Embroidery

Sublime Stitching - “this ain't your gramma's embroidery” - out of Austin, Texas, transforms the craft with retro-inspired designs not of sweet kitties or flowers, but roller derby babes, monsters, robots, cigarette smoking bad girls, skull and crossbones, vital organs and tattoo designs. ”Tattoo your towels!” the site urges. Er, maybe not. For the food obsessed, founder Jenny Hart puts out sushi-themed transfer patterns . Stitch away while watching the film “ Jiro Dreams of Sushi ,” of course.  There's also an old-fashioned cocktail series (for embroidering cocktail napkins, what else?

The presence of Valentino Garavani, founder of the brand that bears his name, created quite the buzz at the Valentino haute couture show Wednesday. Well-wishers made a beeline to his front row seat, beside longtime partner Giancarlo Giacommetti. Now that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli design the line, we asked Valentino's opinion of the label's direction. "I like it very much," he replied. "It is keeping the mood and spell of Valentino and that is very important. " Also on scene were the VVIP fashion pack including editors Anna Wintour of Vogue Magazine, Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar and Carine Roitfeld of CR Fashion Book, formerly of Paris Vogue.

For more than 2,000 years, the people of Suzhou, China, have been embroidering silk fabric in complex patterns and stitches, using single strands from a silkworm or a human head with needles as fine as baby's hair. Since 1954, those techniques have been preserved, expanded and taught at the city's Embroidery Research Institute, a government-run organization in the canal-laced city that is one of four major silk embroidery centers in China, each with a unique style. Last month, the first U.S.

Sublime Stitching - “this ain't your gramma's embroidery” - out of Austin, Texas, transforms the craft with retro-inspired designs not of sweet kitties or flowers, but roller derby babes, monsters, robots, cigarette smoking bad girls, skull and crossbones, vital organs and tattoo designs. ”Tattoo your towels!” the site urges. Er, maybe not. For the food obsessed, founder Jenny Hart puts out sushi-themed transfer patterns . Stitch away while watching the film “ Jiro Dreams of Sushi ,” of course.  There's also an old-fashioned cocktail series (for embroidering cocktail napkins, what else?

Hanan Karaman Munayyer fell under the spell of Palestinian embroidery in 1987, when she saw a collection of dresses and accessories brought to New York by an antiques dealer. She and her husband are of Palestinian descent, but she says, "The beauty of the embroidery on these early 20th century dresses -- we saw it for the first time in that collection." The dealer intended to sell off the 65 dresses piecemeal.

The presence of Valentino Garavani, founder of the brand that bears his name, created quite the buzz at the Valentino haute couture show Wednesday. Well-wishers made a beeline to his front row seat, beside longtime partner Giancarlo Giacommetti. Now that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli design the line, we asked Valentino's opinion of the label's direction. "I like it very much," he replied. "It is keeping the mood and spell of Valentino and that is very important. " Also on scene were the VVIP fashion pack including editors Anna Wintour of Vogue Magazine, Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar and Carine Roitfeld of CR Fashion Book, formerly of Paris Vogue.

To say Lily Vorperian does embroidery is a bit like calling Coco Chanel a dressmaker. Vorperian is "a master of her craft, an artist of national, perhaps international stature," says folklorist Susan Auerbach, who has followed the artist since Vorperian took part in the L.A. Folk Arts program in 1986. Last year, Vorperian, a 75-year-old Armenian immigrant who lives in Glendale, won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

No one knows when the first sampler was crafted, but in some parts of the world, by the 16th century, embroidery was a popular form of art and relaxation, and those who embroidered used samplers as a way to experiment with patterns. The harsh life in the early days of America left little time for embroidery, but, by the 18th century, samplers were being made in schools. Simple ones had alphabets and numbers.

Like a doctor studying an X-ray, Francois Lesage examines a swatch of sky-blue sparkles, a gazillion itty-bitty salt-sized granules glittering like sapphires. "This fabric is for--how shall I say?--a fashion emergency," says the director of the world's most famous embroidery salon--the House of Lesage--rubbing his hand on the gorgeous glitz of fabric. In a nearby--how shall we say?

Regarding "A New Name, but the Same Old Polyester," by Denise Hamilton (July 27): I think that Hamilton has been seduced by the Natural Fiber Cult. I've had a 40-year love affair with man-made fibers. They have saved me 6,000 to 10,000 hours of standing over a hot ironing board. They have made traveling lighter and easier because we rarely need to spend time or money on laundry service. To me there is no excuse for making lovely white 100% cotton nightgowns that look like used handkerchiefs before morning or creating white cotton blouses with beautiful embroidery, tucking and details that make them so difficult to iron and only look well for one wearing.

