Fairie-ality: The Fashion Collection from the House of Ellwand - Hardcover

Bird, Eugenie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763614130 ISBN 13: 9780763614133

Publisher: Candlewick Studio, 2002

Synopsis

Do you believe in fairies? How about high fashion? Enter the exquisite world of fairie fashion – where feathered hats are designed for maximum lift, oak-leaf jackets boast ample wing vents, and flower-petal flats are easily removable for flight.

In the fairie world, there is only one top designer of couture and accessories. . . .

Prepare to be enchanted! While humans go about their workaday lives, there is a secret world of well-dressed fairies flitting about in fragile fashions that would take your breath away – if only you could see them. Well, now you can. For the first time ever, elusive fairie couturier Ellwand allows mortals a peek at his ethereal designs in Fairie-ality, a catalogue so spectacularly crafted it befits a fairie queen herself. Showcased are nearly 150 creations – including dresses, jackets, trousers, shoes, hats, and delicate unmentionables – fashioned wholly from feathers, flower petals, shells, seeds, and other materials from nature. Consider these special features:

Extraordinary production elements, including three specially selected paper stocks; metallic inks; fold-out booklets; vellum envelope with removable fashion card; and numerous half-, third-, and quarter-pages, notably to showcase garments for a playful mix & match, offering dozens of outfits to create.

Drawings by celebrated fashion illustrator David Downton, capturing the graceful, but rarely glimpsed, fairie attired in Ellwand’s designs.

Witty and delightfully romantic captions by Eugenie Bird.

A breathless narrative by a young fairie guiding us from The Season’s start through May Day revelry and a Fairie Tale Wedding.

Filled with authentic fairie lore that will lure fairie lovers by the legion, this superbly designed volume also offers many clever nods to human fashion history. Its fun, fanciful costume descriptions will amuse the fashion-savvy everywhere, while the stunning array of fashions themselves – a veritable dress-up dream –will leave readers of all ages spellbound.

About this title

About the Author

Eugenie Bird is a writer who leads a busy life covering the newest developments in the world of fairie Haute Couture while flying between homes in the Middle West and New England. Her farm is a well-known gathering place of Fashionistas searching for tranquility away from the hurly-burly of New York, London, and European fashion centers.

Ellwand, the premier contemporary designer of urban and field wear for the Other People, keeps his atelier in the ancient bluebell groves of West Sussex, England. Outside, a tiny unmarked door offers no sign to passersby, allowing the designer his privacy. Inside, masses of wildflowers, dried grasses, feathers and seedpods, pine cones, and polished pretties surround him as he works late into the night, turning his visions into one-of-a-kind realities. The otherworldly garments in Fairie-Ality were all designed, handcrafted, and photographed for reproduction by the couturier himself. This is the first time that Ellwand has agreed to share his newest line with a human audience. Ellwand lives with his wife and daughter, just two miles from the site said to be the High Seat of the fairies.

David Downton’s renowned and widely published portraits of fashions and super-models, winged and unwinged, have earned him fame in both style circles. In the human milieu, he is considered one of Europe’s leading fashion artists, known for interpreting the designs of Dior, Chanel, Valentino, and Lacroix at the haute couture shows in Paris. His illustrations have appeared in such top fashion magazines as Vogue, Elle, and Marie Claire.

Reviews

Fairies hover in a handful of enchanting offerings this fall. If Weetzie Bat were one, she might don the diminutive designs featured in Fairie-ality: The Fashion Collection from the House of Ellwand with "couture and photography" by Ellwand, captions by Eugenie Bird and illus. by David Downton. It's the materials that make the clothes so special. Organic offerings include Seashell Sandals, Harlequin Bell Bottoms made from red and yellow gerbera petals cinched with a daisy belt and, of course, the wedding dress, its gauzy train a delicate construction of goose feathers and calla lily, with a snail shell waistline and fluffy rabbit's foot clover rimming the bodice. The oversize edition is designed as an haute couture catalog; with saucy copy ("This elegant and sophisticated gown... blends drama and whimsy a perfect expression of the woman you are" reads the copy for the Mother-of-the-Bride Gown) and retro-Vogue illustrations it's spot-on and out of this world. Budding designers can test their fashion sense with a spread that overlays several 1/3 pages, allowing perusers to mix and match the ingenious outfits.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Candlewick Studio
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0763614130
• ISBN 13: 9780763614133
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Downton David
• Number of pages: 130