this subject. So you learn a lot. You are surprised. It's breaking the rules and they are beautiful to live with. So it's fantastic. The next one are going to complete this collection but this one is really a collection what I really in love.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And why do you think that these. These sort of style. These. This particular series successful? Because.

[Prosper Assouline]

Because it's I would like to say with no pretentious again, it's an education of style on this subject, but with style. But it's education on the style of this subject.

[Alexander Assouline]

It.

[Prosper Assouline]

So the word education is not on the COVID but it's here and it's very important.

[Martine Assouline]

But to answer they are not for specialists. They are for people who are interested in the subject. We wanted to do something not boring and very open and with you know to have in Diagonal all about the best of the best of those periods were so Important in the art, decorative putting art, interior design, design, fashion, social life. To make understand. Because when you do something Art deco is not about, you know, only a beautiful chair or a vase. You know, it's understanding all the spirit of the period and that you can understand by those books. And it's the excitement in doing them.

[Prosper Assouline]

Yes. Because our clients are not expecting from us to have something from a specialized. And because our clients. Our customer like also fashion, architecture, everything we when we touch a subject like art deco, pop art, etc. Have to be with style. It have to be fun. You have to be. We have a lot of words who are part of our ingredient to make a book. An assolin book. So it could be specialized, but it is specialized with fun. It's light.

[Martine Assouline]

Yes. It's a question of much time because you have to see a lot, a lot, a lot of things to. To really make the selection. But it's question also in knowing your subject and doing it create the surprise and doing it in partnership with an author, a good author.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Alex, is there a book this fall that you think listeners should really pay extra attention to?

[Prosper Assouline]

Yeah.

[Alexander Assouline]

One that Prosper has been working on for the past year is the one on the brand Audemars Piguet. We're doing the sixth year anniversary of the Royal Oak and I wasn't so much of a watch guy but it started to intrigue me a little bit. You know, so much happening about you know, one. One special watch for an anniversary of a brand. So I started to. To you know, deep dive a little bit my knowledge into it. And then for my 30th birthday my. My parents gifted me one of the watches and you know, I started learning more and more about it. Articles everywhere and in the book and so on. And just to understand, you know, the level of detail and complexity in terms of movement and the caliber and so on that is so different from one to another. Even a year after that. It was just thrilling. So super excited for this book to. To be happy.

[Prosper Assouline]

You talk about this book because it's maybe the best design we did this last year.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And are you doing this independently of them or is. Or is this something where they are. They are. They are participating normally.

[Prosper Assouline]

We are completely independent on that. This one I know very well the CEO and we talk about this 50 years and we say why we don't do something completely insane. So we create.

[Dan Rubenstein]

That sounds like him.

[Prosper Assouline]

Yeah. And we create a book in three different size. One size is 1.2 meter, 2 meter wide and it's 70 kilos. This is for the stores. Now. It's really, we dream about to say no limit, to create something completely insane. So this one, it was a collaboration, very close collaboration, but it's really a book, what we wanted to do.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And as the publishing industry has evolved, where do you think it's going? Like, where do you think that publishing. I think this is the million dollar question that everyone in the world of design and fashion and graphic design and, you know, we all want to know where book publishing is going. How do you see the business evolving in the next 10 years?

[Prosper Assouline]

So we are maybe not the right person to reply to this question because we really feel we are in the lifestyle business and not just on the book publishing. So our books are the reflection of the lifestyle growing on the left side. On the right side, we are the shadow of that. We are a little bit involved, but we are the shadow of what's going to happen. So we create this lifestyle and the book is the medium of that. But to reply seriously on your question, we are not the right person.

[Dan Rubenstein]

Alex, where would you like to take the Asulin name in the next generation?

[Alexander Assouline]

So that's something we've been, you know, having extensive discussions about. And now that you know, I'm, I'm here on the strategy side to take on that direction. I mean it's, it's clear, you know, we want as prosper just said, create a lifestyle brand. So we keep, of course, you know, making the top quality books for the next few years and that being the center of it, but starting to own more of the contemporary library. And when we talk about library, it's not about the bookcase, it's about the entire room. Right. So adding objects, I need candles, accessories, potentially furniture and so on is not something that is not on the conversation. I would say for now, on the book direction and book side, there's still a lot to do in the aspect of experiences, in the aspect of digital, but to bring the book to life. So every project that we take is going to have way more time and effort put into it, distribution worldwide and so on. So yes, we have big plans for the next few years.

[Dan Rubenstein]

And Martin, what is your hopes for if you could come back, if you could time travel and go Visit the future 100 years from now and visit the Asuline headquarters, what would you hope to see there?

[Martine Assouline]

It's a good question, but I'm so deeply in the creation of the books that I'm not really a visionary of the future. So I'm more trying to listen Prosper and Alex. My idea is to open. But it's our idea since ever but it is really deeply. My idea is to open the brand to lifestyle. It has always been more or less like that with the special editions that we have done for Chanel, for the Andre Boutman at that time, for Goyard, you know, the trunk that we have done with 100 books etc. Flirting with books but going out of the books. It's something that. That I would love because it's so much work to do a book. I always say it's incredible that to. To. To sell something like that at such price when you see so many people around me. I have team fantastic but so much, you know, creativity and density in doing them that I would love to have, you know, some object done, you know, or other kind of things who you just have to have a good design, a good idea, a good creation. And that's after. It's easy.

[Prosper Assouline]

Yes. No, no. It's interesting because I feel you was in our office few days ago. No, no, absolutely. This is absolutely my goal. It's a family business. What Alexander said, the start of the conversation. The emotion is still here. Now we add the sub warfare and the distribution and the logistics and everything. Everything else you can make it worldwide. But the emotion is still here. The passion is still here. So we continue to cook and we continue to make the bread in the same way with the smell and with the best quality. But we don't want to make it. We don't want to make water on an excellent wine. So we are going to continue to control everything.

[Dan Rubenstein]

A special thanks to Veronica Speck and the entire Asolene team and family for making this episode happen. The editor of the Grand Tourist is Stan Hall. To keep this going, don't forget to visit our website and sign up for our newsletter. The Grand Tourist [e-mail] and follow me on Instagram danrubenstein. Don't forget you can purchase the first ever print issue of the Grand Tourist online now on our website. Just a few copies left. And follow the Grand Tourist on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. And leave us a rating or comment. Every little bit helps. Till next time.