With her first book on stitchery, needlework instructor Erica Wilson revived a craft and helped invent a publishing category. Her 1962 hardcover book, "Crewel Embroidery," both popularized the pursuit and helped transform her into "America's first lady of stitchery" as she built a multimillion-dollar embroidery empire through her needlework designs, television shows, books and stores. The volume also marked something of a turning point in publishing. It was the first needlework title released by Scribner's, a surprise smash hit that eventually sold about 1 million copies.

Our choice of swimwear is frequently less about making a fashion statement and more about trying to find something that flatters the body and doesn't require a towel around the waist to complete the ensemble. Many of us opt not to shop for a new suit, season after season, to avoid confronting our physical flaws — and the agony of dressing room lighting. Nonetheless, the swimwear industry has managed to weather the down economy, reporting $4 billion in sales in 2009, down only slightly from 2008.

Reviews by Christopher Knight (C.K.) and Leah Ollman (L.O.). Compiled by Grace Krilanovich. Critics' Choices After 1968: Contemporary Artists and the Civil Rights Legacy The show includes recent and newly commissioned works from six emerging artists born in or after 1968, the internationally disruptive year that in the U.S. witnessed the brutal assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the hairbreadth...

For years, Kim Cho-gang kept her oddball art collection out of sight, hidden away in a basement. She admits hers is a rather unusual assemblage: wood carvings, paintings, puppets and embroidery -- all celebrating the lowly chicken. There are roosters and hens big and small, birds depicted clucking, scratching and crowing. Since 2006, these works have had a public place to roost. Setting aside her lifelong dream of opening a child-care center, the 70-year-old former public health professor runs the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art, a private facility containing all things fowl.

It WAS a grand concert entrance if ever there was one -- Cher at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, descending from the ceiling like the empress of the sun. Her golden chariot might as well have been a time capsule, because when she stepped out in a blindingly sparkly gold lame cape and an Egyptian headdress with an asp, she could have been 22 again. Or even 42. But Cher is 61, and she can still rock a Bob Mackie get-up like nobody else. Her new show is an eyeful of deliciously glittery costumes that hark back to the wonderfully tacky, pre-Celine Vegas of Liberace and feather-flocked revues.

Hanan Karaman Munayyer fell under the spell of Palestinian embroidery in 1987, when she saw a collection of dresses and accessories brought to New York by an antiques dealer. She and her husband are of Palestinian descent, but she says, "The beauty of the embroidery on these early 20th century dresses -- we saw it for the first time in that collection." The dealer intended to sell off the 65 dresses piecemeal.

If you thought Craftsman design was all about those Greene & Greene houses, art instructor Ann Chaves has news for you. In her home studio at the majestic Duncan-Irwin House in Pasadena, Chaves teaches the techniques of Craftsman-style embroidery, a metier she's been perfecting since age 5, when her grandmother taught her how to knit and sew. "In Arts and Crafts embroidery, it's about color, form and good, strong design, not elaborate or fancy stitches," says Chaves.

Perhaps it is unfortunate that Clint Eastwood had his own thoughts about the book "The Bridges of Madison County." These probably led to the announced changes in the story in its release as a motion picture ("Clint, by Candlelight," by Sean Mitchell, May 28). Backers and producers of movies, who bet only on sure things and cinches, are criticized for shunning innovation and going with familiar products people are buying. Here is a book, confirms Mitchell, that sold 8 million copies.

If you're a man, skip this half of the review. Marjane Satrapi's new graphic novel, "Embroideries," isn't for you. It's about a bunch of women sitting around a living room, complaining about men. Even though it takes place in Iran, you're probably very familiar with what these ladies are complaining about. Satrapi is best known for "Persepolis," the graphic novel about growing up under the Islamic revolution. "Embroideries" is less epic but just as endearing.

Before her students learn a single stitch, embroidery teacher Leora Raikin starts with a pronunciation guide. "It sounds something like IN-da-belly," Raikin says, making an exaggerated move and pointing to her stomach. "The kids laugh and imitate me. Then they can't stop saying 'IN-da-belly, IN-da-belly.' " So goes the youngsters' introduction to the Ndebele people of South Africa in Raikin's African Folklore Embroidery classes.