In Queen of Fashion, Caroline Weber shows how Marie Antoinette developed her reputation for fashionable excess, and explains through lively, illuminating new research the political controversies that her clothing provoked. Weber surveys Marie Antoinette's "Revolution in Dress," covering each phase of the queen's tumultuous life, beginning with the young girl, struggling to survive Versailles's rigid traditions of royal glamour (twelve-foot-wide hoopskirts, whalebone corsets that crushed her organs). As queen, Marie Antoinette used stunning, often extreme costumes to project an image of power and wage war against her enemies. Gradually, however, she began to lose her hold on the French when she started to adopt "unqueenly" outfits (the provocative chemise) that, surprisingly, would be adopted by the revolutionaries who executed her. Weber's queen is sublime, human, and surprising: a sometimes courageous monarch unwilling to allow others to determine her destiny. The paradox of her tragic story, according to Weber, is that fashion--the vehicle she used to secure her triumphs--was also the means of her undoing. Weber's book is not only a stylish and original addition to Marie Antoinette scholarship, but also a moving, revelatory reinterpretation of one of history's most controversial figures.

    The book will be visually arresting, exciting to read and an inspiring fashion bible. Charting the incidents and ideas that changed the way women dress, it gives a unique perspective on the history of twentieth-century fashion. Rather than just documenting the changes in fashion, it also explains why these changes happened. From the invention of the bias cut and the stiletto heel to designers such as Coco Chanel who changed the way we think about clothes, the book will be entertaining, intelligent and a visual feast.

    The complete compendium is illustrated with hundreds of covers and archival interiors of past Vogue editions, featuring the work of some of the twentieth century's most respected artists, cover illustrators, and photographers—from Edward Steichen, Toni Frissell, and Erwin Blumenfeld to Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Annie Leibovitz, Mario Testino, Steven Klein, Bruce Webber, and Herb Ritts. In 1909, an entrepreneurial New Yorker named Condé Nast took charge of a struggling society journal and transformed it into the most glamorous fashion magazine of the twentieth century. In Vogue traces the history, development and influence of this media colossus—from its beginning as a social gazette in the late nineteenth century, to the exploration of modern fashion photography and new visuals in the mid-twentieth century, to its status as the top style magazine today. The book explains the makings of the magazine—from runways, to editorial meetings, to the pages of Vogue.The thoroughly researched story incorporates first-person accounts, interviews with editors and photographers, and excerpts from stories written in the magazine by many world-renowned writers, including Truman Capote, Aldous Huxley, Richard Burton, Federico Fellini, and Marcello Mastroianni. Unparalleled in its scope and exceptionally illustrated, In Vogue is sure to be among the most important publications on the subjects of culture, art, fashion, photography, and media.

    Band re-formations and reunion tours, expanded reissues of classic albums and outtake-crammed box sets, remakes and sequels, tribute albums and mash-ups . . . But what happens when we run out of past? Are we heading toward a sort of culturalecological catastrophe where the archival stream of pop history has been exhausted?Simon Reynolds, one of the finest music writers of his generation, argues that we have indeed reached a tipping point, and that although earlier eras had their own obsessions with antiquity—the Renaissance with its admiration for Roman and Greek classicism, the Gothic movement's invocations of medievalism—never has there been a society so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its own immediate past. Retromania is the first book to examine the retro industry and ask the question: Is this retromania a death knell for any originality and distinctiveness of our own?

    This book was inspired by the wisdom of Mary Brooks Picken, a pioneer in the domestic arts and international authority on dressmaking and fashion. Mary s sole purpose, which resonated so deeply with Amy, was to educate women, encourage their entrepreneurial spirit, and elevate the value of their work. Mary's name may not be familiar to you now, but in these pages you will be charmed by her vision and inspired by her blueprint for living a simple, fulfilling life. In Vintage Notions, Amy Barickman joins creative forces with a previous era to preserve Mary s work and showcase it alongside her own extensive collection of vintage textiles, needlework, illustrations, and memorabilia, for a new generation of sewing and crafting sisters. The book features: *Inspirational essays and projects for each month of the year *Seasonal recipes and decorating ideas *Four storage pockets one for each season *Twelve Magic Patterns easy-to-make, chic sewing projects *Vintage timeless advice on health, character, beauty, style, fashion, parenting, communication, friendship, spirituality, community

    Filled with gorgeous project photography and quirky vintage illustrations that bring the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and beyond to life, Sew Retro celebrates sewing yesterday and today.Learn more about Sew Retro and enjoy bonus projects and tutorials at www.sewretrothebook.com!

    Incorporating the finest elements of Scandinavian crafting traditions, inspiration is taken from a range of backgrounds including classic folk art, as well as more contemporary sources. These delightful designs, each with clear step-by-step instructions and beautiful photography, will have you itching to get stitching. Arranged into five chapters, the projects work with a wide variety of fabrics: there are adorable fleece and felt baby bootees finished with French knots, classic embroidered gingham napkins, and a striped machine-embroidered apron. A wide range of techniques are employed, including appliqué, cut work, patchwork, decorative machine stitching, shadow work, and ribbon work. Basic stitches such as herringbone, cross stitch, Danish knots, blanket stitch, and satin stitch are also used to great effect. Simplicity is always at the heart of Clare’s designs, and with step-by-step artworks and such clear instructions, anyone can have a go and will be surprised how quickly beautiful pieces can be made.

