Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon


Catherine Hewitt - 2018
    But behind her captivating façade lay a closely-guarded secret.Suzanne was born into poverty in rural France, before her mother fled the provinces, taking her to Montmartre. There, as a teenager Suzanne began posing for—and having affairs with—some of the age’s most renowned painters. Then Renoir caught her indulging in a passion she had been trying to conceal: the model was herself a talented artist.Some found her vibrant still lifes and frank portraits as shocking as her bohemian lifestyle. At eighteen, she gave birth to an illegitimate child, future painter Maurice Utrillo. But her friends Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas could see her skill. Rebellious and opinionated, she refused to be confined by tradition or gender, and in 1894, her work was accepted to the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, an extraordinary achievement for a working-class woman with no formal art training.Renoir’s Dancer tells the remarkable tale of an ambitious, headstrong woman fighting to find a professional voice in a male-dominated world.

Beauty: The New Basics


Rona Berg - 2000
    Illustrated throughout in two-color and featuring a 96-page full-color section, Beauty is filled with step-by-step how-tos, professional techniques, brand and product comparisons, and inside tips gleaned from a pro's pro who's covered the world of beauty for The New York Times Magazine, Elle magazine and other national publications. The book tackles all three major categories-The Face, Hair, The Body. The emphasis is on simplicity and a healthy, natural approach, and the range cuts across all ethnicities and ages. There are five minute skin regimes, facials, makeup tricks and health tips. How to reduce stress in the bath and pamper yourself with an easy home spa. The long and short of hair care-including what to do on bad hair days. Remedies for beauty emergencies (eyes puffy from fatigue? do what the models do and use a dab of Preparation H). Plus make-overs, recipes, historical lore, stories, time-lines, and an extensive glossary and list of resources. It's a knock-out.

Fashion: The Whole Story


Marnie Fogg - 2013
    Filled with indispensable information about every aspect of fashion from 500 BCE to now, this encyclopedic reference highlights in detail key pieces that epitomize certain styles. It profiles fashion icons to show how one designer or style influences another, explains the impact of cultural and historical events on daily wear, and demonstrates how technical innovation can take fashion in new directions. Engaging, all-encompassing, and overflowing with illustrations, this is an indispensable resource for anyone who loves fashion.

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth


Helen Castor - 2011
    For the first time, all the contenders for the crown were female.In 1553, England was about to experience the ‘monstrous regiment’ - the unnatural rule - of a woman. But female rule in England also had a past. Four hundred years before Edward’s death, Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conquerer, came tantalisingly close to securing her hold on the power of the crown. And between the 12th and the 15th centuries three more exceptional women - Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, and Margaret of Anjou - discovered, as queens consort and dowager, how much was possible if the presumptions of male rule were not confronted so explicitly.The stories of these women - told here in all their vivid humanity - illustrate the paradox which the female heirs to the Tudor throne had no choice but to negotiate. Man was the head of woman; and the king was the head of all. How, then, could a woman be king, how could royal power lie in female hands?

The Fashion Book


Alexandra Black - 2014
    It reveals how modern-day looks, from catwalk to high-street fashions, draw on the styles of the past from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and from the rebel attire of the 50's to the sport-inspired looks of the 80's.Through witty graphics and bright lively text, teens can go behind the scenes of the exclusive fashion world. Style icons, designers, and top models all give practical tips to create stunning outfits, explain key fashion terms, discuss careers in fashion, and reveal secrets of the industry. Trivia, a glossary, inspirational quotes, and more make The Fashion Book a must-have accessory for teens.

Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-class Culture in America, 1830-1870


Karen Halttunen - 1982
    . . . This book adds immeasurably to the current work on sentimental culture and American cultural history and brings to its task an inquisitive, fresh, and intelligent perspective.”—Dianne F. Sadoff, American Quarterly Karen Halttunen draws a vivid picture of the social and cultural development of the upwardly mobile middle class in mid-nineteenth-century America, basing her study on a survey of the conduct manuals and fashion magazines of the times. “A compelling and beautifully developed study. … Halttunen provides us with a subtle book that gently unfolds from her mastery of the subject and intelligent prose.”—Paula S. Fass, Journal of Social History“Halttunen has done her homework—the research has been tremendous, the notes and bibliography are impressive, and the text is peppered with hundreds of quotes—and gives some real insight into an area of American culture and history where we might have never bothered to look.”—John Hopkins, Times Literary Supplement“The kind of imaginative history that opens up new questions, that challenges conventional historical understanding, and demonstrates how provocative and exciting cultural history can be.”—William R. Leach, The New England Quarterly“A stunning contribution to American cultural history.”—Alan Trachtenberg

The New Braiding Handbook: 60 Modern Twists on the Classic Hairstyle


Abby Smith - 2014
    The New Braiding Handbook offers you an impressive array of easy-to-re-create, beautiful, and versatile looks that are as appropriate for elegant formal events as they are practical for casual, everyday wear. With step-by-step photos and detailed instructions for creating trendy knots, chic twists, and playful plaits, The New Braiding Handbook teaches imaginative and intricate hairstyling like you've never seen before. Fifty looks to choose from guarantee a braid for every occasion (or no occasion at all). Along with amazing styles and easy-to-follow tutorials, there are also tons of tips for eliminating split ends, bulking up limp locks, growing out a short ’do, and getting a full, healthy, shiny head of hair straight from the pages of a magazine.

Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism


Marina Warner - 1981
    Marina Warner uses her superb historical and literary skills to move beyond conventional biography and to capture the essence of Joan of Arc, both as she lived in her own time and as she has "grown" in the human imagination over the five centuries since her death. She has examined the court documents from Joan of Arc's 1431 Inquisition trial for heresy and woven the facts together with an analysis of the histories, biographies, plays, and paintings and sculptures that have appeared over time to honor this heroine and symbol of France's nationhood. Warner shows how the few facts that are known about the woman Joan have been shaped to suit the aims of those who have chosen her as their hero. The book places Joan in the context of the mythology of the female hero and takes note of her historical antecedents, both pagan and Christian and the role she has played up to the present as the embodiment of an ideal, whether as Amazon, saint, child of nature, or personification of virtue.

Makeup Your Mind


Fabien Baron - 2001
    Designed by renowned graphic artist Fabien Baron to be the ultimate makeup how-to book, Makeup Your Mind is a comprehensive compilation of Before and After photographs, each containing instructional acetate overlays, covering almost every face type, complexion, eye color, and facial feature found on the runway today. Makeup Your Mind is also a revolutionary instruction manual on makeup from one of the most respected and imitated cosmetics artists in fashion today: a makeup book designed and constructed as a durable paperback companion suitable for the vanity or for the car, sliding in and out of its attractive hardcover binder as needed, containing precise instructional guides on clear plastic overlays indicating exactly what goes where, allowing you to see the finished effect for perfect results. Summarizing each chapter on "Eyes", "Lips", "Neutrals", "Shimmer", "Monochrome and Suntan", "Pastels", Color, and "Skincare" are François Nars’ trademarked guidelines on the technique of applying makeup for that dazzling NARS look. Showcasing the famous NARS look are today’s top models, including Karen Elson, Maggie Rizer, Naomi Campbell, Devon Aoki, Trish Goff, Erin O’Connor, Sophie Dahl, May Anderson, Ling, Aurelie, Missy Rayder, Elsa, Caroline Ribero, Eva Herzagova, and many others. Makeup Your Mind features these women and more in sixty-three stunning Before and After pictures. All of the models were shot sans makeup for the Before pictures, displaying their bare-naked faces replete with imperfections and idiosyncrasies. Their transformations in the After pictures span from natural and elegant to fun and outrageous. In superb four-color photographs and brilliant acetate instructional guides, Makeup Your Mind demonstrates how makeup can minimize flaws and maximize beauty potential for every woman.

Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa


Joan Jacobs Brumberg - 1988
    Here is a tableau of female self-denial: medieval martyrs who used starvation to demonstrate religious devotion, "wonders of science" whose families capitalized on their ability to survive on flower petals and air, silent screen stars whose strict "slimming" regimens inspired a generation. Here, too, is a fascinating look at how the cultural ramifications of the Industrial Revolution produced a disorder that continues to render privileged young women helpless. Incisive, compassionate, illuminating, Fasting Girls offers real understanding to victims and their families, clinicians, and all women who are interested in the origins and future of this complex, modern and characteristically female disease.

Red Herrings and White Elephants


Albert Jack - 2004
    We use these phrases every day and yet have only the vaguest idea of where many of them come from. The origins of hundreds of common phrases are explained in this irreverent journey through the most fascinating and richest regions of the English language. Once you've read one, you'll be diving back in to look up all the others. Red Herrings is full of amazing definitions that take us all over the world, including military traditions and famous people who lent their names to describe familiar situations. From the drop of a hat to the bitter end - you'll never speak English in the same way again.

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life


Justine Picardie - 2009
    Picardie's unprecedented research illuminates Chanel’s path from little-known seamstress to the aristocracy of style in this stunning look at the fashion icon, illustrated with more than sixty color and black-and-white images.

Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire


Bettany Hughes - 2019
    But long before the Ancient Greeks conceived of this voluptuous blonde, she existed as an early spirit of fertility on the shores of Cyprus -- and thousands of years before that, as a ferocious warrior-goddess in the Middle East. Proving that this fabled figure is so much more than an avatar of commercialized romance, historian Bettany Hughes reveals the remarkable lifestory of one of antiquity's most potent myths.Venus and Aphrodite brings together ancient art, mythology, and archaeological revelations to tell the story of human desire. From Mesopotamia to modern-day London, from Botticelli to Beyoncé, Hughes explains why this immortal goddess continues to entrance us today -- and how we trivialize her power at our peril.

Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes


Dana Thomas - 2019
    More than ever, we are told it should be something new. Today, the clothing industry churns out 80 billion garments a year and employs every sixth person on Earth. Historically, the apparel trade has exploited labor, the environment, and intellectual property--and in the last three decades, with the simultaneous unfurling of fast fashion, globalization, and the tech revolution, those abuses have multiplied exponentially, primarily out of view. We are in dire need of an entirely new human-scale model. Bestselling journalist Dana Thomas has traveled the globe to discover the visionary designers and companies who are propelling the industry toward that more positive future by reclaiming traditional craft and launching cutting-edge sustainable technologies to produce better fashion.In Fashionopolis, Thomas sees renewal in a host of developments, including printing 3-D clothes, clean denim processing, smart manufacturing, hyperlocalism, fabric recycling--even lab-grown materials. From small-town makers and Silicon Valley whizzes to such household names as Stella McCartney, Levi's, and Rent the Runway, Thomas highlights the companies big and small that are leading the crusade.We all have been casual about our clothes. It's time to get dressed with intention. Fashionopolis is the first comprehensive look at how to start.

From A to Biba: The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki


Barbara Hulanicki - 1984
    This lively autobiography evokes the adventurous spirit of the 1960s and describes an extraordinary life with clarity and wit.