The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever
Teri Agins - 1999
Now designers take their cues from mainstream consumers and creativity is channeled more into mass-marketing clothes than into designing them. Indeed, one need look no further than the Gap to see proof of this. In The End of Fashion, Wall Street Journal, reporter Teri Agins astutely explores this seminal change, laying bare all aspects of the fashion industry from manufacturing, retailing, anmd licensing to image making and financing. Here as well are fascinating insider vignettes that show Donna Karan fighting with financiers,the rivalry between Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, and the commitment to haute conture that sent Isaac Mizrahi's business spiraling.
The Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques: Essential Step-by-Step Techniques for Professional Results
Lynda Maynard - 2010
Once these skills are understood, sewists will embrace their dressmaking projects with more confidence and the ability to create chic, refined looks. The Dressmaker’s Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques unlocks the door to stunning results with better shaping, simpler construction methods, and professional finishing touches. Lynda also explains several seemingly difficult “secrets,” from making bindings and finishing for hems, armholes, and necklines to underpinnings and structuring techniques. Plus, she teaches how to master finishing touches from textured stitches to couching and appliqué. A complete guide to the fabrics suited to each technique and inspirational fashion photography are also included.
Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook: Instructions, Patterns, and Advice for a New Generation of Knitters
Debbie Stoller - 2000
Step-by-step instructions illustrate every technique.
Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
Elizabeth Zimmermann - 1974
Walker, author of Treasury of Knitting Patterns.Elizabeth Zimmerman once wrote, "So please bear with me, and put up with my opinionated, nay, sometimes cantankerous attitude. I feel strongly about knitting." Perhaps her passionate opinions, as well as her love of wool craft and her delightful style, hark back to her English upbringing or long residence in the Wisconsin woods; in any case, the "Busy Knitter," as she calls herself, is one of the most charming and informative, as well as "un"ventive (her word) knitter-authors anywhere. This book gives full scope to her tireless imagination through a year's worth of projects, fitted to the seasons, moods, and needs of knitters who would like to design their own work.The year begins with an Aran sweater and proceeds to February baby things, a March Shetland, April blanket, May mittens, and so on through the months, completing the zodiac with November moccasin socks and a December last-minute wishbone sweater. Projects are completed in the midst of canoe trips, fishing expeditions, travel, and snowstorms. The author continuously comments on the project, its history, other ancient and modern customs, and personal beliefs.Mrs. Zimmerman works step by step with the reader, suggesting alternative methods and ideas as she goes. Her patterns are "classic," historically suited to wool, thus remaining ever-fashionable as well as tasteful and attractive. The knitter may easily adapt the designs at will, creating new, individual projects. Mrs. Zimmerman's hints (such as how to measure gauge when working a pattern and tips for baby's items) help ease the way and will instruct even the most experienced knitter. This corrected edition of the Knitter's Almanac will provide at the very least a year's worth of knitting pleasure to intermediate and advanced knitters and may even help stimulate a knitting passion.
Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More
Katrina Rodabaugh - 2018
It does all this through just four very simple mending techniques: exterior patches, interior patches, slow stitches, darning, and weaving. In addition, the book addresses the way mending leads to a more mindful relationship to fashion and to overall well-being. In essays that accompany each how-to chapter, Katrina Rodabaugh explores mending as a metaphor for appreciating our own naturally flawed selves, and she examines the ways in which mending teaches us new skills, self-reliance, and confidence, all gained from making things with our own hands.
Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen
Sarah Jane Downing - 2010
It was the most naked period since Ancient Greece and before the 1960s, and for the first time England became a fashion influence, especially for menswear, and became the toast of Paris. With the ancient regime deposed, court dress became secondary and the season by season flux of fashion as we know it came into being, aided and abetted by the proliferation of new ladies' magazines. Such an age of revolution and innovation inspired a flood of fashions taking influence from everything including the newly discovered treasures of the ancient world, to radical new ideas like democracy. It was an era of contradiction immortalized by Jane Austen, who adeptly used the newfound diversity of fashion to enliven her characters, Wickham's military splendor, Mr. Darcy's understated elegance, and Miss Tilney's romantic fixation with white muslin.
