No comments about The Unmentionable History of the West.

4 comments about From Rags to Riches: A History of Girls' Clothing in America.

1. From Rags to Riches is an enormously entertaining and absorbing study of the history of girls' clothing from early Colonial America to today. Lavish illustrations include European and American paintings, drawings and an outstanding collection of photographs that are sometimes startling in their ability to reveal attitudes and emotions. A picture of five child mill workers is especially touching.
   
   Changing fashions mirror the conditions of women's lives. The fact that this new freedom in clothing choices was sometimes at the expense of other women's lives in that clothing's manufacture is explained in an outstanding section outlining the horrors of sweatshops, the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and the struggle to unionize workers.
   
   Readers are also empowered by links to organizations that aim to prevent such horrors now and in the future. An extensive glossary, bibliography, webography, and list of museums all contribute to make this absolutely one of the most eye-opening books on the subject for children and adults.
   
   If fashion history is one of your passions, From Rags to Riches by Leslie Sills is a must for your book shelf.



2. FROM RAGS TO RICHES is a nonfiction guide to the history of girl's fashion from Colonial times (1600's) to present day. Attractive layout and generous use of both colored and black and white photographs and illustrations, add readability to the well-researched text. Arranged chronologically, FROM RAGS TO RICHES consists of twelve chapters ranging from two to four pages in length. For example, "Bustles and Ruffles: Stylish Girls of the Late Nineteenth Century" is three pages in length and contains seven illustrations (both photographs and sketches). In addition to illustrations, FROM RAGS TO RICHES contains sidebars for many (if not all) of its chapters. Italicized words in the text are words defined in the glossary. Bustle for example is defined as "a cotton pad mounted on a steel or cane frame, then attached by hooks or laces to a waistband under a skirt." Bibliography and webography are included as are listings of museum and organizations.



3. This has been the first book of Leslie's I have read and I love it. Once I got it, I ran straight home to read it. I always saw previews when I went over her house for art class, but never gotten to read the thoughtful writing that's in it. The book is about girl's clothing from the early 1600's to the present. Me being a girl of 14 and having a passion for fashion, the book really gave me a history point of view of clothing that I would never get anywhere else! So please get the book, read it and be inspired becuase once you've finished, you'll never be able to wear the same clothes.



4. This is the fourth book by Leslie Sills, a Boston area artist and art teacher. Her books are about women artists (painters, sculptors, photographers,to name a few) and are intended for middle school aged children. As a parent of an 11 year old son and a 14 year old daughter, I own and have read all four books and enjoyed them greatly. I have given many as gifts to kids, teachers and parents. From Rags to Riches is gourgeously designed, thoughtfully written and thoroughly researched. It is full of fascinating photographs and history; Leslie Sill's most recent book reflects an understanding of the complex social, economic and cultural factors that influence fashion, art and asthetics.

No comments about The New Look: The Dior Revolution.

No comments about Terry Fox Fashion Collection: 10 Couture Garments to Make from Start to Finish.

2 comments about Weekend Sewer's Guide to Blouses: Time-Saving Sewing With a Creative Touch (A Lark Sewing Book).

1. This is a must have book, for those of you having a hard time being inventive, like I am. I like to sit down and get going on a project, without having to think of something new on my own. I picked this book up at the library and now I need to own it. It gets the creative juices flowing and makes you want to stop everything to make time for sewing that original outfit. It's well written with shortcut ideas and encourages those of us who find so little time to actually sew these days. The week is outlined with steps for each project so after the weekend ends your project is done. I'm only hoping that Ms. Mathews continues with this line of books and ideas.



2. The photographs alone will send you to your sewing room. Kate Mathews offers over 200 photos of finished products plus the how-to instructions to produce them. The gist of her message is that you can take a dress pattern (she doesn't specify brand or number) and, with some planning and creativity, make it truly your own one-of-a-kind designer original. Her techniques are fun and trendy and she provides something for almost every sort of taste.

   The book offers something to dressmakers of all levels of expertise. To be sure, the more experienced will have less difficulty in mastering and adapting the suggestions. But the novice can be equally entranced by many of the techniques.

   This book is a joyful addition to a sewing library!

1 comments about World of Embellishment.

1. I enjoyed looking through this book. Wonderful ideas, simple patterns and great instructions throughout entire book. Worth the buy!!

5 comments about Asian Ladies (Photo Book Series).

1. Uwe Ommer has done a beautiful job in this book. People sould just put aside all the pc thinking and psuedo intellectual critique and enjoy the book for what it is; an art book of various oriental women. Very well done, very tastful.
   
   If you like Asian women, beautiful photographs, and nude,sensual art, this book is for you. I highly recommend.



2. ...lower your expectations. The most interesting photo is the cover. This tells you everything.
   The price is pretty steep for what you get.



3. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.
   
