The absolute dedication required by embroidery"s sophisticated, precious handiwork has rendered it increasingly rare: as a craft, it calls for mental discipline even more than physical, and for infinite patience, virtues so far from contemporary, so eccentric in a society that wants everything delivered at once, that of course embroidery has come into the spotlight again. Embroidery follows the technique"s recent rise in a national culture known for its opulence and emotion, and brings readers the experience of both with a soft, embroidered cover. Inside, the details of micro-paillettes, mirrors, bugle beads, ribbons and implausibly thin threads produce virtuosities, coups de theatre, surprising elegances. Embroidery is a door on a wondrous, opulent dimension where light plays with the richness of threads, and Embroidery shows its meaning transformed by the violence of modern lines and gestures, like the burnt Swarovski crystals that are Riccardo Tisci"s hallmark. When Antonio Marras...