Suit

YOU ONLY GET SEVEN SECONDS TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION - ARE YOU MAKNG YOURS COUNT? A good suit is essential part of every wardrobe, yet so many men still don't know how to shop for, alter and style their suits. In The Suit Book, Clare Sheng decodes the process of buying and wearing a suit. Her advice is also a reminder that dressing well is an integral part of the road to success. Using real examples and illustrations, Clare outlines what to look for in a suit and reveals why even the most expensive garments will look cheap if they aren't fitted properly. These easy-to-follow tips will show you how to dress better and feel confident with the way you look. If you want to take your style to the next level, this book is a must-read. You will never again feel like an imposter in your suit or the menswear department.

From Mary Kay Andrews, the New York Times bestselling author of Hello, Summer, comes a novella celebrating the magic of Christmas and second chances in The Santa Suit. When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love—but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it. At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit—beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold? Ivy's quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

Businessman Bruce Templeton shares his stories about helping Santa Claus as they visit various places.

“The most incisive analytic study yet produced by a Chicano scholar . . . Mazón looks at the bloody incidents that erupted in Los Angeles during June, 1943.” —California History Los Angeles, the summer of 1943. For ten days in June, Anglo servicemen and civilians clashed in the streets of the city with young Mexican Americans whose fingertip coats and pegged, draped trousers announced their rebellion. At their height, the riots involved several thousand men and women, fighting with fists, rocks, sticks, and sometimes knives. In the end none were killed, few were seriously injured, and property damage was slight and yet, even today, the zoot-suit riots are remembered and hold emotional and symbolic significance for Mexican Americans and Anglos alike. The causes of the rioting were complex, as Mazón demonstrates in this illuminating analysis of their psychodynamics. Based in part on previously undisclosed FBI and military records, this engrossing study goes beyond sensational headlines and biased memories to provide an understanding of the zoot-suit riots in the context of both Mexican American and Anglo social history. “The latest scholarly work to probe the significance of the brawls that erupted in Los Angeles between uniformed servicemen and young Mexican-Americans in June, 1943 . . . Mazon’s contribution is a psychohistory of the riots in which he concludes that they were not as dangerous, or even riotous, as often portrayed.” —Los Angeles Times “In the nascent field of Chicano history psychohistorical studies are not abundant. Thus Mazón makes an immense contribution to the study of the Mexican American.” —American Historical Review

An inside look at the world of professional bodybuilding by the former Mr. Universe, Bob Paris. "An unexpectedly eloquent guide".--"Kirkus Reviews".

Be as in love with your jeans, sweatpants, or flannels as you want, it’s hard to refute the sumptuous feel of a finely tailored suit—as well as the statement of power that comes with it. For over a century the suit has dominated wardrobes, its simple form making it the go-to attire for boardrooms, churches, or cocktail bars—anywhere one wants to make an impression. But this ubiquity has allowed us to take the suit’s history for granted, and its complex construction, symbolic power, and many shifting meanings have been lost to all but the most devout sartorialists. In The Suit, Christopher Breward unstitches the story of our most familiar garment. He shows how its emergence at the end of the seventeenth century reflects important political rivalries and the rise of modern democratic society. He follows the development of technologies in the textile industry and shows how they converge on the suit as an ideal template of modern fashion, which he follows across the globe—to South and East Asia especially—where the suit became an icon of Western civilization. The quintessential emblem of conformity and the status quo, the suit ironically became, as Breward unveils, the perfect vehicle for artists, musicians, and social revolutionaries to symbolically undermine hegemonic culture, twisting and tearing the suit into political statements. Looking at the suit’s adoption by women, Breward goes on to discuss the ways it signals and engages gender. He closes by looking at the suit’s apparent decline—woe the tyranny of business casual!—and questioning its survival in the twenty-first century. Beautifully illustrated and written with the authority a Zegna or Armani itself commands, The Suit offers new perspectives on this familiar—yet special—garment.