Country Living A Bit of Velvet and a Dash of Lace


Book Description

"Surround yourself with the lush, opulent Magnolia Pearl look--the ultimate in bohemian chic home décor"--Page 2 of cover.




ReFashioned


Book Description

The area of recycling and upcycling is a rich and growing source of innovative design in the fashion and accessories industries. In a fast-fashion world of throw-away clothing, it is the ultimate expression of the slow-fashion movement, with each piece individually conceived and crafted from scratch, using different materials each time. ReFashioned features 46 international designers who work with recycled materials and discarded garments, reinvigorating them with new life and value. The result is beautiful and desirable clothing and accessories that also make an important statement to the fashion world about its wasteful and exploitative practices.




The Chiffon Trenches


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the pages of Vogue to the runways of Paris, this “captivating” (Time) memoir by a legendary style icon captures the fashion world from the inside out, in its most glamorous and most cutthroat moments. “The Chiffon Trenches honestly and candidly captures fifty sublime years of fashion.”—Manolo Blahnik NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • Fortune • Garden & Gun • New York Post During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies. A racially tinged encounter with a member of the house of Yves Saint Laurent sent him back to New York and into the offices of Vogue under Grace Mirabella. There, he eventually became creative director, developing an unlikely but intimate friendship with Anna Wintour. As she rose to the top of Vogue’s masthead, André also ascended, and soon became the most influential man in fashion. The Chiffon Trenches offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last fifty years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived—despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry—to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion. Woven throughout the book are also André’s own personal struggles that impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Fürstenberg, Lee Radziwill, to name a few), and of course his Southern roots and faith, which guided him since childhood. The result is a highly compelling read that captures the essence of a world few of us will ever have real access to, but one that we all want to know oh so much more about.




Inside Out & Back Again


Book Description

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.




The Well of Loneliness


Book Description

This early work by Radclyffe Hall was originally published in 1928 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Well of Loneliness' is a novel that follows an upper-class Englishwoman who falls in love with another woman while serving as an ambulance driver in World War I. Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born on 12th August 1880, in Bournemouth, England. Hall's first novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was a lengthy and grim tale that proved hard to sell. It was only published following the success of the much lighter social comedy The Forge (1924), which made the best-seller list of John O'London's Weekly. Hall is a key figure in lesbian literature for her novel The Well of Loneliness (1928). This is her only work with overt lesbian themes and tells the story of the life of a masculine lesbian named Stephen Gordon.




The Velvet Hours


Book Description

From the international bestselling author of The Lost Wife and The Garden of Letters, comes a story—inspired by true events—of two women pursuing freedom and independence in Paris during WWII. As Paris teeters on the edge of the German occupation, a young French woman closes the door to her late grandmother’s treasure-filled apartment, unsure if she’ll ever return. An elusive courtesan, Marthe de Florian cultivated a life of art and beauty, casting out all recollections of her impoverished childhood in the dark alleys of Montmartre. With Europe on the brink of war, she shares her story with her granddaughter Solange Beaugiron, using her prized possessions to reveal her innermost secrets. Most striking of all are a beautiful string of pearls and a magnificent portrait of Marthe painted by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. As Marthe’s tale unfolds, like velvet itself, stitched with its own shadow and light, it helps to guide Solange on her own path. Inspired by the true account of an abandoned Parisian apartment, Alyson Richman brings to life Solange, the young woman forced to leave her fabled grandmother’s legacy behind to save all that she loved.




