The Melling sisters and their mother are preparing for a wedding. Cathy is to be bridesmaid and her dress is a thing of awe and beauty, but not in Cathy’s eyes—she hates the idea of being a bridesmaid. Vivienne would love to wear it, and perhaps she will. Dresses of Red and Gold, the second book in the Melling Sisters Trilogy, is a warm and humorous story of four sisters—their rivalries and their loyalty and affection—growing up in an Australian country town in the 1940s The beautiful dress settled luxuriously about her ankles as smoothly as water, the little gold cap sat on the back of her head like an opened flower. She climbed a chair to look, entranced, into the sideboard mirror. The dress fitted perfectly, apart from being slightly too long because Cathy was taller, and she curtsied to her reflection. Robin Klein was born 28 February 1936 in Kempsey, New South Wales into a family of nine children. Leaving school at age 15, Klein worked several jobs before becoming established as a writer, having her first story published at age 16. She would go on to write more than 40 books, including Hating Alison Ashley (adapted into a feature film starring Delta Goodrem in 2005), Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left (adapted into a television series for the Seven Network in 1992), and Came Back to Show You I Could Fly (adapted into a film directed by Richard Lowenstein in 1993). Klein’s books are hugely celebrated, having won the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award in both the Younger Readers and the Older Readers categories, as well as a Human Rights Award for Literature in 1989 for Came Back to Show You I Could Fly. Klein is widely considered one of Australia’s most prolific and beloved YA authors. ‘Touching, poignant, fresh and engaging’ Bulletin, USA ‘All in the Blue Unclouded Weather, Dresses of Red and Gold and The Sky in Silver Lace are such wonderful, honest, Australian stories, still relevant to readers today. The sisters are a delight to read about, their adventures are entertaining and touching.’ Bookish Manicurist ‘When I was young, I read it for its sweetness and the way it portrayed growing up. As an adult, I appreciate the way Klein subtly deals with gender, privilege and what it means to belong to a small community.’ Eliza Henry-Jones ‘The schemes and shenanigans of these vibrant, tenacious characters are as lively and funny as ever, their more poignant feelings as skillfully suggested. A fine sequel.’ Kirkus Reviews

A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue meets Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery in this rollicking romp of truth, lies, and troubled pasts. New Year's Eve, 1929. Millie is running the show at the Cloak & Dagger, a swinging speakeasy in the French Quarter, while her aunt is out of town. The new year is just around the corner, and all of New Orleans is out to celebrate, but even wealthy partiers' diamond earrings can't outshine the real star of the night: the boy in the red dress. Marion is the club's star performer and his fans are legion--if mostly underground. When a young socialite wielding a photograph of Marion starts asking questions, Millie wonders if she's just another fan. But then her body is found crumpled in the courtyard, dead from an apparent fall off the club's balcony, and all signs point to Marion as the murderer. Millie knows he's innocent, but local detectives aren't so easily convinced. As she chases clues that lead to cemeteries and dead ends, Millie's attention is divided between the wry and beautiful Olive, a waitress at the Cloak & Dagger, and Bennie, the charming bootlegger who's offered to help her solve the case. The clock is ticking for the fugitive Marion, but the truth of who the killer is might be closer than Millie thinks.

Hundreds of glorious party costumes in this 1896 guide range from Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth to Swiss and Polish peasants. Alphabetical entries are enhanced by 20 color and 40 black-and-white illustrations.

This vintage book contains an exhaustive dictionary of fashion terms, with instructions for pronunciation, brief explanations, and lists of synonyms. Timeless and comprehensive, “The Language Of Fashion Dictionary And Digest Of Fabric, Sewing And Dress” will be of utility to those involved in the fashion industry, and is not to be missed by the discerning collector. Contents include: “Belts”, “Bindings”, “Blouses”, “Bobs”, “Bodices”, “Bonnets”, “Boots”, “Bows”, “Bracelets”, “Braids”, “Buckles”, “Bustles”, “Buttons”, “Buttonholes”, “Canvas”, “Caps”, “Capes”, “Checks”, “Coats”, “Collars”, “Color”, “Combs”, “Cottons”, “Crepes”, “Cuffs”, “Dots”, “Dress and Dresses”, “Dyeing”, “Embroideries”, “Eyelets”, “Fabric”, “Fancy Dress”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on the history of textiles and weaving. This book was first published in 1939.

We live in a material world—our homes are filled with things, from electronics to curios and hand-me-downs, that disclose as much about us and our aspirations as they do about current trends. But we are not the first: the early modern period was a time of expanding consumption, when objects began to play an important role in defining gender as well as social status. Gusto for Things reconstructs the material lives of seventeenth-century Romans, exploring new ways of thinking about the meaning of things as a historical phenomenon. Through creative use of account books, inventories, wills, and other records, Renata Ago examines early modern attitudes toward possessions, asking what people did with their things, why they wrote about them, and how they passed objects on to their heirs. While some inhabitants of Rome were connoisseurs of the paintings, books, and curiosities that made the city famous, Ago shows that men and women of lesser means also filled their homes with a more modest array of goods. She also discovers the genealogies of certain categories of things—for instance, books went from being classed as luxury goods to a category all their own—and considers what that reveals about the early modern era. An animated investigation into the relationship between people and the things they buy, Gusto for Things paints an illuminating portrait of the meaning of objects in preindustrial Europe.