The Fashion Designer's Textile Directory: A Guide to Fabrics' Properties, Characteristics, and Garment-Design Potential

This valuable materials directory for professional dressmakers and fashion designers is also a good reference source for students of fashion design, as well as for those who make their own garments. The author points out the best fabrics for creating specific garments, explaining how each fabric's qualities make it suitable for various items of apparel. Knowing which fabrics can support a structured silhouette is fundamental to fashion design, and this book explains the use of stiff or crisply textured fabrics for tailored garments, as well as soft textured fabrics for rounded forms. Ornamentation is also discussed, and includes advice on how to work with different fabrics to create what author Gail Baugh classifies as opulent, simple, and in-between decorative effects. The book's additional features include:

Fiber characteristics charts

Weave charts and knit charts with fabric names and photos

A glossary of terms and definitions

Lists of textile suppliers, online stores, and study resources

This directory of textiles and their uses is profusely illustrated with more than 500 color photos.

(back cover)
This is the fabric and textile directory that dressmakers and fashion designers have been waiting for. It's like having your own personal textiles expert on hand to recommend fabrics that match the effects you want to achieve. You'll discover how different fabrics perform, and you'll learn the many ways to use them.

The directory is organized by function. Do you want a fabric for its structure, fluidity, added volume, definition, or decoration? Do you want a garment that clings to the figure, or one that allows you to construct a whole new silhouette? What is the overall effect you are aiming to achieve--pretty, or lustrous and magnificent?

Each fabric described in the directory comes with color photos of samples that illustrate its properties, helping you understand how a given fabric's qualities make it suitable for specific items of apparel.

At the back of the book you will find essential guides to fiber properties, counts, weaves, knits, weights, characteristics, and care advice.

Gail Baugh teaches textiles and merchandising at both San Francisco State University and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. She has extensive fashion industry experience, particularly in global product development and sourcing for large retail chains.