title: A Woman By Design
author: Kennett, Frances
description: There was never a woman like Alice...
  Daring, defiant, hauntingly beautiful, Alice Hardy rose from a bleak childhood in the windswept Irish town of Cork to the heights of international acclaim. With a lust for adventure, she struck out on her own. Defying the conventions of her time, she fashioned bolts of material into miracles...fabulous creations that would become famous as "dresses by Alys."
  
  There was never a legend like Alys...
  In the sumptuous salons of the rich and celebrated from London to New York to Paris to Sao Paulo, Alys became the premier couturiere...a woman whose talent, vision, and independent spirit would rise above scandal...a woman who would fight for those she loved and survive the deepest heartbreak. But beneath the colorful and captivating cloak of her glittering success, Alys harbored a secret passion--a searing desire for a man she was forbidden to love...