Strapless

The subject of John Singer Sargent's most famous painting was twenty-three-year-old New Orleans Creole Virginie Gautreau, who moved to Paris and quickly became the "it girl" of her day. A relative unknown at the time, Sargent won the commission to paint her; the two must have recognized in each other a like-minded hunger for fame. Unveiled at the 1884 Paris Salon, Gautreau's portrait generated the attention she craved-but it led to infamy rather than stardom. Sargent had painted one strap of Gautreau's dress dangling from her shoulder, suggesting either the prelude to or the aftermath of sex. Her reputation irreparably damaged, Gautreau retired from public life, destroying all the mirrors in her home. Drawing on documents from private collections and other previously unexamined materials, and featuring a cast of characters including Oscar Wilde and Richard Wagner, Strapless is a tale of art and celebrity, obsession and betrayal.

With only 207 more shopping days until thirty, Darcie Elizabeth Baxter is searching for…an office with a door on it, a great apartment in Manhattan and a man who’s interested in commitment. Instead, she’s been spending her days battling her co-workers at Wunderthings Lingerie International and her nights trying to avoid her grandmother’s possessed cat. And though she gets a great employee discount, she hasn’t needed it since…well, it’s been a while. Even her grandmother has a more active social life. So when a chance to go to Sydney to open up a new lingerie store lands in Darcie’s lap, she jumps at it. Australia is incredible, and so is Dylan Rafferty, the Aussie sheep rancher she falls into bed with. But now that she’s met a man capable of giving her multiple orgasms and multiple laughs, Darcie bristles at his fantasy of her barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, no less. Should she marry him, or send him back to the set of The Donna Reed Show? Caught between romance and reality, Darcie vows to define life, and happiness, her own way—even if that means risking it all and going strapless!

Ambiguous, sensual, coquette, and suggestive: the one thousand fashion drawing poses in this book are a deep journey into the wealth of possibilities for illustrating male and female bodies, and designers’ capacity to transmit sensations with an ever so slight flick of the wrist. 1,000 Poses in Fashion compiles all the usual fashion poses and illustrated features, represented in full color, supplemented by the many variations of each pose, in black and white. The poses show the effects of the way in which the clothes sit on the models, guiding the reader in aspects such as how to give proportion or volume to a garment. 1,000 Poses in Fashion is an essential reference for photographers, fashion designers, illustrators, models, and art directors who are interested in corporal expression in relation to fashion.

That Strapless Bra holds up Sarah Sarai as a keen observer of the world. With wit and sardonic reflections, Sarai brings poems that fuel a long ride. Julie R. Enszer, author of Avowed, Lilith's Demons, Sisterhood, and editor of Sinister Wisdom If it is to be of any value / a story will be misunderstood" - that's Sarah Sarai in That Strapless Bra in Heaven. A visionary who can't quite keep a straight face, a prophet quicker to laughter than judgment, Sarai is a virtuoso of the one-liner - "too much is as it seems" - but she works with a vast cultural canvas, and sorrow and a thirst for the real underlie, the scintillating eloquence. Dante's journey is a dream, Stalin's famine never ends, Dido weeps in the city she built, humans wander through a world of staggering beauty never quite knowing how to love each other: "What do monkeys worry about? / Our imaginations grown dim?" The Strapless Bra in Heaven is a roller coaster, but it's grounded in what we once called wisdom. Sarai's new book is a thrilling read. D. Nurkse, author of Love in the Last Days: After Tristan and Iseu "light... in the unnavigable dead end" / these poems are as truthful as Sarah herself & a bit surreal / they are both weighty & cunning // unmask gender / benders / dilemmas & tyrants / nasty politics & social disgrace in all areas & eras often merging them while encompassing & compressing the personal & objective past & future with the present. "You dreamed you were a prophet... You awoke an anarchist... ready to kill" / Sarah sorts out socio-political angst / trickery & self-righteous humanism / while tackling that "mountain pass from child / hood to the freeing squalor..." "Reader, if you were seam... I'd take you out anywhere..." / "you are the first line of this poem... this poem exists for you..." / "you're not dead you're middle aged..." / "I say good riddance... though I'll miss myself..." these poems reveal, as Sarah puts it, "the artist's confidence to create celestial buoyancy..." / wake up, sleeper. at times biblical / never preachy. read them & weep / laugh / ponder. i wish you more than luck, Sarah. i wish you much success. Steve Dalachinsky is author of where night and day become one: the french poems, 1983 - 2017. He received a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014.

With her "choose-your-own-adventure" approach to sewing, Tanya Whelan offers an invaluable collection of patterns that empowers sewers to become designers. The trick is a set of patterns for 6 skirts and 8 bodices that line up perfectly at the waist, plus an additional 4 sleeve styles and 4 necklines. Tanya gives readers clear instructions and easy-to-follow step-by-step diagrams that allow them to use the enclosed pattern pieces to create up to 219 fitted dresses, including simple strapless designs, sheaths, and halter gowns. The book covers basic dress construction and altering techniques for women of all shapes and sizes.