Yves St. Laurant not only designed some of the most magnificent clothing in the world, but what an opulent life he and Pierre shared. The photography showcasing the magnificent collections of these two is superb. They truly had quite an eye for many treasures in the world.

A selection of decors, mainly by Jacques Grange, that illustrate the sophistication of the houses shared by Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Berge. This is about as "high end" decor as you can get. However, several of the places are quite simple yet brilliantly furnished with a kind of taste rarely seen elsewhere. In a some of the homes or apartments simple objects and rare treasures are mixed together, but in an unpretentious manner. In others, extreme opulence is the key. However the workmanship of everything is the best that can be had anywhere. This is what places look like when money is no object.

Given the material that is covered by "The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge," a reader might have expected this book to be one of the most fascinating interior design volumes issued in decades, and in this regard it does not disappoint. Indeed, the richly-layered environments and richly-enjoyed lifestyles crafted by the late designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge compel one to delve into the book over and over again.

"The Private World" is divided into eight chapters. The first is a 12-page analytical essay on the philosophy that guided Saint Laurent's and Berge's residential designs, while the remaining seven are each devoted singly to three homes in Paris, a work studio in Paris, a seaside house in France, and two homes in North Africa. These seven establishments are generously dealt with by photographs that cover exterior and interior spaces, full-room sweeps and focused close-ups of individual objects. Some of the seven locations and specific rooms have appeared previously in design magazines and other books. Still, the sum of the images offered here is stunning in revealing the care and resources that Saint Laurent and Berge devoted to collecting, decorating, and simply creating extraordinary backdrops for their lives and dreams. Overall then, it is fair to say that the book is an ode to the wondrous extremes to which a cultivated French taste for antiquities, modern art, and even adapted stage settings can go.

What limited text is offered in this otherwise ambitious book sets the scene for understanding what inspired Saint Laurent's and Berge's tastes and sensibilities, but one wishes for so much more. This desire for additional material is most strongly felt in looking at the individual residences, especially the villa at the seaside resort of Deauville. Here, for example, I longed for a great deal more information regarding the influence of Marcel Proust on the main house and Leon Bakst on the dacha. (That material is better handled, in fact, in the two chapters that Christiane de Nicolay-Mazery devotes to the Deauville property in her "French Interiors: The Art of Elegance.") One wishes too that the publishers of "The Private World" had taken the time to eliminate the many typographical, grammatical, and syntactical errors found throughout the book.