5 comments about Dress to Express: Seven Secrets to Overcoming Closet Trauma and Revealing Your Inner Beauty.

1. A book on style that starts from the inside--yes, please! It's great to feel good in your clothes, but that's frosting on the cake. To feel beautiful inside and out takes so much more than a great scarf or well-cut jacket (fabulous as those are!), and this book is one of the very few that truly recognizes that. It's a shame that some people spend a huge amount of time and money on trying to perfect their outer image without realizing that there are people who feel (and are!) beautiful in thrift-store clothes and there are people wearing clothes from Vogue and W who feel flawed and ugly. This book goes much deeper than many books on style, and for that reason it's a fantastic addition to the books that focus only on fashion tips.



2. This book is o.k., just o.k.. The advice is fine but not revolutionary. There are other resources which can and do, cover the same subjects with greater clarity.
   
   I recommend The Pocket Stylist which remains my all-time favorite (I am a bit addicted to books on fashion and style).



3. Too much psychology and not enough strategies...
   Try "Ready to Wear", "The Pocket Stylist" or "Does This Make Me Look Fat?".



4. This is a great book which will help you to re-evaluate your wardrobe and identify items which can work for you.
   
   If nothing else it might help you get the strength to clean out your closet:)



5. 
   Dress to Express is an empowering book that shows you how to look and feel your absolute best. It gives you the tools to define the image you want to project, and then how to select the right clothing and accessories to suit your personality and body shape. It also helps you overcome all types of clothing issues, including our emotional patterns regarding clothing.
   
   It's also such an inspiring book as the emphasis is just as much on inner beauty, confidence and self-esteem. I loved all the exercises and checklists throughout the book, especially the personality clothing types. The book has really made shopping so much easier and more enjoyable. I can't recommend it highly enough!
   
   Erica

5 comments about Mod: A Very British Phenomenon.

1. Until reading Terry Rawlings MOD: A VERY BRITISH PHENOMENON I had no idea that mod was such a big youth movement. I just knew about the style from the 80s and the cool 60s look that some kids had in school.
   
   Anyway, this book explains pretty much in detail how the Mod movement got started and all that was necessary to be a mod. Mod is short for "modernist" by the way. And even though the teenagers in Britain appropriated much of the fashion and music from America, they really turned it into a culture that was contained over there.
   
   The book is filled with photos of Mod guys and Mod bands and there's even ads for nightclubs, clothes, and of course the scooters. I found it interesting to read although some chapters seem to abruptly end, which can confuse the reader. But it's great if you want to learn more about Mods and are nostalgic for the 60s.



2. This book is tops for the photos alone. There's a lot of great stuff in here, some of it you'll also find in Paolo Hewitt's book, such as the Marc Bolan interview in "Town" magazine. However, the interview is in its entirerty in Rawling's book.
   
   This book is a 4.5 at the very least. Definatley worth the $20-or-so for the photos alone.



3. Hmmmm... I dig this book (a lot), but let's see: American R & B, American Army-issue fish-tail Parkas, Italian scooters, French films and fashion inspired by African-American musicians and Italian hipsters. A very "British" phenomenon ?
   
   The stuffy, pent up, post-war mood and attitudes of British society definitely caused the first teenage "youth cults" to emerge...definitely contributed to the appearance of the "teenager" as an entity and a consumer group...but the British Mods obviously didn't look to England for their inspiration. Their clothes (as well as the cut and tailoring of said clothes), preferred mode of transportation, music and even styles of dancing were taken from almost everywhere BUT Great Britain.
   
   Now, the legendary groups that formed in the Mod era were predominantly British...but, in interviews, The Who, the Small Faces, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds and the Creation were NEVER shy about the fact that they were not playing "British" music...but were attempting to mimic American blues and late-fifties/early sixties r & b of the Tamla, Stax and Motown variety.



4. Mod: A Very British Phenomenon is a comprehensive and authentic source on the mod subculture. Until I recently decided to purchase a book on the topic, I had no idea how hard it was to find quality sources on mod culture. As someone interested in the style and cultural details, I was looking for a book with exhaustive descriptions and photographs. Resources on mod largely seem either low-budget, vague anectdotes or cheesy, sterotypical fluff on the 60s. After checking out the reviews and description of this book, I was excited to finally find what seemed to be the ideal coverage of mod.
   
