History & Criticism

From the costly velvets and furs worn by kings to the undyed wools and rough linens of the peasantry, the clothing worn by the various classes in the Middle Ages played an integral role in medieval society. In addition to providing clues to status,...

From rumps and stays to muffs and handkerchiefs, underwear and accessories were critical components of the 18th-century woman's wardrobe. They not only created her shape, but expressed her character, sociability, fashionability, and even political...

Exquisite graphic design artifacts comprise this unusual collection culled from the pages of type and typography books dating from 1896 to 1936. Design professionals, students and teachers of graphic design, and anyone with an interest in vintage design...

Shirts, Shifts and Sheets of Fine Linen explores how the jobs of the 'seamstress' evolved in scope, and status, between 1600-1900. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, seamstressing was a trade for women who worked in linen and cotton, making men's...

Art Nouveau presents a new overview of the international Art Nouveau movement. Art Nouveau represented the search for a new style for a new age, a sense that the conditions of modernity called for fundamentally new means of expression. Art Nouveau...

A captivating look at the career of social and style revolutionary Vidal Sassoon. A visionary hairstylist who became a household name, Vidal Sassoon was an instrument of change during the cultural shifts of the 1960s. Inspired by Bauhaus architecture,...

A history of how Danish design rose to prominence in the postwar United States, becoming shorthand for stylish modern comfort. Today, Danish Modern design is synonymous with clean, midcentury cool. During the 1950s and '60s, it flourished as the...

Gardens of Court and Country provides the first comprehensive overview of the development of the English formal garden from 1630 to 1730. Often overshadowed by the English landscape garden that became fashionable later in the 18th century, English formal...

Glenn Adamson's last book, Thinking Through Craft, offered an influential account of craft's position within modern and contemporary art. Now, in his engaging sequel, The Invention of Craft, his theoretical discussion of skilled work is extended back in...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262526708Author Harold G. NelsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 296Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 14mm

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsWinner of Winner, 2011 Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award, given by the American Astronautical Society. 2011.Book InformationISBN 9780262015202Author Nicholas de...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9789493246041Author Louise SchouwenbergFormat PaperbackPage Count 336Imprint ValizPublisher ValizWeight(grams) 726gDimensions(mm) 239mm * 168mm * 23mm

Published annually from 1906 until 1980, Decorative Art, The Studio Yearbook was dedicated to the latest currents in architecture, interiors, furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles, metalware, and ceramics. Since the publications went out of print, the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsWinner of Winner of the Most Outstanding Design category from the 2016 Outstanding Books of the Year awards, sponsored by Independent Publisher. 2016.Book InformationISBN...

The Great Exhibition, 1851 is the first anthology of its kind. It presents a comprehensive array of carefully selected primary documents, sourced from the period before, during and after the Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. Drawing on contemporary...

This book tells two stories about the full-length mirror. One story, through time and space, crisscrosses the globe to introduce a broad range of historical actors: kings and slaves, artists and writers, merchants and craftsmen, courtesans and commoners...

Miss Kate Cranston opened four Glasgow Tea Rooms at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th, including the famous Willow Tea Rooms. Ahead of her time, Miss Cranston ensured that her Rea Rooms were designed and furnished by talented young...

Perhaps one of the most influential luxury shoe designers of our time, Christian Louboutin s signature high stilettos and lacquer-red soles have become true cultural staples and fashion must-haves. In this new volume the inimitable designer reveals...

The lives and work of diverse unsung heroes of design gathered in smart new book. Familiar histories of graphic design have placed women in the margins, their work unworthy of discussion and preservation. The good news is that with a little digging, we...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781786275318Author Charlotte FiellFormat HardbackPage Count 256Imprint Laurence King PublishingPublisher Laurence King Publishing

An original account of the life and work of legendary designer Jan Tschichold and his role in the movement in Weimar Germany to create modern graphic design Richly illustrated with images from Jan Tschichold's little-known private collection of design...

The story of the modern bathroom is both one of grand feats of engineering and mass production, and of the unremarkable, mundane and repressed. The most private place in the home, the bathroom is where we perform the most intimate of our daily routines;...

Men's Tailoring: Bespoke, Theatrical and Historical Tailoring 1830-1950 introduces the reader to English tailoring and covers the drafting of patterns, cutting out in cloth, and the complete traditional construction techniques in sequence for the...

Just as the clothes we wear can communicate our personality and how we want to be perceived, so fashion can reflect the politics and preoccupations of the society that produced it. A Cultural History of Western Fashion guides you through the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781845832032Author Colin 21.59 x 1.57 x 27.94 LarkinFormat PaperbackPage Count 264Imprint Telos Publishing LtdPublisher Telos Publishing Ltd

At its presentation in 1955, the Citroen DS was a sensation and a magnet for designers, philosophers, and politicians alike. No other automobile was able to combine form and technology so coherently and seemingly effortlessly. Radical in its...

Walt Disney dreamed for decades about opening the ultimate entertainment venue, but it wasn't until the early 1950s that his handpicked team began to bring his vision to life. Together, artists, architects, and engineers transformed a dusty tract of...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781856696944Author David RaizmanFormat PaperbackPage Count 432Imprint Laurence King PublishingPublisher Laurence King PublishingWeight(grams) 10g

The name Valentino has been synonymous with high fashion for almost fifty years. Based in Rome, Valentino is only one of two couture houses recognized by the French government outside of Paris. His exquisite designs are coveted and worn by young...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262522939Author John BellFormat PaperbackPage Count 204Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdWeight(grams) 422gDimensions(mm) 254mm * 178mm * 11mm

Balancing Social, Professional, and Artistic Views What does it mean to be a designer in today's corporate-driven, overbranded global consumer culture? Citizen Designer, Second Edition, attempts to answer this question with more than seventy...

Surfaces are often held to be of lesser consequence than 'deeper' or more 'substantive' aspects of artworks and objects. Yet it is also possible to conceive of the surface in more positive terms: as a site where complex forces meet. Surfaces can be...

The Graphic Design Reader brings together key readings in this ever-changing field to provide an essential resource for students, researchers and practitioners. Taking as its starting point an exploration of the way in which theory and practice and...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9783899556759Author Caroline WeaverFormat HardbackPage Count 144Imprint gestaltenPublisher Die Gestalten Verlag

Book Two in the V&A's groundbreaking new series presents 17 patterns for garments and accessories from a seventeenth-century woman's wardrobe. It includes patterns for a loose gown, a jacket, a pair of stays and a boned bodice, ivory and wooden busks,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781916041684Author Sara CooperFormat HardbackImprint Eiderdown BooksPublisher Eiderdown Books

A sumptuously illustrated survey of the remarkable flowering of radical, visionary and experimental design for performance in Russia in the twenty years between 1913 and 1933. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russian theatre produced an...

The broader Regency period 1795 to 1820, stands alone as an incredible moment in fashion history, unlike anything that went before it. For the first time, England became a fashion influence, especially for menswear, and became the toast of Paris, as...

Foreword by Christian Louboutin Vintage Shoes recounts a century of shoe history, from Andre Perugia's designs for society women in the 1920s to Christian Louboutin's red soles. Accompanied by archive images, stunning fashion photography and specially...

Jewish designers and architects played a key role in shaping the interwar architecture of Central Europe, and in the respective countries where they settled following the Nazi's rise to power. This book explores how Jewish architects and patrons...