Recommendations based on "Perfume The Alchemy of Scent"

Longlisted for the National Book Award · A New York Times Notable Book of the Year · Winner of the New York City Book Award · Shortlisted for the Apollo Book of the Year Award · Shortlisted for the Plutarch Award for Best Biography · Finalist for the Gotham Book Prize · Finalist for the Pattis Family Foundation Creative Arts Book Award at Interlochen The never-before-told story of an obscure little street at the lower tip of Manhattan and the remarkable artists who got their start there. For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, James Rosenquist, Delphine Seyrig, Lenore Tawney, and Jack Youngerman. As friends and inspirations to one another, they created a unique community for unbridled creative expression and experimentation, and the works they made at the Slip would go on to change the course of American art. Now, for the first time, Prudence Peiffer pays homage to these artists and the unsung impact their work had on the direction of late twentieth-century art and film. This remarkable biography, as transformative as the artists it illuminates, questions the very concept of a “group” or “movement,” as it spotlights the Slip’s eclectic mix of gender and sexual orientation, abstraction and Pop, experimental film, painting, and sculpture, assemblage and textile works. Brought together not by the tenets of composition or technique, nor by philosophy or politics, the artists cultivated a scene at the Slip defined by a singular spirit of community and place. They drew lasting inspiration from one another, but perhaps even more from where they called home, and the need to preserve the solitude its geography fostered. Despite Coenties Slip’s obscurity, the entire history of Manhattan was inscribed into its cobblestones—one of the first streets and central markets of the new colony, built by enslaved people, with revolutionary meetings at the tavern just down Pearl Street; named by Herman Melville in Moby Dick and site of the boom and bust of the city’s maritime industry; and, in the artists’s own time, a development battleground for Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. The Slip’s history is entwined with that of the artists and their art—eclectic and varied work that was made from the wreckage of the city’s many former lives. An ambitious and singular account of a time, a place, and a group of extraordinary people, The Slip investigates the importance of community, and makes an argument for how we are shaped by it, and how it in turns shapes our work. 

SUNDAY TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEARROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEARMOJO BOOK OF THE YEARIn 1975, Viv Albertine was obsessed with music but it never occurred to her she could be in a band as she couldn't play an instrument and she'd never seen a girl play electric guitar.A year later, she was the guitarist in the hugely influential all-girl band the Slits, who fearlessly took on the male-dominated music scene and became part of a movement that changed music.A raw, thrilling story of life on the frontiers and a candid account of Viv's life post-punk - taking in a career in film, the pain of IVF, illness and divorce and the triumph of making music again - Clothes Music Boys is a remarkable memoir.

A cultural storm swept through the 1960s - Pop Art, Bob Dylan, psychedelia, underground movies - and at its centre sat a bemused young artist with silver hair: Andy Warhol. Andy knew everybody (from the cultural commissioner of New York to drug-driven drag queens) and everybody knew Andy. His studio, the Factory, was the place: where he created the large canvases of soup cans and Pop icons that defined Pop Art, where one could listen to the Velvet Underground and rub elbows with Edie Sedgwick and where Warhol himself could observe the comings and goings of the avant-guarde.

With opulent fashions the ultimate in style, women of the late Victorian era wore a great deal of silks and satins. Daring combinations of bright colors were in. So were large hats, profusely trimmed. But by the end of the nineteenth century, ladies' tastes in fashion were changing, along with female lifestyles. Larger numbers of women were not only working outside the home, they were also playing tennis and golf, and riding bicycles and horses. All these activities called for a definite change in female fashions. Women came to rely on tailored suits with full skirts and fitted jackets over simple blouses. Riding habits called for a long, draped skirt worn over a pair of trousers.With the dawn of the twentieth century, professional tailors turned to the comprehensive 1895 "Keystone" guide to create office outfits, riding pants, shirtwaists, and other garments. Filled with more than eighty patterns, the handy resource provided tailors with suggestions for fabric choices as well as instructions for the proper measurement, fitting, cutting, and sewing of such items as a bolero jacket, a shirtwaist with yoke, a single-breasted vest, and riding breeches.Supplemented with a selection of newly captioned illustrations from The Delineator magazine, this volume will be a valuable reference for costume designers and fashion historians, and a fascinating window on the past for nostalgia enthusiasts.

The Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies is a series of volumes that offers a comprehensive overview and brings a fresh perspective to the influential figures, forms, and styles in the development of motion pictures. Each lavishly illustrated volume has been designed to stimulate the interest of the student for whom film is an art, and to stir the memories of the fan for whom "going to the movies" will always be an exhilarating experience. -- Whether dancing merrily down a rain-soaked street, courting Judy Garland or Leslie Caron with a blithe song and infectious grin, or just leaping nimbly into space, Gene Kelly epitomizes joy inconfined for every movie-goer. Jeanine Basinger's profusely illustrated book covers the career of this irresistible song-and-dance man and brings back the treasured moments he has given us for thirty years.