The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950
Roderick Kiracofe - 1993
The American Quilt shows how these virtuoso textiles, long appreciated for their bold graphic appeal and naive charm, are also a fascinating reflection of cultural and social attitudes, painting an indelible portrait of our nation’s history and the remarkable women who lived it. America of the 18th and 19th centuries developed at a breathtaking pace, and the changes that marked each era were inevitably mirrored in the prevailing quilting styles of the period. The American Quilt marks the first time the evolution of quilting has been traced chronologically, identifying the fabric, design, and construction hallmarks of each period and showing the genesis of beloved patterns and styles. A thorough discussion of America’s textile history, complete with a fabric time-line, provides further insight into antique quilts, offering important clues to their age and provenance.The American Quilt charts the course of quilting in America, from the earliest whole-cloth and broderie perse quilts through the emergence of the block style in all its regional and popular permutations. Special sections are devoted to quilt subgenres, including Amish quilts, Baltimore Album quilts, mourning quilts, and African-American quilts, that are highly prized by collectors today.Quilt collectors will also find helpful information on displaying, storing, and caring for quilts, as well as an exhaustive directory of dealers and quilt collections that have been updated for this edition.Filled with more than 250 photographs of rarely seen quilts and delightful evocations of quilting’s colorful past, The American Quilt is a thought-provoking and important step forward in our ever-expanding knowledge of this remarkable folk art.“[The American Quilt] offers a profusely illustrated survey that ingeniously weaves the threads of America’s social, political, economic, and industrial history into the evolution of the quilt-making arts.” —New York Times“A longtime dealer of antique quilts, Kiracofe has given us a guide to evaluating and dating old quilts, and has included methods of tracking down the makers, and advice on their cleaning, storage, hanging, and restoration. A pleasure for the generalist, this book will be indispensable to serious students and collectors.” —Washington Post“A must for any serious student of quilts.” —Quilter’s NotebookA “classic quilt tome.”—USA Today
The Better Bag Maker: An Illustrated Handbook of Handbag Design Techniques, Tips, and Tricks
Nicole Mallalieu - 2014
In this how-to book accomplished bag maker, Nicole Mallalieu, reveals her high-end techniques, shortcuts, and secrets for professional design and finishes. The 10 featured projects teach a range of expert skills from adjusting the proportion of the pattern to constructing pockets, straps, flaps, and bases.. By the end of this book, you ll have a closetful of polished bags and most likely sew better than you ever imagined you could."
The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook
Nora Abousteit - 2011
That awesome skirt in a fabric you adore. The blouse that fits perfectly. The one-of-a-kind dress you just knew would look cuter with a few extra details at the neck and hem. All made by you. Creating fashionable, custom-fitted clothing is often much easier than you think, and in their first book, BurdaStyle—the largest community of aspiring fashion designers and style-savvy sewers—will show you how. Packed with easy-to-follow tutorials, five adaptable sewing patterns for a skirt, blouse, dress, coat, and bag, and fifteen step-by-step sewing projects, this book gives you the basic building blocks to begin sewing and the tools you need to move beyond the basics to designing and customizing your own wardrobe. If you’ve never threaded a needle before, you’ll find essential information on setting up a studio, using your sewing machine and other tools, working with patterns, and getting the perfect fit. For experienced sewers, the book offer tips and tricks for mastering techniques, as well as tons of design inspiration from seventy-eight BurdaStyle members from all over the world. With its unique blend of fashion, creativity, and expert know-how, The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook is the ultimate guide to sewing with style.
Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts
Alex Langlands - 2017
Archaeologist and medieval historian Alexander Langlands reaches as far back as the Neolithic period to recover our lost sense of craft, combining deep history with detailed scientific analyses and his own experiences making traditional crafts. Craft brims with vivid storytelling, rich descriptions of natural landscape, and delightful surprises that will convince us to introduce more craft into our lives.
The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes
Michel Pastoureau - 1991
From the taboo striped cloaks of the Middle Ages to the liberating stripes of the French and American flags, The Devil's Cloth chronicles the checkered past of this maligned and misunderstood pattern that has been linked to everything from medieval scandals to religious and political uprisings to contemporary fashion statements. The story begins nearly a thousand years ago, when the monks of the Carmelite Order were ordered by the Pope to surrender their striped garments--to superstitious minds a sure sign of the devil. Anti-stripe sentiment raged throughout the Middle Ages, becoming the de rigueur fashion for prostitutes, hangmen, lepers, court jesters, and disloyal Round Table knights. Over the centuries, the list expanded to include Jews, heretics, adulterous wives, madmen, convicts, and servants. Briefly rescued from ignominy by the Renaissance, the stripe enjoyed a resurgence in 1775, where its newly conferred status as an enduring symbol of freedom paved the way for a subsequent European comeback. With lively narrative style, Pastoureau traces the fascinating trajectory of the ubiquitous stripe from the stripe-related stress of biblical figures--Cain, Delilah, and Judas prominent among them--to the bathing suits, pinstripe suits, and pajamas of today. Not even the hapless zebra escapes the skewering lens of history. Whether its subject is horizontal or vertical, stylish or subversive, this richly informative book will appeal to readers of every stripe.