   When I received the book in the mail and cracked it open, I was instantly a bit disappointed. While full of old newspaper clippings, quotes from interviews with original mod pioneers, historical events, clothing and style descriptions, hairstyle descriptions, and other cultural detail it gives readers-- no matter how well-versed in mod-- an informative and entertaining read. It is indeed a great source relative to the shabby body of work that exists on mod. Unfortunetly, there is an obvious drawback. I hoped the book would be in glossy coffetable format, filled with crisp images but the book instead has rather poor printing quality, distorted photographs and is lacking in format. The resolution is poor and the style choices of both the text and photos in the format are cheap and sometimes cheesy, pseudo-mod. So, I was a bit disappointed-- While great for information, the book is not one that I enjoy picking up and getting lost in the visuals.



5. Yes, I admit it....I'm a pop culture junkie!! I love to have books on different scenes I've been interested in. This is a great book on Mod culture. Lots of great picures of sixties mods!! A great guide for the style and music they listened to!!

4 comments about Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection.

1. I purchased this book as a momento of my trip to the Winterthur Estate. The estate is fabulous and well worth the visit. In the book you not only have some fabulous quilts but you also get the history too. This book would be a great addition to anyone's library or coffee table. Linda has included excerpts from letters, poems and advertising. This is not just "another" quilt book. It is a well researched and written history book.It is a fabulous read.



2. My wife is a "quilter". While I was on the East Coast attending a family reunion, one of my cousins, with whom I was staying, asked if I wanted to join her in a tour of Winterthur, close to where she lives. I accepted the invitation and totally enjoyed it especially the quilt collection there. I am not a quilter myself - there are some males interested in and "artists" in this art form, but I have become acquainted with it through my wife's interest in it. When I saw this book, examined it and checked out other's reviews of it, I decided it would make a nice birthday gift for my wife. I liked the fact that it dealt with the history of this art form here in the US, the quilt makers of particular quilts, and the progression of technique in "constructing" them. To me it would appeal to my wife's knowledge of this art form through the collection of the H. F. DuPont family.



3. "Quilts from a material world" is a long-awaited opportunity to view some of the finest quilts in Winterthur's collections, but also to have them expertly placed in social, economic, mercantile, and political context by Linda Eaton's well-researched and readable narrative. This book is a must for quilt and fabric historians, American history buffs, and members of the general reading public who are interested in knowing more about American material culture (in both senses of the word "material"). It is an excellent contribution to the study of fabrics and quilts.



4. i have barely had time to savour this book. there is so much to interest quilters and non-quilters that it is hard to know where to start to review.
   
   the photographs of the quilts are wonderful, with lots of details. the textile history is thorough and accurate, including a fascinating section on the different techniques of putting pattern on cloth. the history of the quilters is, yes, fascinating, including letters written by one quilter to her fiance and later husband in the early part of the 19th century.
   
   anyone interested in early america, early manufacturing, and the lives of our forebears will enjoy this book as much as any quilter.

No comments about Excess: Fashion And The Underground In The 80S.

2 comments about Stetson Hats & the John B. Stetson Company: 1865Ð1970.

1. Do you have an old Stetson hat and wonder what it's worth? This book may help. It also contains a history of the company, photographs, as well as a section on women's hats manufactured by Stetson. I often refer people to the section on care and the handling of hats.



2. Wow! There is no other book like this out there all about Stetson hats and the Stetson company. Many different hat types are shown from western to city to women's hats (did you know Stetson made women's hats? ). Great history of the company, the people who worked there, and the hats they produced. I know this book is being used for reference by museums. Great for collectors, dealers, historians, anyone interested in the West ... The list goes on. Jeffrey B. Snyder has put together a classic. It will be a long time before another Stetson book this good will be produced.

No comments about Pop Surf Culture: Music, Design, Film, and Fashion from the Bohemian Surf Boom.

2 comments about 18th Century Costume in the National Museums and Galleries of Mersyside (National Museums Galleries).

1. As a reenactor, ordering this book was a leap of faith as it hasn't been mentioned much in 18th century enthusiast circles. As one who likes to have photos of as many extant garments as possible, it was great to add some never before seen items to my library. For the beginner, the text is a good overview of 18c fashion - but it would be with Linda Baumgarten in the Bibliography. There are some novel methods of trimmming in the photos which are within the range of the reenactor.
   I was pleased with the book and recommend it.



