Ahead of the Curve is the first sewing book to empower curvy and plus size women to feel body confident by sewing a wardrobe that fits. Don't change your body to fit your clothes - change your clothes to fit your body! Ahead of the Curve includes 5 basic garment patterns (UK sizes 16-36/US size 12-32/EUR sizes 44-64), which includes a pair of trousers, a t-shirt, a sleeveless top and two dress designs. Jenny takes you through a series of "Fit Clinics" - tutorials and case studies demystifying the fitting process - showing you how to adjust these patterns to master the perfect fit for your body shape. Once you have got to grips with this, you can go on to customize your closet and create an unlimited array of fantastic clothes that celebrate your body. If you're curvy or plus size, trying to find clothes that fit and reflect your personal style can be incredibly difficult and frustrating. Plus size women feel constantly excluded and like they can't express their personality through clothes. This book finally changes that.

'Riello and McNeil's new collection of essays represents an immense and impressive project' - Choice 'Now, the key contributions from nearly every expert in the field are assembled in one fascinating book. This kaleidoscopic and informative volume ranges impressively across conventional boundaries of chronology, geography, and discipline.' - Glenn Adamson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 'This book is indispensable for anyone interested in fashion. History has never been more alive than in the pages of this Reader.' - Patrizia Calefato, University of Bari, Italy The Fashion History Reader is an innovative work that provides a broad introduction to the complex literature in the fields of fashion studies, and dress and fashion history. Twenty-three chapters and over forty shorter 'Snapshot' texts cover a wide range of topics and approaches within the history of fashion, ranging from object-based studies to theory-driven analyses. The book is divided into six parts, surveying some of the key themes in the history of fashion. Themes also move in and across time, providing a chronology to enable student learning: parts one to three cover the fifteenth to the eighteenth-century parts four and five cover the nineteenth-century to the contemporary (with particular attention given to non-European countries) part six provides a survey of the global setting and current globalized nature of fashion. A comprehensive introduction by the editors contextualizes debates for students, synthesising past history and bringing them up-to-date through a discussion of globalization. Each section also includes a short, accessible introduction by the editors, placing each chapter within the wider, thematic treatment of fashion and its history, and an 'Annotated Guide to Further Reading' encourages students to enhance their learning independently. The Fashion History Reader was awarded a prize for 'Best Edited Book' at the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand: Art Historians of Australasia, Annual General Meeting, December 2011.

This is the first book to gather leading designers, creators and industry insiders to reflect on sneaker design and its ground-breaking impact on popular culture. Contributors provide insights into the evolution of sneakers from sport-wear to style icons, the processes and people involved in sneaker design and its global future.

Through conversations with the people directly involved in the creation of sneakers, it speaks to the next generation of sneaker designers and wearers by asking: who are the people involved in the design of a sneaker? How do their roles and approaches differ? How does their individual work contribute to the collective effort of making a sneaker? What will the future of sneaker design be?

Richly illustrated, it includes iconic sneakers, drawings and sketches, prototypes as well as glimpses in the manufacturing process. Across three chapters – Style and Culture, People and Processes, The Future – the approaches and experience of industry leaders unfold the past, present, and future of sneakers as style icons and cultural facilitators. Contributors turn to the next generation of designers with an open challenge to move the industry towards a more positive direction for both the people and the planet.

* Develops the concept of the Celebrity as a Human Fashion Brand, which offers a fresh perspective in the Fashion Marketing field. * Includes a broad range of well-known case studies in every chapter, coupled with reflective questions, which can be used for in-class exercises. * Ideal recommended reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Celebrity Fashion and Influencer Marketing, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Brand Management and Consumer Behaviour.

