Fashion Source Book

Citation

Twine, C. (2007), "Fashion Source Book", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 445-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020710763173

It is great to see a book like this intended to give clothing and fashion students a broad view of what is entailed in the fashion design process. This book is extremely useful as an instant visual guide for quick reference for work in progress or to browse at ones own pace for on going study.

A book invaluable to students where the knowledge of the fashion process may be limited due to the differing backgrounds of the student group, making it important for them to have good and reliable support information. The increasingly large numbers of student intake also necessitates the availability of good reference books.

The author, who is clearly commercially aware of the fashion business, provides an excellent source of information by demystifying the creative process, as the book is clearly illustrated, detailed and easy to understand.

This book will find a welcome place on purchase/reading lists for the many clothing and design courses due to its suitability for the intended audience. It provides a comprehensive and practical guide in an organised format of what is required for good design practise. In the past there has been a lack of relevant books providing expertise in this subject area.

Key sections of the book include:

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  Figures. There is a selection of poses useful to aid illustration techniques and presentation skills. Figures of children, teenagers, men and women which can be used as templates for drawing round and are copyright‐free! The variety of figures is good for the inexperienced sketcher, who finds it particularly difficult to get “the look” up to date and judge the age right. Children's silhouettes are especially difficult to draw distinguishing the age difference in presentation between young children and teenagers.

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  Garment shapes. Gives clear construction lines, useful for specification drawing, technical or flat drawing, aid range planning, garment styling and may assist trend research.

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  Accessories. This section aims to complete the “total” look to the outfit.

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  Production. Touches on seams and finishes, which can be understood at a glance for help with garment make‐up techniques and technical drawing descriptions.

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  Construction. Details provide a quick reminder when developing a garment range (e.g. collar, sleeve and cuff styles) and useful for technical descriptions and drawings.

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  Proportion. Explains proportion for clothes on men, women and children. Certain pages in this section are dedicated to “looks” across a selection of market segments, described as middle market street level, middle market high street, teenage market to high street fashion. All this information is very useful for observational drawing, a subject area that could be addressed in a book all by itself.

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  Fashion illustration. This is always a difficult one for those new clothing/fashion students. This book gives a starting point of “looks” which can be taken forward and developed by the student for skills building either by hand drawing or scanning into the computer.

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  Glossary. This is in‐depth, being categorised in garment types, and has a page by page itemised explanation (or you can refer directly to the index for the named item.) Included is also a brief background history and description of the garments, fabrics, trims and textures. Fashion terminology is explained in detail, so the learner can become familiarised with the language of fashion, aiming the student to become industry prepared.

It is a challenge to develop a book in a subject area that is fast moving, ever changing in style and look in this fickle age of fashion. All looks good one year and completely dated the next. Regular updates would keep this book fresh and progressive.

All the basic information you require is visual, easy to use and in one place. A very welcome contribution to the fashion clothing design area where there is surely an opening for more books like this.