All Elaine Chan has ever wanted is a loving husband and a houseful of children. But when her almost-fiancé unceremoniously dumps her after a humiliating episode involving childhood enemies, condoms and puking, Elaine realizes that a change is in order. Armed with an article promising to show her how to re-invent herself in just 5 easy steps, Elaine finds herself on a one-way coach ride to a new life, a new future, a new her. But the complete makeover of Elaine is an arduous process, and is threatened with derailment by distractions like the mystery of the neighbour’s vanishing Indonesian maid, with which Elaine finds herself strangely obsessed. Her efforts to keep all the balls in the air as she plays glamour-puss, model girlfriend (to Evan, a hotshot young lawyer form work) and sleuth extraordinaire all rolled into one enticing depilated package, frequently lead her into situations that verge on the bizarre. Thank heavens through all the perils that seem to dog her evolution, and whose relaxed attitude to life reminds Elaine of how she used to be. As Elaine struggles to emerge as an elegant butterfly from the dowdy chrysalis that was her former self, she cannot help asking if these five steps are taking her to where she really wants to go.

Got a passion for exotic fabrics? Feature the fabrics of Japan and Polynesia in your next quilt! This talented mother-daughter team shares their love of unusual fabrics in one-of-a-kind designs. Book jacket.

In this exhibition catalogue the drawings of Paris fashion designers are compared with examples of contemporary East-Asian textiles from the Baur Foundation in Geneva.

More than ever before, interior design is a global affair. And more than ever, Westerners are eager to try out elements of Asian design. This book is the ultimate resource for professional and amateur designers seeking to recreate the mysterious elegance, balance, and beauty of Asian design. Through the magic of Masano Kawana's beautiful full-color photography, New Asian Style explores more than 30 stunning contemporary houses and homes from Singapore, all of which stand as examples of decorating and style that transcend their Eastern origins. In an effort to help designers pick up Asian ideas for their own settings, Jane Marsden's essays examine what elements make Asian style and how they might be captured in new settings anywhere in the world.

This sweeping study examines the law of intellectual property in Chinese civilization from imperial days to the present. It uses materials drawn from law, the arts and other fields as well as extensive interviews with Chinese and foreign officials, business people, lawyers, and perpetrators and victims of "piracy."

Standing at the crossroads of many cultures, Ottoman style is spiced with influences from Chinese and Indian to French and Italian. In this spectacular volume, Istanbul-born interior designer Serdar Gülgün narrates a tour of his beautiful home, a historic mansion on the Asian side of the Bosporus. Constantly inspired by the atmosphere of his ancient city, Gülgün believes a successful interior design is a place of experience in which authentic elements of culture fuse and achieve alchemy, awakening all the senses and transporting its inhabitants to a place of fantasy.

Featuring over 250 photographs and insightful commentary, this topical interior design book will add a uniquely Asian-Pacific element to your home. The Philippines is home to a new generation of craftsmen, including furniture makers, artists, sculptors, and weavers. They specialize in taking the indigenous materials of the country--pina, abaca, capiz shell, bamboo, rattan, to name a few--and producing contemporary items that would be as at home in a New York loft as on a tropical verandah. Harnessing both Asian- and Latin-inspired style and modern techniques, they produce a cornucopia of fine contemporary furniture and "authentic" furnishing items. In this sourcebook of decorating and shopping ideas, these objects are presented within metropolitan and rural present-day interiors. From furniture and furnishings to table settings and lighting, all the homes, many never photographed before, are accented with artifacts in modern designs. Tropical Interiors shows how Philippine style is clearly now a global phenomenon and can be applied to homes worldwide.