An extraordinary biography of Isabella Blow, whose pedigree, wild style, and outrageous antics catapulted her onto the London social scene and made her a fashion icon.In 2007, the news of Isabella Blow's suicide at the age of 48 made headlines around the world―but there is more to the story of Isabella than her tragic end. The key supporter and muse of milliner Philip Treacy and designer Alexander McQueen, Blow was truly more than a muse or patron. She was a spark, an electrical impulse that set imaginations racing, an individual who pushed others to create their best work. Her fascination with clothing began early, as did a willingness to wear things―and say things―that would amuse and shock. She began her fashion career in New York City as assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue. Over time she became famous for her work, yet it wasn't enough to assuage her devastating feelings of inadequacy. Still, in her darkest moments, even as she began a series of suicide attempts and prolonged hospital stays, Blow retained her wicked sense of humor, making her friends laugh even as they struggled to help. Lauren Goldstein Crowe has crafted a superbly entertaining narrative; wrapping the ane... [Read More]

Inspired by the discovery of long-overlooked interviews conducted just before his death, this is the first biography of the visionary fashion designer Charles James. Christian Dior described him as the inspiration for the “New Look.” Salvador Dalí called his work “soft sculpture,” and Virginia Woolf exclaimed, “He is a genius.” As George Bernard Shaw tells us, only unreasonable men change the world. This portrait of the life and times of Charles James—winner of two Coty awards, and the subject of a 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art show—draws on the glamour of Europe in the 1930s, and the dazzle of New York City from the ’40s through the ’70s as it travels with James from his birth to privilege in England in 1906 and follows his career through his complex and turbulent relationships with exceptional women such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Eleanor Lambert, ending with his penurious death in New York’s fabled Chelsea Hotel. As engrossing as a novel, as dramatic as grand opera, James’s story will provoke, rivet, and inspire.

Geoffrey Holder, a Guggenheim Award-winning painter and the Tony Award- winning director and designer of the Broadway musical The Wiz, is also a well- respected choreographer and set and costume designer, for his own company as well as for the Dance Theater of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. As readers learn in this exuberant portrait, this transplanted Trinidadian is also a man with a compelling story to tell about his experiences as an artist and outsider who found success in America. Jennifer Dunning, a dance critic at the New York Times, provides an appreciation of this multitalented artist and his many contributions to the arts community, while the illustrations reveal his wide-ranging creativity and exciting social life in Paris, New York, and the Caribbean. 250 illustrations, 150 in full color, 224 pages, 101/4 x 121/2"