No comments about Under Cover.

No comments about Knit One, Style One.

No comments about Of the Newest Fashion: Masterpieces of American Neo-Classical Decorative Arts.

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.

1 comments about Pattern Grading for Men's Clothes: The Technology of Sizing.

1. I think that this book is very clear and easy,the grading for mens clothes are exactly and help me very much..i dont speak english very good but the images are clear and i understand it..

No comments about The Guinness Guide to 20th Century Fashion.

3 comments about Snippy World Of Michael Roberts, The.

1. unfortunately we did not get the book up today. Please check!!
   
   Best regards Ursual Geuen Mueller



2. A Modern Master
   
   I had no idea who Michael Roberts was when I came across this book, which idly adorned a naked shelf in the now historic Coliseum Bookstore. As I flipped through the book again and again and again I was awestruck by the sheer number of spectacular plates in one volume. I'd frame them all but wouldn't dare dissect this clothbound collector's dream. Mr. Roberts' artistic prowess is an inspiration--his bold colors, defined shapes that are chiseled as well as a body-builder's pecks, and imagery so striking it burns a place in your memory. Note the Pompeian mosaics--just mind-blowing.
   
   I was so moved by his artistry that I purchased 2 of his earlier works, The Jungle ABC and Mumbo Jumbo, The Creepy ABC. How wonderful to discover the talent, wit and verse contained in these treasures for new readers--what a fun way to learn!
   
   Thank you Michael Roberts for these treasures, I anxiously await your future masterpieces.



3. A beautiful book beautifully produced, laid out and printed. If you are looking at this review you know who Michael is and what you're buying, so all I can say is that you won't be disapointed, just hit your "buy now with one click!" button.

1 comments about Beyond Desire.

1. discusses fashion from a contemporary viewpoint. moving it into far deeper levels and in tune with what is happening now. it pushes the envelope in terms of liberating fashion further from an idea of a pure vocabulary into one where contemporary ideas are expressed-and create new meanings.

1 comments about Hurrell Hollywood: Photographs 1928-1990.

1. Perusing this coffee-table volume is as close as most of us will get to flipping through a stack of George Hurrell's own prints. There is virtually no text, just a brief chronology of the photographer's life and career. But before reaching that, you will see examples from 62 years of his work represented in 140 12-1/4 by 9-5/8-inch duotone plates, many of them shots that created the world's image of Hollywood in the 30's and 40's. The book proceeds chronologically, so that toward the end are post-WWII shots revealing that not even Hurrell could evoke glamour without the right subjects and environment. And the last plate in the book is a Dutch angle of the master himself, still shooting but obviously nearer the end than the beginning. Technically, the book is well printed, with the duotone process enhancing the large dark areas Hurrell loved to create. For my taste, he tended to print his darks too dark and lacking in detail, although his compositions usually supported these big "velvety" areas. However, achieving that look with ink often leads printers to darken the lighter end of the grey scale, too. And in this book, some plates ended up looking a bit muddy. But this is probably a minor quibble for true seekers after Hollywood's lost glamour.

1 comments about Dress Like a Star.

1. I loved this book. There was so much information that I immediately headed to the wardrobe and cleaned it out to start over. And now I know what to buy everytime I leave home. Can't rave enough!! :-)