Fairie-Ality: The Fashion Collection from the House of Ellwand

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.

Author: David Ellwand, Eugenie Bird
Publisher: Candlewick Studio
Published: 11/01/2002
Pages: 130
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.68lbs
Size: 12.26h x 10.16w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9780763614133
Audience: Ages 9-12


Award: Tayshas Reading - Commended


Review Citation(s):
PW Notes and Reprints 10/07/2002 pg. 74
Booksense '76 Childrens Wtr 02 11/01/2002 pg. 1
Voice of Youth Advocates 08/01/2003 pg. 233
ALA Best Books Young Adults 03/15/2004 pg. 1280
ALA Recmd for Reluctant YA's 03/15/2004 pg. 1293
Publishers Weekly 10/07/2002

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.