5 comments about Victorian Fashions Coloring Book (History of Fashion).

1. I loved the idea of a "Victorian" coloring book. The detail was terrific. It was a gift to a childhood friend who I used to sit and color with.



2. I just purchased these Dover COloring Books for my mother and she loves them. The detail is out of this world and the variety of colors you can use are only limited by your inagination. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!



3. This book contains 45 fashion illustrations from 1837 to 1877. Lots of ladies' evening wear, walking costumes, 10 outfits for children and even some dogs are included among many other.
   
   Some of the illustrations are really well done and detailed. However, many of them feels little bit too quickly drawn. Almost every fashion outfit has also some backround - like seashore, garden or room. I agree with the reviewer who thought this book would be better without. Many of these backrounds are really hastily made and actually make whole illustration to look quite chaotic.
   
   However, if you are into this period and you like coloring, I guess you would enjoy this book. It offers nice acitivity for hours.



4. My wife can hardly lay her coloring books down. She has this one on Victoreian fashions and several others, and I am sure she will be ordering more when these are completed.



5. This book is a great treat to anyone interested in Victorian fasion. Or fashion at all, for that matter. I loved coloring it and just imagining life in Victorian times, what with the whalebone corsets and all that! Couple drawbacks: 1)There are a number of pictures with a lot of black already in them. For example, men wearing black suits are already blacked out for you. If you don't mind that, ignore this drawback! 2)Each picture has some background, some more than others. Some of the backgrounds are so complex, the fasion seems almost secondary, which to me is a definite no-no since I bought the book for the fashions, not the landscape! Other than that, this is a fantastic coloring book, with hours of relaxing fun for the coloring and/or fashion enthusiast in your life.

No comments about Fashion as Communication.

5 comments about The Root of Wild Madder: Chasing the History, Mystery, and Lore of the Persian Carpet.

1. This is a brilliant read. The author's love of Persian Carpets is infectious. His book is full of colorful anecdotes and sympathetic vignettes about carpets, carpet sellers, bazaaris, caravanserais (which although I had read about them numerous times, I had not before had them described for me so well), of the carpet making of different regions, of the Quiraysh, the tribal regions, Isfahan, Shiraz, Islam, the sights, sounds, colours - the philosophy of carpets... The aura and magic of Persian carpets and Persia/Iran itself is wonderfully evoked by this fantastic book.



2. The Root of Wild Madder -- Chasing the History, Mystery, and Lore of the Persian Carpet definitely delivers that in the first half of the book. Sadly, the story begins to unravel as one pushes on to finish the book. Brian Murphy, who is clearly knowledgeable about carpets, modern Iran, and ancient Persia, cannot make up his mind how to conclude his book. We don't know if he intends to return to call upon the family of his mentor or will he swear off all future visits due to the recent downturn of affairs in Iran. His ambivalance left me frayed at the edges after reading chapter after chapter of his adventures into the cultural heartland of Iran and Afghanistan and the magic and poetry of their carpets.
   
   These weaknesses aside, the glory of Murphy's book is his ability to get the reader lost in the crevasses of Teheran's carpet bazaars and off the beaten path to where the most ancient of red dyes, madder, blooms. The reader travels over unpaved roads at lightnening speed only to discover the hidden tomb of Persia's greatest poet, Hafez. Murphy also provides a refreshing meditation on the art of the carpet as music being seen and poetry as weft and warp being heard. He also gains access to the women who create the carpets. With gratitude and candor he celebrates their contribution to a world that is made better off through their efforts.
   
   The Root of Wild Madder also provides a useful, if not excellent, introduction to the manufacture of carpets, including looming, weaving, dyeing and, finishing. While Murphy provides several excellent photos, an illustrated glossary of the dozen most important terms would have helped the book.
   
   He also regales the reader with wonderful descriptions of Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad and many other Persian places and this is where I found the book to be its most heartwarming. These descriptions of contemporary Iranian life is where the book is at its strongest and where I would most strongly recommend it to the would-be traveller to that region.
   
   While Murphy does not conclude his stories well, he certainly does open the door to a whole new -- and very ancient -- world that is beyond our experience. Read The Root of Wild Madder for its beginning if not its ending. He will surely reveal to you paths that you did not realize were there.



3. If you are hooked on oriental carpets this is a fantastic book. It is a journal of a man's travels through the old carpet weaving countries.



