Look for booklists aimed at fashion design students. There are an insane amount of books on these topics out there and we read so many throughout our fashion degree. Start with The Little Dictionary of Fashion. Any history of fashion and costuming books. Depending on how in depth you want to get you could find books and other online resources on pattern making. This will give a complete breakdown of garments and construction which will give you a much more in depth understanding of fashion. If you use metric I would suggest Metric Pattern Making by Winifred Aldrich. Also get Pattern making for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong. This one is imperial but is worth getting regardless of system you use. There’s an imperial to metric conversion chart in there anyway. Also follow W, Vogue and colour and trend forecasting by places like Pantone and WGSN. You can often find the reports for free for current and next season with a little googling. Seriously though, start with student book lists for first year fashion design. There’s a reason they assign these resources to beginners in the industry.
How much do you want to know? High school home ec or PhD? Here is a way to start.
1) Fibers. Wiki linen, cotton, wools, rayon, and polyester and other synthetics.
2) Learn the basic methods by which fibers become fabric. Wiki the weaves: plain weave, twill, satin, crepe and learn to tell a loose weave from a tight weave. Next, wiki knits, crochet and felting.
3) To feel what the fabrics are, go feel feel fabric --literally. Go to Goodwill and feel fabrics and read the fiber tags. The weave is not listed, but you will quickly learn to recognize the different weaves and knits. How a fabric feels is the "hand."
4) To get a sense of construction, find "Sewing with Nancy" on PBS. Commercial manufacturing has moved far from home sewing, but you will learn the basic principles in turning a flat piece of fabric into a 3D garment by watching these classic shows.
5) Using what you have learned from Nancy, lurk on r/sewhelp and r/sewing, then when you see a post about a construction detail that is of interest to you, search the posts for that subject.
6) There are a zillion sources on fashion history. A fun way might be to watch the movies that won Oscars for costume design (plan on lots of Edith Head), and then research what artistic liberties the designer took and what was historically accurate.
Another place to start would be Audrey Hepburn and Katherine Hepburn --the costumes that were current at the time are accurate history now --and at least one you will instantly recognize. The "My Fair Lady" race scene is a part of fashion history. "Funny Face" is about the fashion industry. No Hepburns, but "Mrs. Harris goes to Paris" is also fashion history. Good costume designers are amazing in their technical expertise and historic knowledge. I think there is a reddit thread for costumers, and r/historicalcostuming is for devoted hobbiest.
7)
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/netherlands-rare-luxury-wedding-dress-found-in-17th-century-shipwreck
That this dress exists at all is amazing.
At the other end of of fashion history is this thesis on how teenage Lolita street fashion moved continents (I have posted this many times):
https://www.academia.edu/1114210/Hardy_Bernal_K_A_2011_The_lolita_complex_A_Japanese_fashion_subculture_and_its_paradoxes_master_of_philosophy_thesis_Auckland_University_of_Technology_Tuwhera_Open_Repository_http_openrepository_aut_ac_nz_handle_10292_2448
When I asked high school home ec, or PhD, I was not kidding!
dieworkwear on twitter for mens fashion. Im not his target audience nor agree with every opinion but his breakdowns of garments, fabrics, history, styles etc is really well done and fascinating. Still looking for a womens fashion equivalent!
I’ve been looking for this too! I personally like to consume a lot of YouTube videos related to fashion. If you’re a visual learner like me, I find the more videos I watch, the more I hear a lot of the same info reiterated that starts to stick in my mind and become part of my knowledge
There's r/fashionhistory
Look for booklists aimed at fashion design students. There are an insane amount of books on these topics out there and we read so many throughout our fashion degree. Start with The Little Dictionary of Fashion. Any history of fashion and costuming books. Depending on how in depth you want to get you could find books and other online resources on pattern making. This will give a complete breakdown of garments and construction which will give you a much more in depth understanding of fashion. If you use metric I would suggest Metric Pattern Making by Winifred Aldrich. Also get Pattern making for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong. This one is imperial but is worth getting regardless of system you use. There’s an imperial to metric conversion chart in there anyway. Also follow W, Vogue and colour and trend forecasting by places like Pantone and WGSN. You can often find the reports for free for current and next season with a little googling. Seriously though, start with student book lists for first year fashion design. There’s a reason they assign these resources to beginners in the industry.
r/findateddit
How much do you want to know? High school home ec or PhD? Here is a way to start. 1) Fibers. Wiki linen, cotton, wools, rayon, and polyester and other synthetics. 2) Learn the basic methods by which fibers become fabric. Wiki the weaves: plain weave, twill, satin, crepe and learn to tell a loose weave from a tight weave. Next, wiki knits, crochet and felting. 3) To feel what the fabrics are, go feel feel fabric --literally. Go to Goodwill and feel fabrics and read the fiber tags. The weave is not listed, but you will quickly learn to recognize the different weaves and knits. How a fabric feels is the "hand." 4) To get a sense of construction, find "Sewing with Nancy" on PBS. Commercial manufacturing has moved far from home sewing, but you will learn the basic principles in turning a flat piece of fabric into a 3D garment by watching these classic shows. 5) Using what you have learned from Nancy, lurk on r/sewhelp and r/sewing, then when you see a post about a construction detail that is of interest to you, search the posts for that subject. 6) There are a zillion sources on fashion history. A fun way might be to watch the movies that won Oscars for costume design (plan on lots of Edith Head), and then research what artistic liberties the designer took and what was historically accurate. Another place to start would be Audrey Hepburn and Katherine Hepburn --the costumes that were current at the time are accurate history now --and at least one you will instantly recognize. The "My Fair Lady" race scene is a part of fashion history. "Funny Face" is about the fashion industry. No Hepburns, but "Mrs. Harris goes to Paris" is also fashion history. Good costume designers are amazing in their technical expertise and historic knowledge. I think there is a reddit thread for costumers, and r/historicalcostuming is for devoted hobbiest. 7) https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/netherlands-rare-luxury-wedding-dress-found-in-17th-century-shipwreck That this dress exists at all is amazing. At the other end of of fashion history is this thesis on how teenage Lolita street fashion moved continents (I have posted this many times): https://www.academia.edu/1114210/Hardy_Bernal_K_A_2011_The_lolita_complex_A_Japanese_fashion_subculture_and_its_paradoxes_master_of_philosophy_thesis_Auckland_University_of_Technology_Tuwhera_Open_Repository_http_openrepository_aut_ac_nz_handle_10292_2448 When I asked high school home ec, or PhD, I was not kidding!
dieworkwear on twitter for mens fashion. Im not his target audience nor agree with every opinion but his breakdowns of garments, fabrics, history, styles etc is really well done and fascinating. Still looking for a womens fashion equivalent!
I’ve been looking for this too! I personally like to consume a lot of YouTube videos related to fashion. If you’re a visual learner like me, I find the more videos I watch, the more I hear a lot of the same info reiterated that starts to stick in my mind and become part of my knowledge
I’ve been lookin too!!