   | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 06/01/2016 Gr 5–8—This collection highlights 18 women who deployed style in pursuit of their personal, professional, or political goals, from Cleopatra to social media star Michelle Phan. Each profile includes basic biographical data; information about the subject's personality, challenges, and major triumphs; and a picture summary of her iconic style. Six of the profiles feature step-by-step activities, such as a half-Windsor knot tutorial for Ellen DeGeneres and a flower crown craft for Frida Kahlo. Interspersed between biographies are brief sections on fashion topics such as First Ladies' style and a history of women (mostly Western) in pants. The chatty tone and long limbed ink-and-watercolor illustrations are designed to mirror fashion sketches and teen magazines. There are a few missteps, as when Anna May Wong's style is said to include "exotic eyes" and when Beccia says that through fashion Wong combined "exotic orientalism with Hollywood glamour." And the text is inconsistent when unpacking the racism that some of these pioneers faced. There is a discussion of the Hollywood production codes that limited roles for Asian actresses (but allowed for the use of yellow face by white actresses), and the refusal of service Josephine Baker received when she toured the United States, but the text does not point out that critics calling Michelle Obama's personality and style "too aggressive" is a particularly racially coded insult when aimed at black women. The book concludes with a "New Fashionista Hall of Fame"—mini biographies on seven additional contemporary women, such as Brittney Griner and Bethany Mota—as well as extensive notes and a dictionary of fashion terms. VERDICT An adequate and up-to-the-minute resource for libraries serving tween fashion fans.—Sarah Stone, San Francisco Public Library - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2016 It’s never too soon to indulge fascination with fashion, and the zeitgeist has arranged for a pair of books, spanning interest from middle grades into high school, to appear concurrently. With a common theme of edgy norm-defiers, it’s no surprise that there is considerable overlap between these two titles, with the likes of Cleopatra, Josephine Baker, Coco Chanel, Madonna, Tavi Gevinson, and Lady Gaga appearing on both bills. From there, however, approaches digress, with Beccia’s spin for the younger set featuring a bit more biography, a tad less controversy, and the playful addition of tips for achieving several signature looks, from Josephine Baker’s face-hugging pin curls to Ellen DeGeneres’ loose half-Windsor tie. Consonant with an older target audience, Croll’s bad girls are, well, badder, or at least their personal lives are more frankly discussed. Themed chapters comprise a featured fashionista and pertinent but clumsily interruptive sidebars on related trendsetters. Rebels is illustrated exclusively with drawings, while Bad Girls reserves Buchholc’s illustrations for sidebars and visual lagniappe and offers the photographs that most readers will undoubtedly prefer-e.g., Björk draped in a swan, Lady Gaga draped in meat, and Pussy Riot fans holding forth in a rainbow of balaclavas. Readers who take on both titles will be positioned to appreciate just how much style history has passed into style legend, with contradictory anecdotes of how Chanel No. 5 got its name and how Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta got hers. So much couture. So much gossip. So much fun. End matter in the Beccia includes endnotes, a bibliography, and a “fashion dictionary”; the Croll will include references, a bibliography, and an index. EB - Copyright 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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