Lauren Wager's follow up to her bestselling Color Collective's Palette Perfect features a fresh approach to color combinations with entirely new palettes, organized by season. What color is summer? Is it a cool and translucent swimming pool aquamarine, brilliant watermelon red, or the pale pink interior of a seashell? If these colors define summer, what color is autumn? How about winter? And spring? In Palette Perfect, Volume 2, designer and best-selling author Lauren Wager explores the multiple possibilities of seasonal color applications, leading the reader through an inspirational presentation of image pairings and color combinations. The color palettes are portrayed in a fresh and dynamic way that allows the reader to see how certain colors play off each other in foreground and background, close together and further apart. This format is a different take on color palettes than Volume 1, and still provides the RGB and CMYK values for artists that would like to translate the colors for web and print. This volume--both a practical guide and inspirational book for designers, illustrators, architects, and crafters, as well home decoration and fashion lovers, professional or otherwise--provides examples of color application within the worlds of contemporary art, fashion, interiors, photography and graphic design. It is a carefully gathered collection of color palettes and stunning images with a touch of the unexpected, utterly successful in its aim.

Illustrated with fabulous images from Vogue's archive, Vogue: The Gown is the ultimate book for fashion lovers. In Vogue: The Gown, Jo Ellison has gathered more than 300 images and grouped them into five thematic chapters: Classical, Fantasy, Drama, Decorative and Modern. The book provides an evocative celebration of almost a century of fashion history, showcasing the work of photographers including Tim Walker, Nick Knight, David Bailey, Herb Ritts, Norman Parkinson, Corinne Day, Cecil Beaton and Horst. Something about a gown's intrinsic construction, unashamed opulence and sheer feminine romance ignites in us the promise of fairy-tale adventure and unparalleled glamour. The magical gowns featured here give full reign to those fantasies, be they the sublime yet simple classical creations of Madame Gres, the heavenly bodies sculpted by Azzedine Alaia, the lean, seductive lines of a Deco-inspired silhouette or huge tulle poufs fit for a princess. Now available in a new format with a luxurious real cloth cover, at a more pocket-friendly price of GBP30, this is essential reading for fashionistas everywhere.

Is there a peculiarly English 'look' and if so how does one define it? From the 'traditional' dress of the Victorian rural working class through to the contemporary collections of Vivienne Westwood and a younger generation of London-based designers, notions of Englishness, either real or imagined, have always been at play in considerations of English fashion and clothing. This provocative book explores how far these fraught ideals can be applied to the dress of the past and present. English expressions of taste and creativity have had a profound influence on style over the last three centuries, and the pursuit and subversion of an English 'look' have shaped conceptions of fashionability from the pastoralism of the eighteenth-century through to the eras of Twiggy, Punk and beyond. But are these simply stereotypical characterizations that relate to an imagined 'Englishness', or is there some concrete basis for them? If the former, what has led to their development? If the latter, what definitions can be employed to unravel such complicated conceptions of national identity? What role has social decorum played in developing an 'English' style, and is this preoccupation with etiquette in fact unique to England ? With chapters authored by leading scholars in the fields of costume history, social history and cultural studies, this is the first book to examine the ways in which fashion and dress might be considered in the context of national identities as they apply in England. Presenting an overview of how particular designers and consumer groups have striven to present or contest versions of Englishness through clothing from the 18th through to the 21st centuries, it will fascinate anyone interested in dress history, national and ethnic identity or English cultural history.

'A photographic encyclopaedia of one of the 20th century's greatest creators' The Business of Fashion Founded by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge in 1961, shortly after the young couturier left his post at the helm of Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent would soon become one of the most successful and influential haute couture houses in Paris. Introducing Le Smoking, the first tuxedo suit for women, in 1966, Saint Laurent also presented iconic art-inspired creations, from Mondrian dresses to precious Van Gogh embroidery and the famous Ballets Russes collection. This definitive publication opens with a concise history of the house, followed by a brief biographical profile of Yves Saint Laurent, before exploring the collections themselves, organized chronologically. Each collection is introduced by a short text unveiling its influences and highlights, and illustrated with a gallery of carefully curated catwalk images. These showcase hundreds of spectacular clothes, details, accessories, beauty looks and set designs - and, of course, the top fashion models who wore them on the runway. A rich reference section concludes the book.