4. Brian Murphy's book begins rather slowly but then picks up in interest and even excitement. It is a rich and well documented history, replete with intricacies and exciting revelations. The author allows not to be a carpet connaisseur but he is quick to learn and has evidently done a lot of research to compensate his lacks. It is also well written and quietly evocative. I have two comments to add:
   
   The Qasqua'i (whose tribal carpets have captivated Mr. Murphy) begun their historical treck as Georgian-speaking tribes (see Suny RG, The making of the Georgian nation, 1994, p.4). The vagaries of history made them adopt, first a Turkish dialect and now, living in Iran, Farsi--another example of discordances between ethnic identity and linguistics. But the Qashqa'i carpets poetically and artistically commemorate their past and their history.
   
   A Christian Armenian was involved in the history of madder, but he is generally labeled "Iranian," since more famous cultures always obscure the contributions of lesser known ones. His name was "Jean Althen... [an] Iranian [!] who introduced the culti­vation of madder... into Southern France... [H]e was born in a village he spells "Chaouch." He lost his parents during the Afghan invasion and was taken as a slave to Kayseri in Anatolia, where he learned cotton cultivation and dyeing. In about 1736 he escaped to France, where he was received by Louis XV in Versailles...[I]n southern France... he began to cultivate Oriental madder; this proved so successful that madder soon became a main crop of the region... [I]n 1846... his efforts honored, by the erection of his statue on the rock of Notre Dame des Doms.(See http://www.iranica.com/ newsite /articles/v1f9/v1f9a005.html).
   
   There are two interesting asides to this story.
   
   One concerns the species of madder that he brought into France. Was it Rubia peregrina L., or R. tinctorum L.? I believe its the latter (whose root is also known as "racine d'Armenie), found more commonly in the Orient and the source of red madder.
   
   The other is the fact that Dominican monks from Smyrna probably encouraged and helped Althen to escape from Kaiseri, carrying madder seeds with him, to introduce in France a product that a monopoly of the Ottoman empire up to that point, with Oriental punishments awaiting those caught "stealing" it.
   
   In any event, read this book. It is an almost magical introduction to the poetry of Oriental carpets. On second thought, I'll give it four stars and a half.



5. This book is low-brow and poorly written. It could have been such a wonderful narrative, but Mr. Murphy fell so short. His knowledge of carpets is minimal, and his views on the region are myopic.

5 comments about Authentic Victorian Fashion Patterns: A Complete Lady's Wardrobe.

1. The book apparently is a copy of original books used by dressmakers in Victorian times. I was actually looking for patterns to scan and enlarge for doll cloths making.
   The diagrams and measurements were confussing but I was able to get some ideas and was able to use doll patterns I had and adjust them to the configurations in the book. Wasn't an easy matter however.
   As a pleasent book to view and reflect on the fashions of that day and for ideas it was very nice. As an actual workable book for dressmaking I found it confussing and I've sewn for over 50 years.
   Still in all, worth the price for the lovely designs.



2. The buyer should know that a large majority of the patterns have blouses in the leg of mutton style. Since this was not what I was looking for I had to send it back. However the patterns did seem to be historically accurate.



3. Have you ever wondered how they made those lovely turn-of-the-century gowns? This book tells you how they did it! A reprint of a 1905 Butterick sewing book, it is intended for readers who aready know how to sew, as no beginning techniques are included. Full of vintage photographs and detailed instructions, this book gives step by step procedures for many tailoring techniques which we rarely see on anything but designer wear. These techniques can be applied by any seamstress to produce a more fitted and tailored look to their fashions. Definately worth owning for any costumer or fashion designer looking for a more romantic and tailored look in their fashions.



4. This book contains sewing patterns drawn from the same issues of the magazine _The Voice of Fashion_ as Dover's earlier collection _59 Authentic Turn-of-the-Century Fashion Patterns_. Both books contain patterns for the 1890s. This book focuses more on women's patterns; the other book contains many children's. I collect original issues of _The Voice of Fashion_. This magazine was published from 1886 to 1909. Every issue mirrors the season's changing styles. I am glad to see an anthology that makes the 1890s patterns more widely available. One note for seamstresses enlarging the patterns--the measurements on them are not inches, or metric. They are for a patent drafting system that is not included with either book.



5. A must have book for anyone interested in Late Victorian clothing. The introductions gives a basic review of drafting methods, with careful reading and patience (lots of it!) the patterns are easily drafted to modern measurements. You can't beat the price for the number of patterns you get.

1 comments about Petit Connoisseur: Fashion (Petit Connoisseur).