    The latest in the best-selling Isms series, which includes Isms: Understanding Art, Isms: Understanding Architectural Styles and Isms: Understanding Religion, is Isms: Understanding Fashion. Concisely written, this book packs loads of detail into a handy small format, tracing the evolution of costume history and fashion through a series of interconnected trends and movements (a.k.a. "isms") from the Greco-Roman toga and the antebellum hoop skirt to the latest from the runway. This guide is organized chronologically and covers the evolution of costume, the beginning of haute couture, and the rise of fashion as we know it— documented throughout with a combination of line drawings, costume illustration, and fashion photography. It includes an overview of designers from the classic—Coco Chanel, Dior—to the contemporary design greats, such as Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs. While the book traces the influences and links between designers, it also includes patrons, from Marie-Antoinette to Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, as well as fashion muses from Sarah Bernhardt to Sarah Jessica Parker. Related topics such as accessories and accoutrements are included as well. Anyone interested in costume and fashion will delight in this book.

    Interviews with key players reveal the ins and outs of the glamorous (and often gritty) world of styling, while hundreds of glossy photos illustrate good (and bad) looks. Full of real-life advice, this guide profiles famous image transformations undertaken by stars like Nicole Richie and Katie Holmes, outlines the essentials every stylist must have on hand (double-sided tape, cutlets, manzierres, Spanx, and more!) and, most importantly, shows how to get a Choo in the door and then survive in this ultra-fabulous, ultra-competitive industry.

    The impression given to the viewer depends on whether the fashion design drawings are good. Contemporary Fashion Illustration Techniques thoroughly describes the basics of fashion illustration, and covers the latest trends such as vivid images, sprightly movement, and garment material texture. After all, fashion drawing is not simply about sketching a body and face; only when you accurately reproduce the garments and their colors can the designs truly come to life.

    Vogue on Christian Dior tells the story of Dior’s searchfor the perfect line and how his unique style and vision of women’s ideal silhouette developed. One of the most famous designers of the 20th century, his name still fronts one of the most successful haute couture fashion houses. Vogue on Christian Dior is a volume from the series created by the editors of British Vogue. It features 20,000 words of original biography and history and is studded with 80 color and black-and-white images from their unique archive of photos taken by the leading photographers of the day, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.

    Such is the case with Coco Chanel, whose life offers one of the most fascinating tales of the twentieth century—throwing into dramatic relief an era of war, fashion, ardent nationalism, and earth-shaking change—here brilliantly treated, for the first time, with wide-ranging and incisive historical scrutiny.Coco Chanel transformed forever the way women dressed. Her influence remains so pervasive that to this day we can see her afterimage a dozen times while just walking down a single street: in all the little black dresses, flat shoes, costume jewelry, cardigan sweaters, and tortoiseshell eyeglasses on women of every age and background. A bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume is sold every three seconds. Arguably, no other individual has had a deeper impact on the visual aesthetic of the world. But how did a poor orphan become a global icon of both luxury and everyday style? How did she develop such vast, undying influence? And what does our ongoing love of all things Chanel tell us about ourselves? These are the mysteries that Rhonda K. Garelick unravels in Mademoiselle.Raised in rural poverty and orphaned early, the young Chanel supported herself as best she could. Then, as an uneducated nineteen-year-old café singer, she attracted the attention of a wealthy and powerful admirer and parlayed his support into her own hat design business. For the rest of Chanel’s life, the professional, personal, and political were interwoven; her lovers included diplomat Boy Capel; composer Igor Stravinsky; Romanov heir Grand Duke Dmitri; Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster; poet Pierre Reverdy; a Nazi officer; and several women as well. For all that, she was profoundly alone, her romantic life relentlessly plagued by abandonment and tragedy.Chanel’s ambitions and accomplishments were unparalleled. Her hat shop evolved into a clothing empire. She became a noted theatrical and film costume designer, collaborating with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and Luchino Visconti. The genius of Coco Chanel, Garelick shows, lay in the way she absorbed the zeitgeist, reflecting it back to the world in her designs and in what Garelick calls “wearable personality”—the irresistible and contagious style infused with both world history and Chanel’s nearly unbelievable life saga. By age forty, Chanel had become a multimillionaire and a household name, and her Chanel Corporation is still the highest-earning privately owned luxury goods manufacturer in the world. In Mademoiselle, Garelick delivers the most probing, well-researched, and insightful biography to date on this seemingly familiar but endlessly surprising figure—a work that is truly both a heady intellectual study and a literary page-turner.

    A wonderfully evocative memoir about what we wear - that goes far more than skin deep

    Comprehensive step-by-step instructions cover everything from cutting out patterns to making sleeves and fitting zips, and are accompanied by thousands of colourful illustrations, diagrams and photographs. This encyclopaedia of sewing includes detailed directions, practical advice, time-saving tips, essential techniques and hundreds of creative touches to bring out the best in your needlework. There are 20 projects to help you put into practice what you have learned, with ideas for creating clothes and home accessories in classic styles which can be easily adapted to changing trends.

    The book also offers an overview of the development of fashion, as seen through the eyes of the greatest illustrators of the day. Early in the century fashion illustration reflected new, liberating currents in art and culture, such as the exoticism of the Ballets Russes, while the postwar period saw inspiration from the great Parisian couturiers. After the dominance of the celebrity fashion photographer in the '60s, a new generation of illustrators emerged, embracing the medium of the computer, while many returned to more traditional techniques.