Mondrian in London: How British Art Nearly Became Modern

Charles Darwent

Double-Barrelled Books

A lush book of photos shines a light on the luxurious bejeweled make-up boxes that quickly became covetable accessories with the advent of beauty productsExquisite jeweled minaudieres, necessaires, and compacts from the l8th to the 21st centuries are photographed and displayed here in great detail and set within the social and fashion contexts of their creation. Original archive photographs showcase the social leaders, stage and cinema stars, and fashion leaders who carried these exquisite little accessories as indispensable adjuncts to their glamorous lives. These triumphs of the jewelers art were designed to rest glittering on cocktail bars and grand dining tables. They were tiny but also extremely useful as is revealed in detailed photos of their highly engineered interiors. These little boxes were capable of carrying everything a woman might need during the course of an evening which might start at the Ritz and end at Bricktops Jazz Club—everything from a lipstick, to a powder compact, to a comb, even a cigarette and lighter, hence their generic name of necessaire.

Ultra Vanities: Minaudieres, Necessaires, and Compacts

Health, Fitness & Dieting

ETHERINGTON-SMITH, MEREDITH

Narbaits, Xavier

Beauty, Grooming, & Style

Startlingly innovative designs for cake decorating, influenced by the Cressida Bell's family's part in the Bloomsbury GroupHome baking is hot, and Cressida's Bell's collection of cake designs is a wonderfully creative and original take on the art and craft of cake decoration. Cressida is a scion of the famous Bloomsbury Group of artists—her grandmother was artist Vanessa Bell—and these wonderfully original designs for cakes, in their innovative use of color and ingredients, while being totally contemporary in feel and look, reflect her honorable artistic inheritance. All the decorations are edible: there are cakes decorated with traditional sweets, cakes decorated with candied fruit, and cakes decorated with nothing but sugar paste cut and shaped into striking, witty, and vivid designs—a winner's rosette, a peacock in all his finery, a dahlia in full bloom. Each idea is inspirational, but is also eminently attainable—some easily achieved by children—and all suitable for any number of cake baking occasions from birthdays and anniversaries, to just producing something wonderful for every day. Includes metric measures. 

Cressida Bell's Cake Design: Fifty Fabulous Cakes

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Bell, Cressida

Baking

A sourcebook for the many thousands of needlework enthusiasts, chock-full of many beautiful designs done in a simple style of draughtsmanship—easy to relate to and reproduce
A book for every tapestry and embroidery lover, this is a collection of the bright and colorful, original and detailed designs that artist Phoebe Hart stitched on canvas, using a mixture of wools to produce rugs and hangings that today are collectors' items. The word "inspirational" is often too freely used, but Phoebe Hart's canvas work is just that, each design a master class in composition and crammed full of intricate, detailed borders, lush flowers and fruit, and light-hearted, color-bright butterflies, birds, and fish—rich sources of inspiration for every needlecraft enthusiast. Phoebe Hart (1917-2010) was American by birth, but went to school in England, after which she studied stage design at the Slade under Vladimir Polunin, who had designed sets for Diaghilev, and for whom she painted backdrops for the Ballet Russe.

Remarkable Rugs: The Inspirational Art of Phoebe Hart

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Hart, Harriet

Crafts & Hobbies

A gorgeous peek into the personal garden of an award-winning, playful, postmodernist gardener The garden designer George Carter, a Gold Medalist at the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower show, the world's most prestigious flower show, is noted for his subtle and witty approach to garden design. He has designed and made gardens for Burleigh, Penshurst, and other stately homes, together with many smaller gardens, all using ingenious ideas for their embellishment and decoration. He also designs the annual, sold-out exhibition at Buckingham Palace. In this book, photographed in his own beautiful Norfolk garden, which exemplifies his approach to garden design, George not only shows how he created the garden, but also demonstrates quick and easy ways to decorate and transform your garden with originality and paint. From urns to statues and cut-outs, to humble flowerpots and chain store-bought garden sheds, George’s ideas bring the theater to the garden in the best possible way.

