Marilyn in Fashion: The Enduring Influence of Marilyn Monroe


Christopher Nickens - 2012
    From the pink satin "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” gown, to the pleated white dress from The Seven Year Itch to the revealing nude sheath worn to sing "Happy Birthday” to JFK, Marilyn created endless unforgettable looks. Before they were household names, she wore Ferragamo pumps, carried Gucci bags and wore the designs of Oleg Cassini, Norman Norell, Emilio Pucci, and Jean Louis. In an era of Peter Pan collars, poodle skirts, and repressed sexuality, Marilyn’s sexy style and ability to spot up-and-coming designers made her a fashion visionary. Marilyn in Fashion traces the evolution of her style, from wholesome sweetness early in her career, to sex kitten looks in the 1950s, to elegant sophistication in the last years of her life. The text details the designers of her ensembles, where she wore them, and their influence on fashion. Behind-the-scenes stories reveal how the star often worked closely with designers to create looks befitting the Marilyn Monroe image. Illustrated with hundreds of rare and never-before-published photos, Marilyn in Fashion fabulously traces the style evolution of the ultimate Hollywood icon.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel


Lisa Immordino Vreeland - 2011
    Beginning in 1936, when she became a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, Vreeland established herself as a controversial visionary with an astonishing ability to invent and discover fashion ideas, designers, personalities, and photographers. She was a memorable writer with a vivid personality and a talent for coining aphorisms. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel chronicles 50 years of international fashion and Vreeland’s rich life. With more than 350 illustrations, including original magazine spreads and many famous photographs, this intensely visual book shows fashion as it was being invented, and how Vreeland shaped American taste through her superb vision.Praise for Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel:“Before there was Daphne Guinness, before there was Lady Gaga, there was the original style setter. A new book takes a look at the career and influence of the woman who made fashion modern.” —Town & Country “A must-have and the perfect addition to anyone’s holiday gift list, the book begs to be displayed on a coffee table and leisurely reviewed from the corner of a comfy couch, when there is ample time to savor Vreeland's pioneering five decades in fashion.” —Publishers Weekly

Forties Fashion: From Siren Suits to the New Look


Jonathan Walford - 2008
    The lively text by fashion specialist Jonathan Walford details how fashion was considered not a frivolity but an aesthetic expression of circumstances in the 1940s. While Fascist states tried to create “national” styles before the war began, by 1940 the pursuit of beauty was promoted on both sides of the conflict as a patriotic duty. From prewar to postwar, we see attitudes emerge from period advertisements, images of real clothes, and firsthand accounts in contemporary publications. The result is a celebration of everything from practical and smart-looking attire for air raids (hooded capes with large pockets and siren suits) to street fashion and the creation of Christian Dior’s “New Look” collection in 1947.

Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu


Slinkachu - 2008
    Much like Banksy's early graffiti work, Slinkachu's creations mix the bustle, humor, and melancholy of city life, and lie quietly in the darker corners of London's streets, waiting to be discovered. And if you’re lucky enough to find one, to quote The Times: "Oddly enough, even when you know they are just hand-painted figurines, you can't help but feel that their plights convey something of our own fears about being lost and vulnerable in a big, bad city." This volume also includes a forward from acclaimed novelist Will Self.

Keith Haring Journals


Keith Haring - 1996
    Kept from his teens until his death from AIDS in 1990, these illuminating journals reveal Haring's conscious, committed drive to extend the boundaries of art. Photos & drawings throughout. Radio news feature.

Who What Wear: Celebrity and Runway Style for Real Life


Hillary Kerr - 2009
    Now, the creators share their tricks of the trade, translating high fashion in a low-fuss, accessible way. Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, two former Elle magazine editors, are the fashionable duo behind the booming website. In Who What Wear they’ve compiled the best of their tips and advice into one stylish compendium.Trends come and go at a dizzying pace and it can be challenging to just get dressed in the morning!Kerr and Power banish those fashion faux-pas fears and give readers the tools necessary to update their own personal styles and recognize and incorporate the latest runway and Hollywood looks.Celebrity contributors such as Rachel Zoe, Nicole Richie, and Rachel Bilson also dish their insider style secrets alongside images from the runway and beyond.

Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow


Detmar Blow - 2010
    Blow by Blow is a captivating journey through Issie’s life, a one-of-a-kind look at her unforgettable impact on the fashion world, and a moving exploration of her inspiring and ultimately tragic tale.

Yosemite and the Range of Light


Ansel Adams - 1979
    Full page B&W photos

The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher


Bruno Ernst - 1976
    Escher, I am absolutely crazy about your work. In your print Reptiles you have given such a striking illustration of reincarnation.' I replied, 'Madame, if that's the way you see it, so be it, '" An engagingly sly comment by the renowned Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972)--the complex ambiguities of whose work leave hasty or single-minded interpretations far behind. Long before the first computer-generated 3-D images were thrilling the public, Escher was a master of the third dimension. His lithograph "Magic Mirror" dates as far back as 1946. In taking that title for this book, mathematician Bruno Ernst is stressing the magic spell Escher's work invariably casts on those who see it. Ernst visited Escher every week for a year, systematically talking through his entire oeuvre with him. Their discussions resulted in a friendship that gave Ernst intimate access to the life and conceptual world of Escher. Ernst's account was meticulously scrutinized and made accurate by the artist himself. Escher's work refuses to be pigeonholed. Scientific, psychological, or aesthetic criteria alone cannot do it justice. The questions remain. Why did he create the pictures? How did he construct them? What preliminary studies were necessary before he could arrive at the final version? And how are the various images Escher created interrelated? This book, complete with biographical data, 250 illustrations, and explications of mathematical problems, offers answers to these and many other questions, and is an authentic source text of the first order.

Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in That Order)


Bridget Quinn - 2017
    Aligned with the resurgence of feminism in pop culture, Broad Strokes offers an entertaining corrective to that omission. Art historian Bridget Quinn delves into the lives and careers of 15 brilliant female artists in text that's smart, feisty, educational, and an enjoyable read. Replete with beautiful reproductions of the artists' works and contemporary portraits of each artist by renowned illustrator Lisa Congdon, this is art history from 1600 to the present day for the modern art lover, reader, and feminist.

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo


Hayden Herrera - 1983
    Hailed by readers and critics across the country, this engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children; her tempestuous marriage to muralist Diego Rivera and intermittent love affairs with men as diverse as Isamu Noguchi and Leon Trotsky; her association with the Communist Party; her absorption in Mexican folklore and culture; and her dramatic love of spectacle.Here is the tumultuous life of an extraordinary twentieth-century woman -- with illustrations as rich and haunting as her legend.

Fashion Now 2


Terry Jones - 2005
    "Fashion Now 2" is illustrated with the very best fashion photography and styling, extracted from the archives of the magazine that celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2008.

The Male Nude


David Leddick - 1998
    This collection provides an overdue review of material that at one time could only be bought under the counter, beginning with the anonymous erotica of the 19th century. It features the pioneer homoerotic nude photographs of Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden, posing nude youths in classical postures at Taormina in Sicily. It includes illustrations from groundbreaking magazines such as Physique Pictorial, the leading organ of the mid-50s gay scene, and it covers the entire range from classic masters of male nude photography, such as Herbert List, George Platt Lynes or Robert Mapplethorpe, to the pin-up beefcake of the sex magazines.

You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)


Felicia Day - 2015
    There’s also Felicia Day—violinist, filmmaker, Internet entrepreneur, compulsive gamer, hoagie specialist, and former lonely homeschooled girl who overcame her isolated childhood to become the ruler of a new world... or at least semi-influential in the world of Internet Geeks and Goodreads book clubs.After growing up in the south where she was "home-schooled for hippie reasons", Felicia moved to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and was immediately typecast as a crazy cat-lady secretary. But Felicia’s misadventures in Hollywood led her to produce her own web series, own her own production company, and become an Internet star.Felicia’s short-ish life and her rags-to-riches rise to Internet fame launched her career as one of the most influential creators in new media. Now, Felicia’s strange world is filled with thoughts on creativity, video games, and a dash of mild feminist activism—just like her memoir.Hilarious and inspirational, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is proof that everyone should embrace what makes them different and be brave enough to share it with the world, because anything is possible now—even for a digital misfit.

Frida Kahlo: 1907-1954 Pain and Passion


Andrea Kettenmann - 1993
    Un retrato de una artista, sobre todo una artista.(Portrait of an artist, always an artist, above all an artist.)