5 comments about Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models.

1. The author has spent admirable energy collecting images, interviews, and historical data. But she has been ill-served by her editor and publisher. The text and images are made incoherent by not having been shaped, as if the author's note cards had spilled on to the page in no particular order (a simple chronological narrative might have been best). Sadly, the result is a book about beauty that is not beautiful. The publisher seems not to have hired a book designer; the images neither flow esthetically nor relate integrally to the text. Even the index shows lack of care for the material, with the font unadjusted to distinguish between pages with images and those containing only text. Black beauty deserves better than this. And yet, since this is the only book of its kind, it is still worth buying... It is a joy to see these fantastic women all in one place. Kudos to Barbara Summers for introducing them to each other and to us.



2. This is a first and the most compelling, comprehensive and enligtening book on the subject. I applaud the author and publisher for their vision, tenacity and courage. A must for every library. Kudos!!



3. I was very excited to read this book and I was highly disappointed. The content was great but the editor and author needs to be slapped. The layout was ridiculously confusing, the chapters had no flow, pictures didn't correspond with the stories, some of the interviews bordered on the foolish, etc.... The was a two paragraph mention about black male models. what about children models? What about the effects of we are portrayed in advertisements through history? Where is the history? A chronological timeline? I've read articles in white mags about black models that gave more information that this book. Don't buy it.



4. I loved this book from front to back. It gave me an inside perspective on how black models are treated in the fashion industry. After being brain washed and white washed by dozens of "Vogue," "Glamour," and "Cosmo" magazines, I had lost sight of how beautiful and elegant black models/women are. This is unfortunate but true and can only account for the racist attitudes and standards that Western society (especially America) has against ethnic (African, Asian, Latin, and Native American Indian) beauty. Ethnic beauty is copied and exploited. You can see it in every page of the most popular fashion magazines. I also read Eileen Ford's comment about this book. She was wrong wasn't she. Thank you for writing this book Ms. Summers. It is unquestionably a work of art.



5. Modeling doyenne Eileen Ford once told the author that a book about Black models would be a short one. Skin Deep is most certainly not. This book is filled with the history of beautiful Black women who have made an impact on the world of style. It was a long time coming.

No comments about Dragons and Silk from the Forbidden City.

5 comments about A Certain Style The Art of the Plastic Handbag, 1949-59.

1. This was a yard sale special for me. And I love it. There is a very brief text introduction. That totals 10 pages of text only. The rest of the book is fantastically done professional pictures of different styles of plastic purses. Each page has a single full color plate. At the bottom of the picture there is a single line of text that states the designer, circa date, and dimensions. Nothing more, nothing less. There are 92 different styles featured. I love picture books! And I LOVE everything fashion. This is a great collection of a brief fad fashion item.



2. Out of print for many years, this book is a treasure. Features nothing but lucite bags, with photos of many that you may search high and low for but, believe me, will never find. Many of the most unusual are closely held by collectors who have no plan to sell, so the only way you'll ever see some of these bags is in this book. The pictures are gorgeous, the history of the bags and the collector fascinating. No price guide, but I agree with the review below, price guides are only guesses and in today's world of ebay, they change month by month. Price guides are a fool's game, experience is the only true teacher.



3. A fantastic collection of the most spectacular and unusal vintage handbags ever made. Interesting story about the collector, too - a man, believe it or not! A previous reviewer criticized this book because there are no price values. As a collector of lucite and other vintage handbags, I can only say that prices in the books are never accurate anyway and as far as I'm concerned are useless. Also, two identical looking lucite bags can be hundreds of dollars apart in value simply because of some flaw, maybe only minor, in the condition. Only experience can teach you how to accurately value these bags. The prices given in the "other book" by Kate Dooner (which is a great book, too) are only guesses and sometimes far afield. Buy this book to learn about the styles and manufacturer's, but mostly buy it for the knockout photographs of these little works of art!



4. NO PRICE GUIDE AND NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION ON THE PURSES-OVER PRICED AS AN OUT OF PRINT BOOK..NOT WORTH THE MONEY...NEW BOOK OUT ON LUCITE PURSES..PLASTIC HANDBAGS: SCULPTURE TO WEAR IS MUCH MORE ENLIGHTENING AND HELPFUL



5. If you have a copy of this book for sale, please contact me at kmrust@earthlink.net

1 comments about Creative Machine Knitting.

1. First, I admit that I am looking at this from the point of view of a hand knitter. Some machine knitting books have some great pattern ideas to adapt for hand-knitting. The Cartwright-Jones books are really good for this.

   This book had one pattern that I could adapt, a wrap that would be nice with a weaving technique. Also, I liked the pages on pattern drafting and finishing details. The rest of the patterns are rather English--long sweaters, long skirts worn with dark tights, knitted skirt and sweater sets, etc.--and there really aren't that many of them.

