Isabel Toledo

* Inscribed and SIGNED by Isabel and Ruben Toledo on title page, with doodle of model. * Book cover shows moderate wear at end caps, one bumped corner - pages clean, bright and unmarked – spine like new. * Jacket shows modest edge/ shelf wear, one small taped tear. * Proceeds benefit Friends of the Pleasant Hill Library. * "Honest and reliable service - every book hand-packaged with care." One of the most exciting fashion designers in the United States, Cuban-born Isabel Toledo has been honored with a National Design Award from the Cooper- Hewitt Museum and a Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion, given by The Museum at FIT. Yet her name and work are recognized only by fashion insiders. This ravishing book brings Toledos creations to a wider audience, places them within the context of contemporary fashion, and examines her creative process. Interviewing Toledo, her husband (fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo), and other colleagues, clients, and critics, Valerie Steele gives an account of Toledos career and explains that while she has been heralded by leading fashion magazines and featured in stores in New York and Europe, she has not had the long-term financial backing to break out of the niche market. Patricia Mears investigates the artistic and cultural influences on Toledos work and analyzes her unusual methods of construction, noting that she designs in three dimensions in her mind and then begins working directly with fabric. Displaying garments Toledo has created since her first show in 1985, this book is a revelatory exploration of a fashion innovator in a mass-market industry.