George's Magic Garden: Transforming the Ordinary into the Extraordinary

Arts & Photography

Carter, George

Photography & Video

From the earliest times to the star handbags of today, a sumptuous, highly visual celebration of the history of handbags in all their diversity and luxury
From the reticules of the 18th century through through the mesh bags and chatelaines of the l9th century to Japanese inrō in the 20th century, the history of the handbag is also the social history of the times in which these exquisite models were created. Every major couturier from the 1920s, from Paul Poiret to Chanel to Vionnet and Schiaparelli, has created handbags to go with their outfits, and this book showcases these creations with the fashion illustrations and fashion photographs of the time. Handbags have been inspired by real women—notably Grace Kelly and the Kelly bag, and by events in the world such as Schiaparelli's gas mask bag, and in more recent times tie-ins with stars and celebrities have grown every more important. Nowadays a handbag is the foundation of fashion fortunes, and certain models, such as the Hermes Birkin, are as famous in China as they are in the rue de la Paix. This lively and informative book features beautiful and rare illustrations spanning the centuries.

The Secret History of the Handbag

Fashion

An elaborately illustrated, highly personal look at one of the most prominent fashion figures of the 20th century 
Elsa Schiaparelli is one of the most important couturiers and taste-makers of the 20th century. She numbered among her collaborators the artists Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Christian Berard, and Marcel Vernet, resulting in such extraordinary couture collaborations as the lobster and parsley dress, based on a print by Salvador Dalí, and the Circus collection of gold-embroidered jackets, based on drawings by Cocteau. These artists also became personal friends of Schiaparelli's and made wonderful screens and other works of applied art for her house in Paris, photographs of the interiors of which have never been published. Now, the actress Marisa Berenson reveals her private archive of pictures of her much-loved grandmother's house in all its wit and eccentricity and pens an affectionate first-hand memoir of "Schiap."

Elsa Schiaparelli's Private Album

Berenson, Marisa

Graphic Design

A diary and collection of accompanying watercolors throw rare light on a hitherto unpublished great garden at an important time in its history Geraldine, Countess of Mayo made an exquisite and extremely important garden in Ireland between l890 and l925, when she had to leave the family estate. The garden was subsequently completely destroyed. Her gardening diaries span more than 30 years. They are brought together here with watercolors of the gardens and the plants she brought from all over the world, evoking a paradise now gone forever. The diaries are a lively insight into the world of gardening at the turn of the 20th century—the problems she faced, the triumphs, and the disasters. The watercolors, done at the time by her father, are immensely accomplished, and because they have never been kept in the light are as fresh and bright as the day they were executed. Lady Mayo is an engaging reporter who was genuinely passionate about her creation and this comes through in everything she writes, while the watercolors, many painted on the pages of her diary, are truly exceptional.

Lady Mayo's Garden: The Diary of a Lost 19th Century Irish Landscape

Clifton-Mogg, Caroline

Bourke-Borrowes, Kildare

Gardening & Landscape Design

Vogue's Anna Harvey was a style advisor to Princess Diana—now she advises post-50 women on attaining perfectly chic, classic style For the high-spending, full-living baby boomer generation, dressing well is as important as ever—after all, if 50 is the new 30, then 60 is the new 40. But, much as the baby boomers might wish to avoid the facts, different ages bring different dressing conundrums. No one wants to be thought of mutton dressed as lamb, but neither do they want to look like mutton dressed as more mutton. The good news is that it is possible to be well-dressed, stylish, and happy. This guide will show how, and its author, Vogue’s Anna Harvey, will be the perfect guide. She is direct, helpful, sympathetic, and positive. She covers such essentials as what to wear to suit your shape, how to disguise the areas you don’t like and show off the areas you do, what to spend money on and what to save money on, and much more. This reassuring, stylish guide will have you longing to go shopping again.

Timeless Style: What to Wear Over 50: Dressing Well for the Rest of Your Life

Harvey, Anna

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