Luxe, Calme et Volupté: Slim Aarons’s Photographs of Women Who Make Leisure Look Good

“Attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places” was how the late photographer Slim Aarons described his main preoccupation. It’s a formula that stands the test of time: One of Aarons’s jet set photographs — scenes of aristos at leisure he documented from the 40’s through the 80’s — was just at the center of the designer Thom Browne’s spring 2017 show; there will be an Aarons exhibit opening at New York’s Staley-Wise gallery later this month; and there is a new book, Slim Aarons: Women, by Aarons’ former longtime assistant, Laura Hawk (the fifth volume in Abrams’ Aarons collection), out this week. The edition spotlights the beauties who populated his opulent scenes, everyone from Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe to his daughter and wife, alongside a bevy of princesses and socialites.