1. This is another beautiful Petit Connoisseur book that because of it's high quality and engaging images is perfect for gift giving. And it has a great sense of humor which keeps it fun for parents and kids alike. I highly recommend this tome.

No comments about Doris Day Paper Dolls.

1 comments about Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space.

1. Three years after the facts, is it still worthwhile to revisit the French government's decision to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools? Should we not rather just let go, have time heal whatever wounds may have been caused, and move on to something else? If John Bower chose to dedicate a book to that decision and to the deliberations that led to it, it is not just because the law seems strange to outsiders and cannot be easily interpreted starting from a liberal viewpoint. It is, above all, because he felt that "its passage was one of those key moments in a country's life at which certain anxieties and assumptions come to the surface, when people take stock of who they are and of what kind of social life they wish to have."
   
   To be true, the French are adept at staging such debates about themselves. The nation that invented the salons philosophiques and the art of conversation has a passion for probing into its own identity and entertains the belief that all social ills may be amenable to abstract reasoning and enlightened lawmaking. This is not only a matter of belief, but of social organization: the author finds that "French politicians, writers about public affairs, television 'talking heads', and philosophers are much more likely to read one another's work, be related to one another, or indeed be the same person than is the case in most other countries." These literati tend to base their opinion about social trends on anecdotes and media commentary, not hard data or sociological evidence. In a strange twist of cartesian thinking, they believe that if a theory is refuted by facts, then you have to change the facts, not the theory.
   
   The theory here is that schools are a sanctuary of republican values, a sacred institution whose mission is to create a universal social morality in the minds of French pupils and to mold them into autonomous, rational and public-minded citizen. Philosophically, this conception is rooted in a certain brand of political philosophy originating with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one that emphasizes general interests and shared values over individual interests and pluralism. Historically, it is associated with the figure of the hussard noir de la Republique, the schoolteacher in rural districts who was the designated agent to turn "peasants into Frenchmen" and have the Catholic church abdicate its control over the minds of primary school pupils. The reality is that state schools in contemporary France have to integrate an increasingly diverse population, notably the children of immigrants from North Africa, and that they cannot really cope with all the social requests that are imposed upon them.
   
   It is in this context that wearing headscarves in state schools came to be seen as a threat to the central values of the Republic and a challenge to three hard-won battles: the fight to keep religion from controlling young minds, the struggle to forge a common French identity, and the promotion of gender equality in public and private life. The law banning headscarves in schools can therefore be seen as a product of a historical trajectory as well as a political response to the perceived threats of Islamism, communalism and sexism. Explaining that law, as the author does, "requires unpacking a great deal about France, including France's very particular history of religion and the state, the great hopes placed in the public schools, ideas about citizens and integration (and the challenges posed by Muslims and by Islam to those ideas), the continued weight of the colonial past, the role of television in shaping opinion, and the tendency to think that passing a law will resolve a social problem." That the author does so without losing a sense of sympathy and understanding for the young girls most directly affected by this measure is a testimony to his humanity and to his skills as a storyteller.

5 comments about The Shining Cloth: Dress and Adornment That Glitter.

1. What a fabulous fascinating book. There are not many books on this subject. I found this one after purchasing a book called "Amulets" by Sheila Paine which is also highly recommended. "Shining Cloth" is full of gorgeous pictures and interesting anthropological, historical, and cultural information. Tribal and native textiles from all over the world are represented, including Africa, Japan, India, South America. I can't imagine why anyone object to a book devoted to these wonderful cultures and their use of textiles so vehemently they would write four negative reviews (all obviously from the same person) denouncing the book. Is that some kind of elitist snobbery and outrage suggesting that only westernized "civilized" collections of textiles should be the subject of a book. How bizarre and short sighted. There are many people like me who appreciate this material and don't see enough of it. There are hundreds of books on the more conventional and well known textiles and their histories. Certainly there is room for a few alternative views. The richness and diversity of these cultures should not be lost. Thank you Victoria Rivers for putting this together.
   
   The cover and title are also not misleading in any way as claimed in another review. Anyone who is familiar with textiles should recognize the mirror work and beadwork patterns of the nomadic people of northern India. How could a book about tribal textiles be misleading when it puts tribal textile patterns on the cover? The book claims to be about "dress and adornment that glitter" and that is exactly what it is about. The book investigates cultures that are invested in glittering and shining materials and how they are used in textiles. My only complaint about the book is that the binding is not well done and came apart from the rest of the book too easily. However, the content and format of the book deserves five stars so I give it five stars and a warning about the binding.



