In Fine Style: the Dancehall Art of Wilfred Limonious


Book Description

During the 1980s Wilfred Limonious (1949--99) became one of Jamaican music's most prolific graphic artists, designing countless reggae album jackets and record-label logos. With silly characters, scribbled commentary and outrageous Patois-filled speech bubbles, the world he created was the perfect visual counterpart to the island's emerging dancehall scene.




In Fine Style


Book Description

Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace in 2013.




Tudor Fashion


Book Description

The paperback edition of this captivating story of Tudor dress, and the people who made and wore it The Tudors are some of the best-known figures in history. They continue, even today, to spark our curiosity and imagination. Their enduring popularity is no doubt partly due to the iconic portraits in which they are depicted, in farthingales and ruffs, furs and jewels, codpieces and cloaks, and vast expanses of velvet and silk. Far from being mere decoration, fashion was pivotal in the communication of status and power. This paperback edition of Tudor Textiles presents insights into the fashions of the Tudor dynasty. Histories of Kings and Queens complement stories of unsung dressmakers, laundresses, and officials charged with maintaining and transporting the immense Tudor wardrobes from palace to palace. Evidence from rare surviving garments and textiles, original documents, fine and decorative art, and archaeological findings enhance our understanding of the Tudors and their courts. Handsomely illustrated, this sumptuous book contextualizes Tudor dress and fills in gaps in our knowledge of the period and its fascinating historical figures.




Empire of Style


Book Description

Tang dynasty (618–907) China hummed with cosmopolitan trends. Its capital at Chang’an was the most populous city in the world and was connected via the Silk Road with the critical markets and thriving cultures of Central Asia and the Middle East. In Empire of Style, BuYun Chen reveals a vibrant fashion system that emerged through the efforts of Tang artisans, wearers, and critics of clothing. Across the empire, elite men and women subverted regulations on dress to acquire majestic silks and au courant designs, as shifts in economic and social structures gave rise to what we now recognize as precursors of a modern fashion system: a new consciousness of time, a game of imitation and emulation, and a shift in modes of production. This first book on fashion in premodern China is informed by archaeological sources—paintings, figurines, and silk artifacts—and textual records such as dynastic annals, poetry, tax documents, economic treatises, and sumptuary laws. Tang fashion is shown to have flourished in response to a confluence of social, economic, and political changes that brought innovative weavers and chic court elites to the forefront of history. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/empire-of-style




The International Best Dressed List


Book Description

A lavishly illustrated banquet of style, elegance, and taste, this is a who's who of the most glamorous men and women around the world, the ultimate treasury of fashion inspiration. This sumptuous volume--the ultimate sourcebook for fashion mavens, Instagram followers, and celebrity worshippers--presents the complete history of the much-lauded and highly visible International Best-Dressed List (IBDL) launched by Eleanor Lambert, "Godmother of Fashion," in 1940. The List has become a barometer of style and the highest honor a sartorial savant can receive, and today it's an ongoing record of the world's most glamorous women and men from society, royalty, Hollywood, celebrity, fashion, art, culture, sports, and media. These gorgeous "swans" of elegance, influence, and grace are gathered here in the most comprehensive survey ever published. This rich story is told by insider and IBDL Hall-of-Famer Amy Fine Collins through her encyclopedic knowledge, exclusive insights, and countless entertaining anecdotes about the behind-the-scenes goings-on--Lambert was offered kickbacks and bribes of up to $50,000 by list aspirants--that shed light on the selection process, the vibrant personalities (not to mention egos) of the chosen, and the zeitgeist of the times. For sixty years, Lambert was queen of the International Best-Dressed List. In 2002, she formally ceded the reins to Graydon Carter, Amy Fine Collins, Reinaldo Herrera, and Aimée Bell.




Covers


Book Description




Style and the Man


Book Description

Alan Flusser believes that dressing well is something every man can readily accomplish. In this newly abridged and updated edition of Style and the Man, Flusser shares his vast knowledge of men's clothes and provides essential information for anyone interested in savvy attire. This elegantly written treatise will arm any man with a connoisseur's knowledge of the dos and don'ts of buying and wearing quality clothes and how much they should cost, from dinnerwear to casual sportswear. This book is also a veritable encyclopedia on individualizing questions about fabric, quality, and fit, as well as the appreciable and qualitative distinctions between clothes of different prices and makes. Open Style and the Man to discover: the difference between a $395 and a $1,000 suit what two words to look for on a costly dress shirt's label why the folds in a cummerbund should always be worn facing up From the tuxedo to the Top-Sider, Alan Flusser explains the sartorial origins and modern applications of haberdashery. All a man has to do is tuck this book into a corner of his suitcase or back pocket, and he'll be armed with an insider's knowledge of how to guide the tailor or salesperson in fitting or choosing those clothes that will become long-term players in his maturing wardrobe and personal style.




The Sense of Style


Book Description

“Charming and erudite," from the author of Rationality and Enlightenment Now, "The wit and insight and clarity he brings . . . is what makes this book such a gem.” —Time.com Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing—and why should we care? From the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now. In this entertaining and eminently practical book, the cognitive scientist, dictionary consultant, and New York Times–bestselling author Steven Pinker rethinks the usage guide for the twenty-first century. Using examples of great and gruesome modern prose while avoiding the scolding tone and Spartan tastes of the classic manuals, he shows how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right. The Sense of Style is for writers of all kinds, and for readers who are interested in letters and literature and are curious about the ways in which the sciences of mind can illuminate how language works at its best.




The Commissar Vanishes


Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book, 1997 The lavishly illustrated and often darkly hilarious retelling of Soviet history through the doctored photographs under Stalin. The Commissar Vanishes has been hailed as a brilliant, indispensable record of an era. The Commissar Vanishes offers a unique and chilling look at how one man--Joseph Stalin--manipulated the science of photography to advance his own political career and erase the memory of his victims. Over the past thirty years David King has assembled the world's largest archive of doctored Soviet photographs, the best of which appear here, in a book Tatyana Tolstaya, in The New York Review of Books, called "an extraordinary, incomparable volume."




Craftsman-style Houses


Book Description

Articles from Fine Homebuilding magazine discuss the popular 1920s small house design and feature new construction and remodelling projects, including a spa room, a deck, and a beach house