5 comments about Patterns and Palette Sourcebook: A Complete Guide to Choosing the Perfect Color and Pattern in Design.

1. See my review of Pattern and Palette Sourcebook 2: A Complete Guide to Choosing the Perfect Color and Pattern in Design by Heidi Arrizabala.....
   I do agree that the CD is not that helpful, but the information of color combination of this book (and its newest edition) is priceless!!!
   I highly recommend this book if you are looking for beautiful color pallets.... if you are a designers, artist, illustrator, you DO NOT NEED A CD OR A 'WELL DESIGNED" book (although I like its design! If you are creative in any matter and want to create your own designs, there is no need for vectors or to see this book as "page after page of patterns repeated"... learn to read between the lines people..... Maybe this book needs a change of name so it is referred to as a COLOR PALLETE REFERENCE book.... just be patient and follow the color formulations given in the book! Highly recommended!!!



2. I have to share the same sentiments with a few of the other reviewers. Typically, when a CD-ROM comes with a book of this nature, one would expect the visual content (in this case the patterns displayed in this book) to be available on the disc itself. Not the case here, which I thought was a bit deceiving. It would have been much smarter (and more practical for the end user) for the book author to have provided the patterns as EPS files for use in a vector based software application such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Otherwise what good is it to look at these patterns when you can't easily recreate them?



3. First of all the content on the CD is not resuable in anyway. It comes with a semi-functional interactive CD that will allow you to print patterns but they are all locked Flash files so you can not use them in illustrator or in any other program.
   
   The book itself is page after page of repeated patterns with slight color adjustment. The patterns are uninspired and dated. I would not recommend this book to anyone if I could give it negative stars i would.



4. This book is filled with beautiful and diverse patters, some really modern and clean, others more ornate and traditional. The best part is the CD lets you change the colors in the patterns and then print them out for you to use. It's great for everything from professional design jobs to scrapbooking and personal projects.



5. I bought this book because i thought i can use the pattern in the cd provided, but unfortunately you cant use any of them, they saved it as flash animation format. Unlike the other book I have purchased "the complete pattern library" where you can use any pattern in the book and even change the colors of them.

No comments about Valentino: Themes and Variations.

2 comments about 50s Fashion: Vintage Fashion and Beauty Ads (Icons Series).

1. I love period advertising, and I love fashion, so this seemed like the perfect book...until I got it. The book was subtitled "Vintage Fashion and Beauty Ads", so that's what I expected. What I got was 95 pages of men's clothing -- tons of ads for ties and underwear -- 9 pages of children's clothing, and 70 pages of women's "fashion and beauty". There were more pages devoted to men's hair products than women's, if I counted correctly. I didn't order this to look at Hopalong Cassidy cowboy boots...I ordered it to see FASHION AND BEAUTY ads. VERY disappointing!!



2. Ordered this cute cook for a girlfriend of mine who's a fashion freak. The book itself is unique and cool, but it arrived with a big cut down the middle of the front of the book! Couldn't even give it to her. I'll hang on to it, but sure hope no one else receives one in that condition.

4 comments about Jazz, Giants and Journeys: The Photography of Herman Leonard.

1. If you're a fan of jazz or photography, this is the book for you. Lovely rich photo reproduction and pictures of the jazz greats - often behind the scenes - that make you feel as though you were there.



2. Herman Leonard is by far one of the best photographers I have ever had the privilege to come across. I was visiting New Orleans a few weeks ago and came across a documentary on the local Louisiana station, it was a documentary on Leonard. If you ever have the chance to view this please do so because its an amazing story about a remarkable man. Generally, it takes a great deal to inspire me to want to study portraits, for me portraits are the most complex images to appreciate with the passage of time. Yet with Leonard's images (including his commercial works,) you can sit down and study them and you still find inspiration in them over and over again. His work is one of a kind, and his vision is the strongest I have ever seen in a photographer.



3. Herman Leonard brings one back to a time in America that no longer exists in a way that makes one feel a part of what was. You can almost hear the music!



4. Looking for a gift for a jazz lover, photography buff or international
   traveler? Look no farther. JAZZ, GIANTS AND JOURNEYS: THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF
   HERMAN LEONARD is a mind-blower. The meticulously detailed photos of jazz
   greats like Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Billie Holliday, Quincy Jones and
   others recreate the essence of an era so well that the viewer can actually
   see, hear and smell the flavor of the 40's and 50's NY jazz venues where
   the musicians played. Included in this wonderful book is a photo of the
   great Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, taken in 1970, long before they
   were blown up by the Taliban. This alone makes the book vital.

