Whether it's Dior's New Look, Yves Saint Laurent's Le Smoking jacket or Chanel's little black dress, the masters of French fashion understand that clothing is more than a craft: it's an art form.Megan Hess's love for French style sparked her career in fashion illustration. In these pages, she unspools the threads of ten legendary designers – Chanel, Dior, Saint Laurent, Lanvin, Givenchy, Chloé, Balmain, Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Celine – to discover the origins of haute couture, prêt-à-porter and everything chic.Accompanied by Megan's exquisite illustrations of current and archival collections, Elegance: The Beauty of French Fashion tells the story of how France's iconic fashion houses have influenced the very fabric of design.

    In 15 projects organized in three levels, from novice to intermediate, Trish provides expert, easy-to-follow guidance on techniques for surface stitching that provide subtle shadings and a soft, paintlike blending of colors. Sections on materials, the long and short stitch, and helpful practice motifs lead to gorgeous projects like Burgundy Rosebuds, a Wild Pansy, and a Racquet-tailed Roller.

    Amazingly beautiful, the kimono has gone through many changes in the centuries since it was first imported from China, changes that reflect the way that Japanese society has also developed over the ages.

    With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready."During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery.Part adventure and part history, Hidden in Plain View traces the origin of the Charleston Code from Africa to the Carolinas, from the low-country island Gullah peoples to free blacks living in the cities of the North, and shows how three people from completely different backgrounds pieced together one amazing American story.

    Think of a corset as a blank canvas.Linda Sparks' The Basics of Corset Building: A Handbook for Beginners is a comprehensive guide to building your first corset, including:Section One: Tools and Materials for Corset BuildingDiscusses the tools you'll need, plus types of steel, plastic, and textiles.Section Two: Building a CorsetEverything you need to know about working with bones and busks, setting grommets and eyelets, and creating a beautifully finished corset.Section Three: Construction TechniquesCovers all the steps, including making a modesty panel, making a mock-up, and building single layer, double layer, and fashion fabric corsets.Section Four: Alterations and FitDiscusses commercial corset patterns, as well as how to fit and style a corset for exactly the look you want.

    In this book, Gail Marsh looks at some of the techniques and tools that embroiderers of the day used to create their stunning items of clothing.

    Covering the world history of costume, dress, and style from antiquity through the end of the 19th century, the great work -- "consolidated" in 1888 into 6 volumes containing nearly 500 plates -- remains, to this day, completely unique in its scope and detail. Racinet's organization by culture and subject has been preserved in TASCHEN's magnificent and complete reprint, as have excerpts from his delightful descriptions and often witty comments. Perusing these beautifully detailed and exquisitely colored illustrations, you'll discover everything from the garb of ancient Etruscans to traditional Eskimo attire to 19th century French women's couture. Though Racinet's study spans the globe from ancient times through his own, his focus is on European clothing from the Middle Ages to the 1880s and this subject is treated with exceeding passion and attention to detail. Costume History is an absolutely invaluable reference for students, designers, artists, illustrators, and historians; it is also an immensely fascinating and inspirational book for anyone with an interest in clothing and style. al text (2500 manuscript pages) in French and German, as well as all plates and details in the form of high resolution image files which are free of rights and can be used for any creative project.CONTENTS: Part I The Ancient World (Egypt, Assyria, Israel, Persia and Phrygia, Greece, Etruscan, Greco-Roman, Rome, Barbarian Europe, Celts and Gauls)Part II 19th CenturyAntique Civilizations (Oceania, Africa, Eskimos, North American Indians, Mexican Indians, South American Indians, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Middle East, Orient, Turkey)Part III Europe from Byzantium to the 1800s (Byzantium, France-Byzantine, Poland, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, England, Holland)Part IV Traditional costumes of the 1880s (Scandinavia, Holland, Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France)