Faded Glamour by the Sea


Book Description

Fulfilling a lifetime dream of finding a house by the sea, Pearl Lowe now brings her laid-back decorating style to coastal living with Faded Glamour by the Sea. Pearl Lowe's gloriously decadent yet perfectly lived-in decorating style was featured in her bestselling interiors book Faded Glamour. Now Pearl is taking us to the coast, and in Faded Glamour by the Sea we get the first glimpse of her new home – a beautiful renovation project that she and her husband, musician Danny Goffey, have created in East Sussex. Built in the 1940s for an artist whose shell sculptures are still dotted round the garden, the house and adjacent cabins have been lovingly restored by Pearl. The house may have been a life-long dream for the couple, who have always loved the solace of water, but it has only been just over a year in the making, thanks to the inspiration Pearl has drawn from many friends who live in the area and also further afield. And so she takes us on a tour of their seaside homes. A pair of antique dealers whose love of all things French inspired them to set up their own brocante in Kent; an artist with a love of beach huts; an author who swapped London life for a clifftop house with his own writer's hut. Add to this the Malibu beachfront home of stylist Rachel Ashwell, the hippy-chic style of supermodel Helena Christensen's waterside retreat and the 'punk noir Victorian' vibe of the hotel created by friends from rock band The Libertines. In Faded Glamour by the Sea Pearl visits these properties, and as the owners tell their stories she explains how she found inspiration for this new chapter in her life.




Carried Away


Book Description

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013 Carried Away is a dazzling selection of stories–seventeen favorites chosen by the author from across her distinguished career. With an Introduction by Margaret Atwood. Alice Munro has been repeatedly hailed as one of our greatest living writers, a reputation that has been growing for years. The stories brought together here span a quarter century, drawn from some of her earliest books, The Beggar Maid and The Moons of Jupiter, through her recent best-selling collection, Runaway. Here are such favorites as “Royal Beatings” in which a young girl, her father, and stepmother release the tension of their circumstances in a ritual of punishment and reconciliation; “Friend of My Youth” in which a woman comes to understand that her difficult mother is not so very different from herself; and “The Albanian Virgin," a romantic tale of capture and escape in Central Europe that may or may not be true but that nevertheless comforts the hearer, who is on a desperate adventure of her own. Munro’s incomparable empathy for her characters, the depth of her understanding of human nature, and the grace and surprise of her narrative add up to a richly layered and capacious fiction. Like the World War I soldier in the title story, whose letters from the front to a small-town librarian he doesn’t know change her life forever, Munro’s unassuming characters insinuate themselves in our hearts and take permanent hold.




Wayward Threads


Book Description

Better than recycled-up-cycled!Basic sewing skills are all you need to turn unloved or discarded clothing into creative opportunities of your own expression. With Wayward Threads as your guide, you will create your own fun-to-wear garments that are not only fresh and truly unique but that you can feel great to have given new life!- Simply-structured designs- Step-by-step projects for both vintage textiles and current used garments- Ideas for additional directions to take each project- Inspiration gallery- Shopping tips for the types of garments to look for- Ways to incorporate embellishments beyond those originally intended for clothing, such as linen napkins and tableclothsRepurposed garments are on the cutting-edge of fashion for many highly-respected designers and now it's our turn to follow suit. Upcycling abandoned clothing is not only fun and satisfying, it's also rewarding as a conscientious choice. Wayward Threads is your key to creating attractive fashion statements that are as one-of-a-kind as you are.




Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politéness


Book Description

Do unto others as you would others should do to you. You can never be rude if you bear the rule always in mind, for what lady likes to be treated rudely? True Christian politeness will always be the result of an unselfish regard for the feelings of others, and though you may err in the ceremonious points of etiquette, you will never be im polite. Politeness, founded upon such a rule, becomes the expression, in graceful manner, of social virtues. The spirit of politeness consists in a certain attention to forms and ceremonies, which are meant both to please others and ourselves, and to make others pleased with us ;a still clearer definition may be given by saying that politeness is goodness of heart put into daily practice; the.re can be no true, politeness without kindness, purity, singleness of heart, and sensibility. Many believe that politeness is but a mask worn in the world to conceal bad passions and impulses, and to make a show of possessing virtues not really existing in the heart; thus, that politeness is merely hypocrisy and dissimulation. Do not believe this; be certain that those who profess such a doctrine are practising themselves the deceit they condemn so much.