4 comments about Costume Designer's Handbook: A Complete Guide for Amateur and Professional Costume Designers.

1. This book unfortunately was not what I wanted. However, this book is extremely detailed, and for somebody who is interested in stage or theatre costumes, very helpful in pointing the steps required to design the types of costumes for specific productions.
   
   I wanted a book to help me create costumes ie more of a pattern book.
   
   Amazon very difficult to deal with if not in Amercia



2. I bought this book because of the ratings and was disappointed. Yes it does give chronological information on planning and basics on drawing and a lot of info on working therater designs and with others. Great, but not what I needed. It also has a great reference section for doing the research you need to do but, I already had most of this info from other sources. I have a history and arts background and i needed inspiration. It did give me an inspiration to reorganize my art supplies!Don't waste your money if you are not theater oriented. AND I do mean theater.



3. I'd been assisting designers for quite some time, even designed some of my own shows, without an education in costume design. I have lots of great experience but I'm sure nothing can compete with a costume design education (mine is in fashion design), which I'd like to pursue when I have the time. I'm so glad I found out about this book! Every aspect of the process you need to know about is in here. It is essential! I can't believe I survived as long as I did without it.



4. This is a great resource for the design process. I especially use these guidelines for analysis of a play and characters whenever I design a show. A must have for anyone interested in designing shows!!

5 comments about Victorian Fashion in America: 264 Vintage Photographs (Dover Pictorial Archives).

1. I will enjoy looking through this book endlessly, but I actually prefer sketches to actual photos because the detailing is much clearer. I good book added to my library.



2. This book is chock full of photos and information...I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the images though. I understand that the original photos are old, but I think the print quality in the reproduction on the publishing end might have been better. Fine if info only is what you are looking for, but if you are making copies to include in a project...don't expect too much.



3. I liked this book because, although it is mostly studio portriats of Victorians, they are often in everyday dress. If you like old photographs, you like this book, and if your looking for some 'design' elements for historic costumes then you'll love this book.



4. Costume resources from this period tend towards drawings from period magazines, and use highly stylized model forms. This great collection of pictures shows a wide range of people, in a fairly wide range of clothing types. The limitations of period phots are that the clothing is almost always the fanciest outfits the person owns, and does not reflect day to day wear. Other photos are clearly theatrical costume, but the author has clearly identified them as such, even where the oroginal information is missing.
   
   As with any black and white source, colors are left to your imagination, but the details of finsh and construction that can be gleaned from the photos makes this a necessary tool in researching clothing of this era. Teamed with a Harper's Bazaar drawing reference, and an accessory reference, and you are ready to start making your own victorian clothing!



5. Kristina Harris won my applause in her introduction, where she says that knowledge of costume AND knowledge of photographic processes must be used together for maximum accuracy in dating pictures. Seems obvious, but the obvious is seldom stated. She is certainly well-schooled in both fashion and photography. However, neophytes will find it difficult if not impossible to recognize each photographic process even with the best of written descriptions. This skill is attained through experience.
   
   Readers may also be in danger of inaccurate dating if they take the guidelines provided in this book too literally. For instance, the popularity of carte-de-visite photographs may have peaked in the 1860s in Philadelphia, but they do not even appear until 1869 in frontier areas and are certainly more typical of the 1870's in Ontario.
   
   The chief strength of this book as a resource is in the captions to the illustrations, which include the name and location of the photographer, the photographic format, the name of the sitter(s) if available as well as a few comments to indicate significant aspects of the costume. We don't have to jump to endnotes: the information is right there. Bravo!
   
   Harris also knows to use "circa" (c.) to indicate that the date is a best guess. --And therein lies a weakness. This is yet another work in which photographs have been chosen to illustrate a history, as opposed to basing history on dated photographs as documentary evidence.
   
   The warning that dates written on backs of photographs are "frequently added long after the photograph was taken" disquieted me. Although Harris is absolutely correct to warn us never to make assumptions, I worry that beginners will devalue what might be critical evidence. The fact is that folks often wore out-of-date or very personal choices in dress and that 'questionable' date may turn out to be right.
   
   I gave this book three stars out of five for the above reasons, and because it is neither indexed nor sourced. An index based on photographer/city/sitter would have been very useful, and there is no bibliography.

1 comments about Fashion Forecasting.

