Breakfast at Tiffany's by Capote, Truman - 2013

London: Folio Society, 2013. Brown, Hannah. Octavo. 107pp. Illustrated with seven bold portraits of Holly Golightly by Canadian illustrator Karen Klassen. The collage-like images reflect the artist's fashion background, layering textures and patterns, such as scraps of lace and fabrics, with paint strokes and pencil lines. The multidimensionality of the illustrations is reflected in the stunning designer binding on the book by Hannah Brown, which won the Mansfield Medal for Best Book in Competition and the Folio Society Prize for the Set Book in the 2014 Designer Bookbinders annual competition. The binder depicts a party scene across the covers and spine showing just the legs of the partygoers. The boards are covered in full dark blue goatskin, with onlays of blue, brown, black, cream, gray, green, and orange. The onlays are painted with acrylic and sanded in places to create a matte texture. Brown then embroidered over the onlays, using a variety of stitches, and tooled in blind and gilt to add even more layers to the scene. Holly Golightly is featured on the front cover, a long cigarette holder in her hand and a glittering fur stole hanging down her side. Her unnamed ginger cat is seen mingling among the feet of the party attendees on the back cover. The embroidery continues onto the patterned paper paste-downs and flyleaves, which are also punched to reveal the turquoise paper underneath. The book is enclosed in a cloth drop-back box, the inside of which is embroidered in an echo of the patterns on the flyleaves. Brown was elected a Licentiate of Designer Bookbinders in 2009. Before becoming a bookbinder, Brown studied three-dimensional crafts, which she designs into her bindings using metalwork, textiles, and printmaking. Her artist's statement notes the enjoyment she receives from "playing with colours and textures and creating depth on covers," which is clearly evident in her extraordinary design for this book.