   It's a beautifully printed coffee-table book. Each page reprodcues one photo, at a scale large enough for lots of detail to come through. No text, just a beautiful young woman. Ommer presents a variety of faces and figures, many in settings that just emphasize the young woman's charm. The collection represents much of the variety in East Asian beauty, and gives good representation to the slim, elegant bust so distinctive to this population.
   
   As much as I like these photos, I found two things to wish for. First is that Ommer could have represented more of Asia in this collection - India is Asia, and is home to a half-billion samples of feminine beauty, none of which appeared here. Second was the way poses tended towards a sameness. They invariably captured the face, and usually the bust and torso. The whole woman has hips and legs, too, that complete the graceful curve of a female figure. These were under-represented by the 3/4 length portrait format that Ommer favors. And, a minor point, lack of titles and even page numbers makes it hard to discuss specific images.
   
   It's a lovely collection, and a complement to other collections that favor European features and figures. It could have been more, though.
   
   //wiredweird



4. There is a western stereotype that western men have about Asian women. This stereotype cuts across all geographical bounds and zeros in on the mythical, but probably non-existent image of the Asian woman as demure, sexually accomodating, and anti-feminist. In ASIAN LADIES, Owe Ommer has a pictorial on Asian women that feeds into this fantasy. The pictures are erotic, but decidedly not pornographic. They show good-looking Asian women that run the ethnic gamut from Chinese to Korean to Japanese. What this Asian spectrum reveals relates more to exposing the collective psyches of the assumed western reader than it does to the subjects themselves. As I flipped through the pages, I saw many sad-faced ladies who did not seem to know why they were chosen to be included. Any smiles they showed seemed to be nervous ones. Clearly, they were not full of the bouncy joy of life expressions that mark Playboy bunnies. So why would any western male buy this book? Perhaps he, as did I, simply may want to see a pictorial on lovely Asian women who fit nicely into the prepackaged ethnic slots that contain stereotyped images of ladies who needed a paycheck more than they did integity.



5. As a group, today's photographic artists lack the courage and fire to take the contemporary nude back from the pornographers. Unfortunately, a minority of the portraits in Uwe Ommer's Asian Ladies do anything to aid that worthy cause. Ommer's most consistently interesting photographs are the landscapes and still-lifes that separate the portraits. Although fair designs as a whole, Ommer's compositions lack originality. Worse still, the photographer's lens is too busy pushing clichés to take material note of the individual women who should be its primary work.

   The introduction compares Ommer to the 1890s author of "L'Asie Amourous" in his appreciation of bittersweet Asian femininity. Yet even the pen of "L'Asie" - who might be compared with a modern-day sex tourist - at least emphasized the individuality of his immediate conquest. Ommer does not. He appears afraid to deal head on with the bodies - and certainly the souls - of his subjects. The work is only superficially sensual and marketing characterizations of it as "erotic" or "transgressing... inhibitions" are absurd. Ommer in fact suppresses spontaneity and emotional (i.e. sensual) honesty. In some photos, the figure's lack of dress is irrelevant to the composition - begging us to question the point of using the nude.

   Ommer "tastefully" permeates his photos with obscuring affectations of incense, fans, opium and shades of fabric. Asian ladies thereby fall victim to orientalist themes and motifs - facets the photographer at times appears to value more than the women themselves. Although less offensive to conventional morality, such objectification is the same crime accused of the pornographer. The authentic humanity of the subject is exponentially less important than the attempted sale. In this case, Ommer the Tourist is selling a stereotyped "essence" of oriental womanhood - one inherently divorced from the reality of Asian women. This is reinforced by the absence of any model but the young and unflawed.

   Luckily, Ommer's approach does not stifle every personality that he photographs. Several models manage to break through the lens once context is minimized. Twin compositions half-way through the book each reveal a aquiline bronze figure, accented in a stream of white light but isolated amidst empty shadow. Other photographs portray candid moments - flashing eyes, red-gold fluidity, a hair falls out of place. Subtext makes these few portraits individually valuable to the authentic appreciator of photographic art. However, the collection as a whole is not worth its price.

No comments about Terence Donovan: The Photographs.

2 comments about T-shirt 360.

1. 500 pages of designs in a nice portable hardcover. A good reference or inspiration book. Also contains many designs from Europe not found in other collections.



2. This book is a decent selection of many of today's interesting t-shirt designs but has its share of shortcomings. For one thing many of the image sources are not very high resolution which is unfortunate considering the focus of the book is to show off these designs. In addition to low-res photos many of the photos are obscured or otherwise hard to get a good look at just the design. Pedro Guitton's design choices for the book itself are regrettable but thankfully do not get in the way too much. Overall it is a good value for the sheer amount and variety of sources included in the book and is good to pick up now and again for inspiration.

No comments about Transfer Motifs for Children.