Pearls -- small white beads of purity and perfection. It is no wonder that they have fascinated and bewitched cultures the world over for thousands of years. But just what is it about this ancient gem that has so closely bonded it to our lives, our culture, and our bodies?
People and Pearls explores and reveals the power of pearls, with their remarkable ability to bestow upon their wearer a sense of mystery, elegance, and grace. It offers a personal look at the world's most celebrated jewel through portraits of the most memorable personages throughout civilization to have worn them -- from Queen Elizabeth to Uma Thurman, from Josephine Baker to Marilyn Monroe. It recounts the stories of particular strands of pearls that have such an enthralling history about them that they seem to take on a life of their own.
Embellishing the text are more than one hundred lavish illustrations, photography as unique as the subject of the book: These are seductive, beautiful works of ail. Some are humorous. Some are as snapshots from a personal diary. Some are breathtakingly romantic, such as the portrait of Kiki de Montparnasse wearing only her pearls. And some -- like the timeless elegance of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's -- are dreamlike visions that are simply unforgettable.
Masterfully written and beautifully designed, People and Pearls is not only a cultural, historical, and personal look at the magic of pearls-it is the definitive photographic book on the subject.

People And Pearls: The Magic Endures

Arts & Photography

Edkins, Diana

Hackney, Ki

Graphic Design

Harper

This volume presents an appreciation of blue jeans, an iconic piece of clothing, from the early days when miners wore them for protection and durability to movie stars and musicians sporting the latest incarnation. Jeans are a canvas which reflect anything the wearer chooses to project on them. They are worn proudly by presidents and punks, cowboys and congressmen, actors and athletes, hippies and hard rockers. This collection of documentary, fashion and art photographs includes seminal images of 20th-century life, including John Wayne riding high on his horse, Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway in Sun Valley, Marilyn Monroe on the set of "The Misfits", Martin Luther King Jr and Ralph Abernathy walking towards their arrest in 1963, Jackie Kennedy playing with her dog, Steve McQueen on his motorcycle, hippie chicks in hip-huggers, Farrah Fawcett riding a skateboard, Madonna sucking an ice-lolly, Brad Pitt lounging on a beach, Prince William strolling about, and many others. Illustrating the history of a garment which has transcended class, race and gender boundaries, "The Blue Jean" details the history of jeans and our love affair with them.

The Blue Jean

Harris, Alice

Decorative Arts & Design

Gardners Books

Reveals the inner qualities of 14 remarkable women who define style in ways that have lasted for generations. Witty and fascinating excursions into the worlds of Coco Chanel, Pauline de Rothschild, Diana Vreeland, Elsie de Wolfe, and others are captured in lavish photographs and entertaining anecdotes. We discover not only the preeminent influence that these women held over fashion and culture, but also the wry, often poignant tales of their personal lives. Full-color photographs.

The Power of Style

Tapert, Annette

Fashion

Watson/Guptill

Chongqing. City of Ambition

Kouwenhoven, Bill

Photography & Video

Benteli Verlag

The Chinese city of Chongquing is little known in the West. Yet with its 32 million inhabitants, the city is twice as big as the Netherlands Located on the Yangtze river in southwestern China, it is one of China's most rapidly growing cities. Ferit Kuyas stayed in Chongqing on dozens of occasions for long periods and became totally fascinated by the megalomaniacal construction fervor he witnessed there, as well as its beauty. The almost ubiquitous haze -- naturally present in this region but intensified by large-scale pollution -- gave his work almost automatically an added layer of mystery. Kuyas focussed predominantly on the periphery of the city, where the enormity of it cannot be directly seen, but rather felt. The result is a stifling and exceptional book that displays all the superlatives that describe China: huge unstoppable, terrifying, incomprehensible, fascinating, beautiful....

Chongqing: City of Ambition

Schilt Pub

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Books by Edkins, Diana