To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing
Simon Garfield - 2013
Few things are as exciting—and potentially life-changing—as discovering an old letter. And while etiquette books still extol the practice, letter writing seems to be disappearing amid a flurry of e-mails, texting, and tweeting. The recent decline in letter writing marks a cultural shift so vast that in the future historians may divide time not between BC and AD but between the eras when people wrote letters and when they did not. So New York Times bestselling author Simon Garfield asks: Can anything be done to revive a practice that has dictated and tracked the progress of civilization for more than five hundred years?In To the Letter, Garfield traces the fascinating history of letter writing from the love letter and the business letter to the chain letter and the letter of recommendation. He provides a tender critique of early letter-writing manuals and analyzes celebrated correspondence from Erasmus to Princess Diana. He also considers the role that letters have played as a literary device from Shakespeare to the epistolary novel, all the rage in the eighteenth century and alive and well today with bestsellers like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. At a time when the decline of letter writing appears to be irreversible, Garfield is the perfect candidate to inspire bibliophiles to put pen to paper and create “a form of expression, emotion, and tactile delight we may clasp to our heart.”
Sewing For Dummies
Jan Saunders Maresh - 1999
There's nothing like the feeling of completing a project using beautiful fabrics and great timesaving tools and then sharing it with your family and friends. Plus, learning to sew will save you money too! Before long, you'll be stitching your own hems, repairing split seams, sewing on buttons, and much, much more. Sewing For Dummies is a book for both absolute beginners and experienced sewers. If you're a stone-cold beginner, you'll find everything you need to know to sew beginning-level projects--and the book doesn't assume that you've ever even picked up a needle and thread before. If you've had some experience with sewing, you'll find tips and tricks that it took author Janice Saunders Maresh, a nationally known sewing and serging instructor, years to pick up! You'll discover how to:Master hand and machine stitches Read a sewing pattern Hem a variety of fabrics Negotiate sleeves and pockets Install zippers, buttons, and other fasteners Shape garments with tucks and pleats Adjust projects for better fit and function This updated edition features a fresh 8-page color insert of all the new home decorating projects, including new patterns and instructions for a traditional living room with slipcovered couches and throws; a French country dining room with drapes and slipcovered chairs; and a bedroom with shams, duvets, dustruffles, and window treatments, as well as:a bathroom with a shower curtain and towels hip and funky tote bags the perfect little black dress Complete with lists of quick fix-it tools, sewing fundamentals, and sewing resources, Sewing For Dummies, 2nd Edition, is the fun and easy way(R) to get the basics and stitch up a storm in no time!
Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art
Claire Wellesley-Smith - 2015
The pleasures to be had from slowing down can be many, with connections to sustainability, simplicity, reflection, and tuning into traditional and other multicultural textile traditions.Slow Stitch is a much-needed guide to adopting a less-is-more approach, valuing quality over quantity, and bringing a meaningful and thoughtful approach to textile practice.Claire Wellesley-Smith introduces a range of ways in which you can slow your textile work down, including:Using simple techniques inspired by traditional practice (including hand-stitch rhythms)Reusing and re-inventing materials (reuse even old textile projects)Limiting your equipmentMending revisited (practical and decorative techniques)Project ideas and resources that help towards making a more sustainable textile practiceRichly illustrated throughout, and showcasing work from the best textile artists who work in this way, this is a truly inspirational book for those looking to reconnect with their craft and to find a new way of working.
Make and Mend: Sashiko-Inspired Embroidery Projects to Customize and Repair Textiles and Decorate Your Home
Jessica Marquez - 2018
Sashiko is traditionally used to mend and repair clothing and textiles, but it can just as easily be used to create beautiful, decorative projects for the home. With fifteen projects applying a modern, on-trend aesthetic to this ancient craft, Make and Mend shows readers how to apply sashiko stitching to a variety of craft projects, such as repairing torn jeans, mending a ripped hem, and making decorative pillows, napkins, a tablecloth, and a totebag. Touching on the concepts of beauty in minimalism and resourceful simplicity, as well as a fascination with Japan and Japanese design, this easy and accessible book appeals to both the seasoned maker and total beginner.