"[A]n extraordinary collection of 1,146 images that document the house's output over the past 70 years and through seven creative directors."--Vogue In spring 1947, Christian Dior presented the first collection of his newly founded eponymous fashion house. Soon dubbed the "New Look," it grabbed headlines all over the world and turned Dior into one of the most influential brands of all time. After the couturier's untimely death in 1957, Yves Saint Laurent took the helm of the fashion house before being succeeded by Marc Bohan, who was in turn replaced by Gianfranco Ferré in 1989. In 1996, John Galliano was appointed creative director, designing flamboyant collections for a decade, before the arrival of Raf Simon in 2012, who gave the house a newly imagined identity for the 21st century. Maria Grazia Chiuri's arrival in 2017 as the first woman designer in Dior's history also marks the seventieth anniversary of the "New Look." For the first time, every Dior haute couture collection is gathered here in a single, lavishly illustrated volume--providing a unique opportunity to chart the development of one of the world's most famous fashion brands and to discover rarely seen collections. Dior: The Complete Collections opens with a concise history of the house of Dior before exploring the collections themselves, which are organized chronologically. Each new "era" in Dior's history is inaugurated by a brief overview and biography of the new designer, while individual collections are introduced by a short text unveiling their influences and highlights and illustrated with carefully curated catwalk images. A rich reference section, including an extensive index, concludes this definitive publication.

The first comprehensive presentation of Versace's womenswear collections from its 1978 debut to today, seen through stunning catwalk photography "Dive into this Versace-celebrating book, which amasses more than 40 years of fashion shows and 1,200 catwalk images."--Wallpaper Founded in 1978, Gianni Versace's family-operated fashion house quickly grew into a symbol of high glamour and luxury known the world over. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Versace's styles were worn by iconic celebrities such as Madonna and Princess Diana. After Gianni Versace's tragic death in 1997, his sister Donatella became artistic director of the brand, steering it into the twenty-first century and cementing its legendary status for a new generation of fans. This magnificent celebration of more than forty years of Versace's trendsetting creations is organized chronologically and includes both haute-couture and ready-to-wear collections. Each collection is introduced by a short text revealing its influences and is illustrated with catwalk photographs that feature clothes, details, accessories, and beauty looks showcased by models including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Gigi Hadid, and Kaia Gerber. With an extensive reference section, a concise history of the house, and biographical profiles of Gianni Versace and Donatella Versace, this volume provides an unrivaled view of one of the world's most illustrious fashion houses.

'A photographic encyclopaedia of one of the 20th century's greatest creators' The Business of Fashion Founded by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé in 1961, shortly after the young couturier left his post at the helm of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent would soon become one of the most successful and influential haute couture houses in Paris. Introducing Le Smoking, the first tuxedo suit for women, in 1966, Saint Laurent also presented iconic art-inspired creations, from Mondrian dresses to precious Van Gogh embroidery and the famous Ballets Russes collection. This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house, followed by a brief biographical profile of Yves Saint Laurent, before exploring the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with a gallery of carefully curated catwalk images. These showcase hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs - and, of course, the top fashion models who wore them on the runway. A rich reference section concludes the book.

Fancy Words Are Simply Fascinating! From everyone's favorite fancy girl comes an alphabetical guide to enhancing vocabulary. Why say beautiful when there are fancy words like gorgeous and glamorous? Instead of hello, try bonjour, which is French and so much fancier. An umbrella will keep you dry, but a parasol will make you feel like a Hollywood movie star! With this helpful A-to-Z guide, Fancy Nancy shows that making plain words into fancy ones is not only educational, it's fun!

This gorgeously illustrated volume not only offers a tour through the fascinating history of silk but also a glimpse into the future, when imaginative designers and textile producers will be changing the boundaries of what is possible with this extraordinary material. Textile expert Mary Schoeser presents an authoritative account of the development of silk, its properties and practical uses, and its role in some of the greatest achievements in the history of fashion design. Silk is magical. Made by worms, it is able to absorb up to thirty times its weight in water, it is warmer than wool, and it is unsurpassed for beauty and touch. Schoeser focuses keen attention on silk’s evolution as a symbol of status and substance, then traces its central function in 19th- and 20th-century glamour, expressed through the work of designers from Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga to Emmanuel Ungaro. Schoeser also examines the innovative use of silk by today’s cutting-edge designers, among them Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, and John Galliano of Dior. She concludes with a detailed investigation of new silk technologies and how they continue to extend both the physical properties of silk and the possibilities for creative design.