2. This is a fabulous bargain for people interested in this period. When I first saw the price, I feared that perhaps it was only a listing of holdings, but no, it is beautifully illustrated with more than 50 photographs in full color.
   
   The text is relatively brief, but extremely well-written so as to be very informative and not make too many assumptions about the prior knowledge of the reader. Styles in fabrics as well as in cut are noted. It is accompanied by a selection of well-placed illustrations. The only flaw I detected is that "calamanco" is used several times before being defined. That such a trivial error stands out it indicative of the high quality.
   
   Most of the pictures are together in a section following the text. The introduction notes that there are gaps in the museum's collection of men's clothing, so these are supplemented with period portraits. The pictures include many accessories such as shoes, kerchiefs and aprons. I was particularly intrigued by a shoe that was shown with its matching clog. Both front and back views are shown of the gowns. There are also many shots of the details of trim as well the complete garment. The costumes are all middle and upper class, excepting one painting featuring a jockey; the introduction notes that working class people generally wore out their clothing.
   
   I think that any costume library would be enhanced by this book.

2 comments about The Fashion System.

1. I love fashion theory writings. I really do. And i know this is a seminal text in fashion theory. But man, oh man, is it a doozy! I'd give this book a 5 for the concepts, but a 1 for the ease of understanding. It is really hard to plough through - it is translated from French so features some tortuous sentence structure, and feels like the writings of a guy who really loves to read his own work; the higher the word count the better. I feel that it is work like this that leads people to view academic writing as necessarily dry, dense, verbose and pretentious, when there are amazing theory writers out there who are accessible and interesting to read.
   
   OK, admittedly a lot of this style is because of the era in which it was written; maybe a little because of the gender of its writer, and a lot because of the complexity and originality of the ideas Barthe is illuminating. But I would strongly recommend leaving this book until graduate level. Undergrads are better off with any of the contemporary writers in fashion theory, gender or cultural studies who have addressed Barthe's ideas in simple language.



2. For any reader who has had a father that read *Playboy* "for the articles," even Barthes' highly analytical approach to the relation between image and text--which he insists *produces* Fashion or "real clothing"--can be funny. I.e., reading in translation the American reader may not identify so much with the eccentricities of Barthes' style so much as his choice of subject. Barthes' work remains entirely relevant, even though the book was published in 1967--the decade where fashion models withered, along with any grand sense of ethics on the part of commercial artists, clothing designers, and filmmakers, down to nothing. Perhaps Barthes would say this Nothing was a *commentary.* Perhaps not. But certain details of Barthes' analysis hold very interesting still: for example, the fact that Barthes refers to the way the "written-garment" in a layout calls attention to specific portions of the "image-garment" as "amputations" (15).

   For the reader, it's important to place the book into some sort of context, as Context is Barthes' entire position when he insists that in relation to popular imagery, text "arrests the level of reading at its fabric, at its belt, at the accessory which adorns it" (13). Barthes' idea that the language used by magazine writers does not comment upon but rather *creates* Fashion arouses some questions about certain social centerpieces in, for example, popular (once "folk") music: Janis Joplin to Madonna to Britney Spears. While Barthes clear interest is a structuralized definition of Fashion, not women, studying Barthes' book may help us understand at a more analytical level just what these women "mean" as they are mediated through imagery and arrested by their respective (worn and written) articles. Barthes is crucial for anybody who has ever noticed that, compared to that which accompanied artists of Joplin's caliber , the accompanying texts of contemporary magazines read, more often than not, like a report of Time Temperature and Date.

   Furthermore, the book certainly becomes enjoyable for the more fantastic-minded who could envision a day when fashion magazines no longer have to rely on flamboyant nudity, tasteful or otherwise, or suggestive postures, but wherein nudity and erotic positions are implied in a truly Barthean, truly erotic manner: by the fact that all text has been stripped bare. After all, even in a picture-mag where there is no writing, there is still, if one reads Barthes, *writing*. This reviewer would imagine that in Barthes' eyes, the old fashioned critique of the ironic incongruities between the image and the text of other vestments of fashion (such as shampoo commercials whose orgiastic imagery and sounds have nothing to do with the actual product) could be easily solved by one magazine, of any kind, that had no writing at all but consisted entirely of centerfolds.

No comments about Introduction to Accumark, Pattern Design, and PDM.

No comments about Fashion Book, The - Midi Edition.