Fashion Books.

I love fashion and have a strong belief in self learning as I grew up in country were studying fashion is very hard. I believe books are a fundamental instrument in learning be it at school or at home. I have selected my personal favorites which have helped me along the way.

The first Two are a must have  for those aspiring fashion designers out there.  I was really worried about spending a lot of money on books as these particular ones are pretty expensive.  I did not really find any good reviews out there so I just took the leap and bought them and I have to say they are the two best books I have ever purchased.

Metric pattern cutting for women's wear.

Starting with "Metric pattern cutting for women's wear" by Winifred Aldrich. I have to say this book is pretty amazing by far the best book I have purchased when it comes to pattern drafting. You see I have taken up a course in Patterns Drafting and by the end of it I was quite confused it was to much for me to handle I am not sure if it was the teachers way of explaining or maybe it was just me. But I still did not give up I  was adamant about learning to draft my own patterns, I wanted to learn the basics from which I would then create my own designs. Well I Google "Pattern Drafting books" as we all often do and from one website to another and many ups and downs, I finally decided to make my first purchase. "Metric Pattern Cutting for women's wear" is just the book I wanted. It has all the basic patterns and introduces you to  everything you need to know to get started.  It briefly explains Pattern cutting and design, Fabrics, tools and equipment needed, sizing and how to take measurements.  The best part about it all is that it is written in straightforward easy to understand English.

"Illustration for fashion design" by Gustavo R. Fernandez

The second book which I purchased was the "Illustration for fashion design" by Gustavo R. Fernandez. As it states on the front cover it is a "12 Steps to the fashion figure" book. The steps are pretty simple and straight forward  but some steps can be quite challenging for those who are not that artistic. Having said that, with practice you can achieve pretty good results. Starting from the basics you slowly learn how to build up the human figure, which is the base of any fashion illustration. The book explores female, male and children clothing. It shows you how to use color and how to draw different textures and patterns of fabric. One of the best parts about this book is the Appendix which displays different types of fashion garment designs for example the pockets, cuffs lapels and necklines .All in all this book show you the basic of Fashion Illustration from which you can gradually built up on.

Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi

My two other favorite books Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi were originally only published in Japanese. These books simply amaze me when i first set my eyes on these books I just wanted them, the pictures in the books make you wonder if its actually possible to make. Despite being published in Japanese most reviews stated that the Pictures are so detailed and everything was so clearly marked that you could make out what is needed to be done. Saying that I initially bought Pattern Magic 1 in Japanese thinking it was pretty simple to understand. Well it is not, you see I was desperate to buy the book because the patterns we simply amazing but when I got the book I spent ages trying to figure out what it meant. Through all this I realized it was worth it. This book shows the different ways in which one can manipulate patterns which i had never even thought of before. I would recommend you buy the English version if possible far less hassle. I do not think this book is intended for beginners, as most of the patterns are very complicated that is why I suggest you start of with the "Metric pattern cutting for women's wear".

So these are four of the many books I cannot live without.  Keep posted for other reviews.