The first time I made my way to Maison Assouline was with a broken foot, in a tragic boot and crutches. Certainly, I was shown up by what is a glorious (and quite underrated) setting. It is a three-floor public showroom for the self-professed “Hermès of publishing”, which was founded in 1994 and is renowned for its coffee table travel books, top-end fashion collaborations and exquisite, XXL-size tomes that start at a grand.
I was there for a Moschino bash, and to interview the brand’s then creative director Jeremy Scott, but as I hobbled along Piccadilly, I was taken aback. It’s one of those painfully noticeable, beautiful little buildings, bang opposite the Royal Academy of Arts, that I had never spotted before. It’s charming.