This new detailed guide to learning the skills and techniques of drawing modern fashion and figure is also a rich reference source for a broad range of modern garments and accessories. Extensively illustrated, this introduction teaches by example, the power of drawing as a means of communication and expression and strives to show students how to perceive things in order to be able to draw them correctly. The first section is dedicated to drawing the human figure, while the second portion deals with how to draw a wide range of modern garments and accessories and the types of techniques used to render them convincingly and elegantly in different fabric designs and textures. This volume offers a complete presentation of proportions of the croquis, draping the figure, accessories, flats, and features an encyclopedia of details, how to draw textiles and real clothes, the art of illustration, and computers and fashion drawing. For designers, fashion professionals, teachers and students of fashion.

Fashion is a big bubble, and sometimes I feel like popping it.' Alexander McQueen, 2009 This definitive publication on Alexander McQueen (1969 - 2010) invites you into the creative mind and world of one of Britain's most brilliant, daring and provocative designers, and the many themes and references that shaped his visionary fashion collections. Accompanying the V&A's landmark exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, and taking the key themes of the exhibition of tailoring, gothic, primitivism, naturalism and futurism, this comprehensive catalogue features previously unseen material as well as groundbreaking essays and feature spreads by multiple authors and leading fashion commentators. This kaleidoscopic approach explores themes central to the designer's work and his collections, such as the psychology of fashion, natural history, the theatre and spectacle of his shows, and the key creative collaborators during McQueen's lifetime. Alexander McQueen also offers an encyclopaedic survey of McQueen's catwalk collections, illustrated with striking images by leading fashion photographers, and specially commissioned photographs that capture the breath-taking skill of his designs and awesome theatricality of his shows. Accompanies Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (14 March to 19 July 2015), developed and expanded from the 2011 blockbuster show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Megan Hess: The Shoe is an illustrated love story about the most coveted accessory of any designer wardrobe, from internationally renowned fashion illustrator Megan Hess. A piece of fashion is so much more than an object. To the designer who creates it, the muse who inspires it or the fashion lover who lusts after it, that piece is part of a story. Nothing quite says style like an incredible pair of shoes. The red sole of a Louboutin, the jewelled buckle of a Manolo Blahnik, the simple perfection of a Chanel slingback, or the incredible finishes on a Jimmy Choo - these are the details that complete an outfit and define timeless elegance. Megan Hess: The Shoe is the latest in the Ultimate Fashion Wardrobe series, filled with fascinating information and stunning illustrations and packaged up in a beautiful hardback: the ideal accessory for any creative life.

She revolutionized how women looked. She banned corsets, shortened skirts and scented the world with Chanel No.5. Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was an icon. But how closely did her carefully moulded image match the truth? Born illegitimate and raised in an orphanage - not by the two aunts that she invented - Gabrielle Chanel fought constantly to escape the mundane. She rose from back-street milliner to become the head of a vast business empire, and socialised with Picasso, Stravinsky and Cocteau. Edmonde Charles-Roux also reveals one of Chanel's best-kept secrets - her love affair with a prodigal German spy. Chanel's legend did not fade with her death, and nor has the mark of sheer elegance that she left upon the world of fashion. This is the living woman behind the vibrant legend.

World watch production today is concentrated in three countries: Switzerland, Japan and China. Former centres such as Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia saw the industrial manufacture of watches disappear from their territory during the twentieth century. How did this situation come about? The business of time aims to answer this question by presenting the first comprehensive history of the sector. It traces the evolution and transformation of the global watch industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, highlighting the conditions that enabled watch production to expand across the globe and revealing how multinational companies gradually emerged to dominate the industry. -- .

Exploding Fashion examines the impact of innovative pattern-cutting in several key examples of 20th century fashion design. With over 200 illustrations, it 'explodes' designs by 6 game-changing fashion designers from the world's leading fashion houses, and reverse engineers them in order to understand how they work. Written by a curator and professor at Central Saint Martins, London's premier college of art and design, this is the first comprehensive exploration of how a traditional design process can enter into a dialogue with new concepts, illuminating haute couture and pret-a-porter methods for a visually-driven digital age.