2. For those of you, like me, who cannot afford to own everything you want... or who do not want to maintain the incredible textile collection you will find pictured here. This book is the wonderful alternative. Close-up details, gorgeous color, perfect eye candy.



3. A brilliant read! Traveling the world has afforded me an upclose look at textiles and adornment such as you will see and read about in this highly profesional book. As a textile artist, and merchant of marvels, this book has been invaluable to my collection. This book is great for gift giving too!



4. I find this material to be more of a soapbox for the author to launch into tirades and attacks against Christianity and Christians using misinformation, skewed factoids and blatant lies and deceptions concerning Christianity and Christians, while promoting her own biased religious support for shamanism, Hinduism and various other religions under the false pretense of writing a book on "cloth".



5. A hobbyist's interest in textiles, sewing and garb drew me into the mysterious worlds presented in this fascinating and unique book. I am not a textiles professional, but I am able to appreciate it in many forms, whether tribal or ethnic, European, or the latest molecular likeness from DuPont. Dismissed by some as a "coffee table" book, The Shining Cloth actually is on my coffee table, where it has lain since its publication. Friends leaf through its wondrous pages, the unknown surfacing in unfathomable meaning from weave, creative decorations, the illustrious imagination that calls on a feather, a gold thread, some beads, and yes, a reflective dot, as a kind of speechless communication. I learned from The Shining Cloth of the metals used for reflection before the advent of the common mirror. Indigo and various dye from nature created signature fabric and design. Such explanations have parallels in my specialty -- food -- that is, people everywhere survive in ingenious ways. Tribal peoples continue even today an unshakeable superstitious dread of what their ancestors called the "evil eye." That their strategy for security could be the armour formed by the industrious and loving construction of a sparkling piece of clothing might have softened a terrifying life or added beauty to a bleak one. The entire subject begs inquiry and demands respect. Ms. Rivers' research certainly got my attention.

4 comments about Interweave's Compendium of Finishing Techniques: Crochet, Embroidery, Knitting, Knotting, Weaving.

1. I'm dyslexic and left handed -- and after several decades of false starts learning to knit -- I finally got it. What I couldn't figure out from all the wonderful knitting books available now is how to get the beginnings and endings (and the errors in the middle) to work as well as the actual knits, purls, yarnovers, and slips....
   
   I borrowed one book of finishing techniques, found another at a local bookstore, and found dozens of pages on the web that all attempted to explain how to accomplish these tasks which are evidently simple to most knitters.
   
   This book, "Interweave's Compendiu7m of Finishing Techniuest..." and another Interweave book called "Knit Fix" are the only books I've found that manage to explain in such a way that I can translate their instructions into successful knitting. Both books are compact, spiral bound, and full of un-misunderstandable directions and clear, plentiful illustrations.
   
   If I can understand the writing and illustrations in these books, imagine how useful they will be for the average kntter!
   
   This book suffers greatly by not featuring the word "knitting" in its title -- in dozens of searches on Amazon, it never came up and was never associated with other books in this family -- oddly, it is associated with weaving books only. Don't let this mislead you.



2. Well done you. It is a great thing to write a book, another to actually have it published, and a sheer triumph if it is a good read. Congratulations on achieving all three.



3. I like the book very much, however, I feel the layout and the photography could have been tighter and more artful. There's a bit of a rushed-to-put-together feel about it, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, good value for a finishing reference book because it applies to all needlework disciplines.



4. A very thorough review of different ways to finish your projects through stitches, trimmings, decorative braids, etc. Clear concise instructions, and easy to follow illustrations. A wonderful book!!

3 comments about New From Old: How to Transform and Customize Your Clothes.

1. as the other reviewer mentioned, this book is almost exclusively about making simple, small alterations to clothes you already own or pick up at the thrift shop. While the instructions were good and the pictures nice, the projects in and of themselves were fairly commonplace. Dying clothes (literally dying the whole garment), adding beads, faux flowers, rhinestones at necklines, or adding trim to plain pants was the majority of the projects. While this info may be good for a beginner, it's just more of the same for all other more experienced crafters like me.
   
   I would not suggest this book unless you get it cheap or from the library.
   3 stars.



2. Okay book for beginning and non sewers. Doesn'thave any really fashionable ideas. I'm still waiting for a really good book.



3. This book encourages creative ways of thinking about clothes I currently own and those I may make or purchase later. Some of the ideas are quite simple, others more sophisticated. I like the fact that it includes directions on how to achieve the results portrayed in the pictures.