A quick note to let you know that I reviewed this lovely book, The Cocktail: 200 Fabulous Drinks over at Cocktailia.

You might be interested in the pretty pictures, which are illustrations by one of my favorites, the Australian illustrator Kat MacLeod. Check it out!

I love Japanese magazines, and every once in a while I have to indulge myself. I normally go for the street style magazines like Cutie (tag line: “For independent girls”), because they show actual real people with real style. (By the way, if you like street fashion photography, that’s one of the themes for the next issue of JPG.)

But this one has such nice photography and styling, I chose it in spite of being a bit more high fashion. Here are some images from Fudge (tag line: “NEW TYPE FASHION MAGAZINE for GIRLS.”)

I’m guessing crochet must be very popular in Japan, judging from the amazing array of great crochet books they have at Kinokuniya. I picked these up recently.

The book on the right are just a treasury of different motifs and edgings. The book on the left is called “romantic lace.” The below images are from this book.

I especially liked these roses.

I recently took a trip to Kinokuniya for some Japanese crochet books, but as always, I left the bookstore with more than I’d planned. I think anyone interested in art, design, or fashion should go to Kinokuniya, and especially if you’re into Japanese art, design, or fashion. There are so many incredible books here that you won’t find anywhere else.

I came across this book, Apartements d’amoureux a Paris while browsing around and couldn’t resist its charms. This seems to be part of series of books. There were also books called “Stockholm Love Apartments,” “Paris Ateliers,” etc. I wanted all of them, but forced myself to choose just one. I liked the Ateliers books because I love looking at creative workspaces and studios, but these pictures of Parisian love nests were especially gorgeous and happy-making, and include some home work spaces. The Stockholm series was great too, but a little more sleek and Scandinavian. I like the messy jumbles here.

Also, I like to see that some girls have as many shoes as I do:

Honestly, some of the most adorable couples ever.

I’ve been meaning to post about these books forever: Pattern Magic Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, which I purchased from the always wonderful Kinokuniya in San Francisco.

I’ve been working a lot on pattern making lately, and I can’t tell you how inspiring these books are. They’re laid out like many other Japanese mooks, with large clear shots of the finished garments and a section of detailed, heavily illustrated instructions. The designs are complex and sculputral and very very Japanese. Looking at the photos, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine how a piece of two dimensional fabric was used to create such three dimensional sculpture.

Then you come to the layouts and instructions, which you can study to understand the process. It really tests your spatial abilities, but more than that, it’s a great lesson in constructing 3D shapes from fabric.

Ok, it’s a bit intimidating at first, but the copious illustrations mean you really don’t need to understand Japanese to figure out what’s going on. It’s not for the novice, but if you want to dig into pattern construction, these books are an incredible resource. I really enjoyed studying the images, trying to figure out how it was done, then examining the diagrams. But maybe I’m just nerdy like that.

I am loving these images Julia Rothman posted over at Book By Its Cover, which is an amazing blog, if you haven’t read it.

I love illustration, but I’m particularly into fashion illustration right now. There’s something about the way it melds the ideas of creating identity, and telling a story visually that really sparks my interest.

Click over to Julia’s blog to read her review.

I once had this painting teacher that I really liked. I remember one bright day in October, walking down the street in NY with her on the way to class and she complimented me on my plaid skirt and said, “One autumn, I decided that I would wear nothing but plaid, for the whole season.” I always wanted to try that, like some bizarre modern female version of the Duke of Windsor.

I have long loved plaid. It simultaneously represents both a classic tradition and, thanks largely to Vivienne Westwood, the subversion of that tradition into a punk rock aesthetic. It also has a comforting, woodsy quality that feels perfect for staying indoors in cold months and drinking tea and knitting. These are all things I love.

This book, Tartan: Romancing the Plaid, published by the wonderful folks at Rizzoli, is a gorgeous volume that covers plaid in fashion, interior spaces, and even architecture. From Balmoral to Gaultier, it’s all here, with fascinating text on history, production, and meanings. The book itself is incredibly well produced, with a perfect balance of text and image, thick glossy paper, and even an attached plaid ribbon bookmark.

I really really want to make a red plaid coat like the Marc Jacobs version (minus the real fur, yuck).

If you love plaid, I highly highly recommend ordering a copy of Tartan over at Amazon.

I recently received a copy of a new book by Kathleen Taylor, I Heart Felt: Eye-Popping Designs For the Inspired Knitter.

Now, I am not the world’s most experience felter. In fact, I’ve had rather lousy luck with felting and I really don’t like all the uncertainty around it, especially if you’re working with something you spent a good deal of time knitting yourself. I’m much more inclined to felt a thrift store sweater, if anything.

But I did rather like some of the ideas in this book, particularly using colorwork and cables in felted designs, something I never would have considered doing before. I’ll admit that most of the projects in this book are not to my taste, but I think the instructions and ideas it contains could be carried over into different types of projects.

That cabled tote is pretty nice, and the cables look much crisper than I would imagine!

You can get a copy of I Heart Felt on Amazon.

I am not a follower of high fashion (or low fashion, for that matter). I look at the collections now and again and have a general idea of which designers appeal to me. Overall, I appreciate the beautiful things that come out of the fashion world, but that good is more than cancelled out by the damage that industry does to our psyches and spending habits.

At the same time, I have a deep fascination with the older couture houses: their history, the personalities of their designers, and how they reflected and transformed the context in which they arose. There is also something really compelling about the extreme attention to detail and dedication to a craft, the sheer amount of work that goes into these astounding garments. Not to mention the theater of it all, the pure focus on presentation and adornment and creating characters and narrative through clothing.

This is a long-winded way of saying that all of these aspects of couture are gloriously represented in this sizable book on Lanvin. Lanvin, the fashion house, was founded by Jeanne Lanvin in Paris in 1909 and enjoyed great success throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Lanvin designs were distinguished by exquisite embellishment and trims, which are well represented and beautifully photographed here. Currently, it is the oldest fashion house in operation.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more beautiful and balanced fashion book. I love the combination of design artifacts and clear photographs of garments. It’s hard to be cynical about fashion when you look at some of these objects and think about the creativity, the work, and the passion that went into them.

I have so many books I’ve acquired or discovered recently and want to share. I’m going to start with Vionnet by Betty Kirke, a fantastic book well worth the hefty cover price (mine came from the library, but I do plan to purchase it now).

If you don’t know of Madeleine Vionnet, she was a revolutionary French fashion designer who created complex forms that followed and accentuated the natural curves of a woman’s body, rather than trying to control it with corsets and crinolines. She is best known for her use of the bias cut, a cut that is near and dear to me.

I’d commit crimes for that dress with the deco deer buckle.

The fantastic thing about this book, and what makes it worth the price, is the inclusion of patterns for many of Vionnet’s original designs. I haven’t actually attempted to recreate any of the designs, but the instructions are somewhat lacking, I must say. Kathleen at Fashion Incubator has recently acquired the Japanese version of the Vionnet book, and recommends it as far superior in instruction and usability. If you can find it.

Or you can order the domestic version right here.