The 90s are back! In a richly illustrated volume, which accompanied her first ever curated exhibition, Claudia Schiffer brings together legendary fashion photographers, designers and supermodels, whose visions captivated and shaped the decade. The book draws from a diverse panorama of various aspects, characters, and places, the interplay of which made fashion become a kind of 'total artwork' during the 90s. Major photographic works by legendary photographers are balanced with unseen material from Schiffer's private archive. Readers gain insights into a diverse world of images: the extravaganza of Arthur Elgort's oeuvre is shown next to Corinne Day's intimate and immediate style. Ellen von Unwerth's sense of humour and exuberant play with sexiness, meet the sculptural and perfectly composed works by Herb Ritts. The provocative photos by Juergen Teller contrast with Karl Lagerfeld's elegant and timeless images. Many more iconic photographers are featured in the volume. The accompanying essays by leading heads of the fashion industry shed light on a decade which strongly shapes the culture of the present.

Global icon. Songwriting sensation. Fashion phenomenon. Welcome to the Taylor-verse.

Through stunning photographs that explore key outfits from her style evolution alongside expert analysis, Icons of Style pays homage to the artist whose every outfit tells a tale. From country boots to bejewelled body suits, explore the wardrobe of the girl-next-door-turned-superstar, who connects with fans the world over with her ever-evolving attire, eye-catching looks and signature pieces.

Taylor's relatability, integrity and sartorial storytelling mean this fearless fashion queen will never go out of style.

A Cultural History of Jewish Dress is the first comprehensive account of how Jews have been distinguished by their appearance from Ancient Israel to the present. For centuries Jews have dressed in distinctive ways to communicate their devotion to God, their religious identity, and the proper earthly roles of men and women. This lively work explores the rich history of Jewish dress, examining how Jews and non-Jews alike debated and legislated Jewish attire in different places, as well as outlining the big debates on dress within the Jewish community today. Focusing on tensions over gender, ethnic identity and assimilation, each chapter discusses the meaning and symbolism of a specific era or type of Jewish dress. What were biblical and rabbinic fashions? Why was clothing so important to immigrant Jews in America? Why do Hassidic Jews wear black? When did yarmulkes become bar mitzvah souvenirs? The book also offers the first analysis of how young Jewish adults today announce on caps, shirts, and even undergarments their striving to transform Jewishness from a religious and historical heritage into an ethnic identity that is hip, racy, and irreverent. Fascinating and accessibly written, A Cultural History of Jewish Dress will appeal to anybody interested in the central role of clothing in defining Jewish identity.

The relationship between popular music and fashion has been culturally significant since the 1950s, and this book explores the ways in which music and musicians play a key role in the shaping of identity, taste and consumption. Using a range of historical and contemporary examples, this book uncovers the way in which fashion and music have worked to shape contemporary attitudes to bodies and identities.
Focusing on performers as much as fans, on the mainstream as much as the underground, "Fashion and Music" provides a lens through which to examine themes of gender, sexuality, ageing and youth, ethnicity, body image, consumer culture, fandom and postmodernity.

The generous reception given to Understanding Fashion History when it was first published in 2004 recognised it as a timely reappraisal of the role of fashion and its place in society. The book introduces the reader to the ways fashionable dress has been defined and studied since the late 17th century, considering the theories that surround the subject, the assembling and use of collections of fashion and textiles, the significance of dress and art, the tension between uniformity of appearance and disguise, and the purpose of theatrical costume. This book has been read and recommended by academics, collectors, curators, students and general readers who want context for the contemporary obsession with fashion. Constantly in demand, it has become a classic text in its field.

A practical introduction to key fashion trends from the little black dress and bowler hat to the ladies trouser suit and 2:55 bag. Fashion is all around us, and few of us are unaffected by it; yet, how many people know the origins of the little black dress, bowler hat or ladies trouser suit? How many people can pin down the famous brand of leather jacket Marlon Brando wore in The Wild One, or why the Chanel bag is known as the 2:55 bag? How to Read Fashion identifies the main fashion trends of the past 200 years and shows you how they relate to contemporary styles. From Neo-Classical to Gothic, Empire to Punk, Military and Designer Branding, explore the defining characteristics of each 'look' and read about the techniques and materials for some additional technical grounding. Finally, find out how all these trends are applied in the world of men's and women's fashions, including formal, casual and leisure wear, as well as accessories, jewellery, hair styles and make-up. As both a dip-in reference and stylish resource, How to Read Fashion equips you with the visual vocabulary to understand, investigate and interpret styles.