    Clothing is designed to protect, shield and comfort us, yet lurking amongst seemingly innocuous garments we find hats laced with mercury, frocks laden with arsenic and literally 'drop-dead gorgeous' gowns.Fabulously gory and gruesome, Fashion Victims takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the lethal history of women's, men's and children's dress, in myth and reality. Drawing upon surviving fashion objects and numerous visual and textual sources, encompassing louse-ridden military uniforms, accounts of the fiery deaths of Oscar Wilde's half-sisters and dancer Isadora Duncan's accidental strangulation by entangled scarf; the book explores how garments have tormented those who made and wore them, and harmed animals and the environment in the process. Vividly chronicling evidence from Greek mythology to the present day, Matthews David puts everyday apparel under the microscope and unpicks the dark side of fashion.Fashion Victims is lavishly illustrated with over 125 images and is a remarkable resource for everyone from scholars and students to fashion enthusiasts.

    The Art of Fashion Draping, 3rd Edition, is organised from basic to more advanced topics. New and revised illustrations keep the book up to date.

    Taking inspiration from nature, from geometricshapes, and from the street, this book harnesses the sheer joy of making and sculpting clothes. The book takes a creative approach to pattern making, with step-by- step projects for fashion designers and dressmakers to enjoy. Each project is beautifully illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs showing the stages of construction, the muslins, and the finished garments.

    You don't have to be a fashionista or a design aficionado to adore this fascinating look at the power of one dress to change society.Join the Design Museum, the world's leading museum in contemporary design, on a guided tour of the 50 most important dresses in social history and design.Filled with pages of beautiful clothes, and the famous faces (and bodies) that put them on the world stage -including Wallis Simpson, Jackie Kennedy, Twiggy and Cher and, of course, Princess Di-this fun volume shares fascinating appraisals of what gave the 50 most important garments their iconic status.

    His style philosophy is: Less is Modern.The good news is: the most stylish clothes you can have are probably already in your closet. But savvy women are on a perpetual quest to find the perfect addition to their wardrobe: the perfect bathing suit, a traffic-stopping pair of jeans, that classic little black dress. While the editorial pages of high fashion magazines can offer inspiration, they can’t help you find what works for your looks and lifestyle. But Lloyd Boston’s The Style Checklist offers basic guidance to help make your everyday commute your runway. With solutions to common fashion problems and a lot of how-to advice, this book simplifies and demystifies how to achieve style.

    With a refreshingly new approach to free-motion stitching, First Steps to Free-Motion Quilting encourages you to make something beautiful while improving your free-motion quilting skills. You'll find 24 projects and quilts that are light on assembly so you can spend most of your time stitching. A handy troubleshooting guide ensures success every step of the way.

    Filled with gorgeous project photography and quirky vintage illustrations that bring the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and beyond to life, Sew Retro celebrates sewing yesterday and today.Learn more about Sew Retro and enjoy bonus projects and tutorials at www.sewretrothebook.com!

    Since publication, the museum has expanded its collection, with major acquisitions of pieces from Europe and Asia. The new edition includes a complete revision of the section on Europe after 1700, plus revisions to the sections on Celtic Europe, Roman Britain, cameos and finger rings.The book explores the varied styles, techniques and materials used to make jewelry in many civilizations throughout the world and across the millennia. Egyptian necklaces, Celtic torcs, South American gold masks, Renaissance pendants and Art Nouveau buckles are examples of the range of the masterpieces described and illustrated with 400 superb photographs.7000 Years of Jewelry takes readers on an impressive tour that includes, among other times and places:The Middle East: 5000-2000 BC Egypt: 1500-900 BC Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan and Persian Lands: 850-325 BC China, Celtic Europe, Mexico and Peru: 600 BC-AD 600 The Mediterranean, India, Egypt, Roman Britain and Byzantium: 325 BC-AD 600 Europe, China, Korea and Japan: AD 300-1000 Mayan Central America: AD 600-1000 Central and South America: AD 500-1500 Europe, Islam, China, Korea and Java: AD 1000-1500 China, India, Tibet and Mongolia: AD 1500-1850 West Africa: AD 1500-1800 Europe: AD 1500-1950. More comprehensive than before, this reference remains the finest and most beautifully illustrated history of jewelry ever published.