1. Ms. Brannon is a professor, and this is a textbook. A supurb textbook that unravels, analizes, graphs, charts, and narrates the dynamics of consumer choice in light, effortless prose. It is an epic study that brings aboard the great cast of characters who have devoted their lives to staying a jump ahead of us. (The bibliography is 16 pages long!) Whom do they watch? How does a forecaster know when an innovation has good "legs"? Is it in tune with the times, or a counter current? All this and more is told as Ms. Brannon peels the onion that is fashion.
   Did you ever wonder how Tommy Hilfiger connected with his market? The story is here.
   For me, this was a great read, like say, "The New Yorker." And I am not even in the biz.

5 comments about The Complete Costume History (25th).

1. This is an incredible and impressive collection of fashion images that leaves little untold. The illustrations are masterful and descriptive of dress of the past. The most incredible thing is the volume goes beyond atire and includes samples of accessories, furniture and architecture related to the period and culture. My only disappointment is it stops at the late 1800's. I would highly recommend this book for anyone in fashion design, art or someone with a really large coffee table. It's a MONSTER!



2. AS A WORKING PROFESSIONAL IN THE FILM, TELEVISION, COMMERCIAL AND MUSIC VIDEO INDUSTRIES, I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THIS RESOURCE BOOK IN ESSENTIAL IN THE RESEARCHING OF PERIOD COSTUMES. I USE THIS BOOK AS REFERENCE ALL THE TIME. ANYONE IN THE BIZ SHOULD MAKE THE INVESTMENT OF THIS INVALUABLE
   RESOURCE.



3. 
   
   Wonderful pictures and ideas flow from every page.
   
   For a person seeking a picture book... BEWARE!! This book will not only give you visual clue to the era in question but adds a bit of reading into the concepts and timing of a particular costume you seek to research. This book is heavy and well worth the additional weight it contributes to your collections.
   
   For a person seeking a more in depth concept of a certain period's costumes and accessories...this is a book that will help.



4. I just received this book for my birthday, I'd been wanting it for quite a while. When I first saw it, I knew it wasn't a reference book, and am surprised other reviewers thought it would be. For one thing it was written in 1896. Consider the world view at that time - very Eurocentric, very Western Civilization oriented. So that is what you get. However, you also get an example of illustrations and drawings that you just don't see now a days. Its quite lovely really, and is indeed useful when I am reading a historical novel and want a visual. So buy this for what it is, not what you think it is.



5. Beautiful book, gorgeous, well printed, a work of art.

1 comments about Little Black Dress: Vintage Treasure.

1. Pefect little compendium. Wonderful illustrations and photographs. If love history and fashion this is a must.

5 comments about 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Tie & Rock Your Scarf.

1. From the beautifully brilliant and inventive authors of 99 Ways to Cut, Trim and Tie Your T Shirt Into Something Special and 99 Ways to Cut, Sew and Deck Out Your Denim comes the amazingly fun book to help you recucle your (OR your Mom's, Aunt's or Grandma's) scarves into something amazingly young hip and awe-inspiring.
   
   There is really something for everyone here. My favorites are the poof-sleeve T, the ruffle-sleeve sweater and a gorgeous poncho! There are wonderful curtains, bags, neck ties, hair wraps, etc.
   
   This is brilliant and worth your money and tine!



2. I live in Switzerland, I'm beyond middle age, and have a collection of scarves from grandmothers, great aunts, travels and many many gifts. I found not only wonderful ways to turn old, funky, well worn favorites into new uses, but also, got inspired to create other new things. My favorites are the necklaces, headdresses, and the caftan type ones. Thanks again Compai



3. I'm not a real crafty person, so in order for a do-it-yourself guide to work for me, it has to be pretty easy to understand. 99 Way to Cut, Sew, Tie & Rock Your Scarf fit that bill. With its illustrated patterns, step by step instructions and projects spanning from simple to more extensive, this book is great for the novice as well as the more experienced crafter.
   
   If you are interested in turning your long forgotten scarves into unique accessories, you will want this book.



4. i like it!
   it amazes me how these divas will take nothing and turn it into something FLYY!
   
   i wonder what more do they have up their sleeves that i've never pondered about!



5. This is the third book in the series...will there be more?! I love it. I got my copy yesterday and it is amazing from cover to cover. My scarves tend to collect on the doorknob in my bathroom, so it is the best book, in my opinion, to help me figure out how to make something beautiful and useful out of all those gorgeous scarves! Thank you Compai...again!!!