Fancy hotels come and go all the time in New York City. There are a handful, however, that not only stick around but come to represent something—an era, an ethos, a vibe. Few are as storied as Madison Avenue's The Carlyle—the Art Deco tower that rose to fame in the period after World War II and became a center of glamour in the Kennedy years—a position it has never relinquished.
Thus our latest selection for Just Booked (our series on gorgeous travel-related coffee table books) is Assouline's new tome, The Carlyle.
The book beautifully encapsulates the hotel's history. There are original photos from the 1930s of Dorothy Draper's decor (oh, the light fixtures!), old advertisements for the hotel apartments (“English manor standards of service”), and dozens of shots of the stars who have performed, lived, or hung out here over the years.
As Lenny Kravitz writes in the book's introduction, “It was an Art Deco dream come true.”
