Isabel Toledo, Signed + Original Drawing
[Original Drawing by Ruben Toledo; Signed by Isabel and Ruben Toledo] Steele, Valerie. Isabel Toledo, Fashion from the Inside Out. First Edition. 2009. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Co-written by Patricia Mears. On the flyleaf, the Toledos have written “Sept 2013, New York City.” On the following two-page spread, there is a full-page original drawing in black and green marker and the inscription, “for … Para … Pacheco. We hope this book makes you smile … with Cuban Love, Ruben & Isabel Toledo.”
This lavish, image-filled monograph on the fashion designer Isabel Toledo could not have been produced any earlier than 2009. For those in the know, she had long been a darling, but when Michelle Obama chose to wear Isabel Toledo to the Inauguration, she achieved worldwide fame. As this book correctly notes, Isabel is the yin to her husband Ruben’s yang. He is one of the pre-eminent fashion illustrators, and the original drawing is by him.
“Although Toledo’s work possesses a kind of exquisiteness akin to haute couture, it is also thoroughly American in that it is functional and modern, but not stridently so.”
--Patricia Mears