   A machine knitter would find this book useful for the techniques. A bonus is that there is a page with knitters' graph paper on it that you can copy for your own charts--hand or machine. The scale is small, so you might want to enlarge it, but that means you can put an entire sweater front chart on one page. Yay! Graph paper is really expensive and hard to find if you need it RIGHT NOW, so this is yet another reason to buy the book.

3 comments about The Art of Being You.

1. The Art of being you came out just after the death of the talented Gianni Versace. I own all of his books which I highly recommend. Different in this installment are the images of modern art which Versace so incorporated into his work. Evident is the work of Julien Schnabel (broken plate painter) and Andy Warhol. The presence of photographer Richard Avedon's work makes the 100$Canadian worth it. If your into fashion especially Versace, check out Vanitas for Gianni's renderings. Nobody does it like Versace. Lets hope his sister continues the same tradition.



2. This book shows the private art collection that the versace family have collected. Great book with great pictures.



3. In the world of Art books, This has got to be the best posthumous release ever. Abbeville Press has outdone themselves with this masterpiece. I own Mr. Versace's previous 5 books, Signatures, Vanitas, Do not disturb, Rock and Royalty and Men w/o ties which I highly recommend. In this edition, Versace shows us that until his untimely death, the wheels never stopped turning. With the help of Thierry Perez, Steven Meisel, Julian Schnabel and other fabulous artists, This book truly defines the artifice and uncompromising couturier called Gianni Versace.

1 comments about Tartans: Their Art and History.

1. This is a popular-level, wide ranging book about tartan, including some historical details, some discussion of tartan design, and some (ridiculously brief) instructions on hand-weaving.

   The bulk of the book is a set of gorgeous pictures of tartan swatches, and matching thread counts, with a few historical notes. These are mostly the better-known clan tartans, with pictures (but not thread-counts, damn it!) of a few regimental, royal and district tartans.

2 comments about Textile Art of Japan.

1. A book on textiles that have many beautiful pictures as well as details on Shibori.It also shows some of the techniques of weaving, and kimono painting.Excellent.



2. This is a great introduction to the textiles of Japan, particularly for people just beginning to develop their interest in this area. The book presents a balanced discussion of the subject by providing a good amount of information on history and technique, without spinning the reader with overwhelming detail about either. Of special interest to us were the practical (functional) aspects of the fabrics, as well as the effects the fabrics and Japanese society have had (and continue to have) on each other. The most important types of textiles are covered, along with the relevant terminology.

   The book also has many excellent photographs of everything from uchikake on display to vats of indigo dye. The color pictures not only help the reader get a better understanding of the topic at hand, but also realize the beauty of the fabrics and the hard work that goes into them.

   Good book. Recommended.

5 comments about 1000 Dessous: A History of Lingerie (Klotz).

1. One of the most authoritative books on historical aspects lingerie. Very informational, practical, sensual and erotic photography.



2. I have the hardback edition of this book, and my eyes popped when I went to check the details of the hardback edition on Amazon. If I can credit what I read, the hardback is currently worth nearly a cool $1,000. I personally think that's waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much to pay, but _1000 Dessous_ is so good that it's well worth paying top dollar for.
   
   I would have to respectfully disagree with the reviewer who downchecked the book because he felt it was too risque. Of course it's risque. What else, in all honesty, would you expect from Taschen, the world leader in publishing high-class erotica? Women's lingerie, by its nature and design, is erotic, as Mr. Neret makes plain in his text and his extensive selection of photos. In point of fact, he doesn't devote the whole book to just considering the eroticism of lingerie. The section titled "Lingerie and Eroticism" is actually the last of four major sections in the book; the others deal with visual depictions of lingerie in history, the cinema and advertising. The great majority of the illustrations are full-page (one does wish, though, that Taschen would have published the book in oversize format, so as to bring out more detail in the pictures) and the selection is both wide-ranging and comprehensive. There's not a great deal of text, admittedly, but every picture has a short but informative caption discussing its subject.
   
   Highly recommended.



3. great book. excellent pictures of all types of lingerie. a must for any lingerie or fetish designers.



4. If you like sexy lingerie, this book is a must-have.



5. This is an interesting book with lots of full color and contemporary depictions of historical lingerie, but tends to rely too heavily on the pornographic aspects of women's underwear, and includes many photos which are purely historical pornography and bear no connection to lingerie. Maybe I'm just a prudish American, but I expected more history, and maybe a little text.

No comments about Man's Knitting Book.

No comments about Broken Threads: The Destruction of the Jewish Fashion Industry in Germany and Austria.