The Fashion Designer's Textile Directory

This book is a very informative and detailed book. It has everything you need referencing textiles. Definitely a book for anyone in fashion school or in the fashion industry. The pictures in the book are an extra reward. With each textile the book will have a picture of a garment made from that textile. It got me through a class, where as the instructor had no idea the differences in textile. One week a fabric was a polyester(blend) and the next it was a rayon(blend) or cotton. Sometimes she changed her mind in the same day. I am still using it today. Brief details of the book: Fabric production, fabric waste, how textiles are made, manmade versus natural, charts in the back summarizing fabric textile and how they are produced, whether it is a top/bottom or medium weight, what garments can be used with each textile, advantages and disadvantages, other names for the fabrics, whether it is weave or weft, single knit/double knit, selvage, PFD textiles preparing for dyeing (but it is brief/not the book for learning how to dye textiles)

This is an outstanding reference book for any designer cat designer pattern maker. It is absolutely phenomenally organized for every fabric in a way that you simply memorize it. Well, it is incredible publication.!!!

Wow, what a great book. Anyone getting into fashion and sewing will love this book. Extremely detailed. I didn't know there were so many fabrics to choose from. It talks about the positives and negatives of various fabrics. It is a great help for someone like me. I'm getting back into sewing and fashion. It helps me zero in on good quality fabrics to focus on and which ones are easier to work with. I highly recommend it for young designers, fashion inspiration, sewing projects.

Fantastic Book! A must have for reference for any sewer, no matter what your skill level. Everything you need to know about any fabric is right at your fingertips

I was really hoping I would hate this or at least find it to be mediocre, because my book budget has long been exceeded this fall. However, despite how hard I tried to find reasons why this could get sent back for a refund, I just COULD NOT part with it. I love it, it is exactly the kind of resource for a person who wants to do fashion design. I am a beginner; lots of ideas but not sure how to match to fabric characteristics. The book has great detail, great pics, and is a dream-stimulator extraordinaire! FIVE stars,and I am not an easy grader.

Organized, well laid out book with great visual references and photos. My only criticism to drop the book to 4 stars instead of 5 stars is a wish for a list of 'what fabrics are appropriate to what printing method...' hopefully that oversight will be corrected in future editions. I was suprised by the fact that there are only 2 pages in the book devoted to the subject of printing fabric and automated methods. What is great about this book is that there are over 130 different fabrics, fabric treatments, trims or decorative techniques listed plus a section on knits. Each individual listing Is given 1 or 2 pages each with examples (usually 3), plus a photo of models wearing clothing in that particular fabric. The fabric information is broken down into; distinctive features,strengths,weaknesses and usual fiber content. This book runs to 320 pgs. Well worth the initial investment.

OMG this book is fabulous. I have over 20yrs in Retail Buying, Product Design, and Development (all types of apparel as well as non-apparel) and have been in zillions of mills and factories all over. Very well illustrated and explained. Even touches on the production timeline from concept to delivery (this is the only area that lacks real depth but is not the focus of the book to begin with so it is expected). From a fabric knowledge perspective, I will be requiring my new hires to read this (designers, product managers, graphic designers, QA/QC, etc as well as the Buyers and Planners) Everyone involved in the apparel industry should read this including retail Merchant teams so they fully understand this very important aspect of their business.

Gorgeous book, superbly organized and arranged and written, giving near-encyclopedic insight into the nature of modern fabrics, how they're built, dyed, printed, and what unique qualities each possesses so you get an idea of how each can give voice to the fashion styles you'd like to design and construct. A real definitive, go-to textbook of value to all fashion designers and textile workers. This volume does not contain cloth swatches, but I think one can obtain theme in a companion volume somewhere (?) Being a very modern, savvy book, the author wishes to pay particular attention to sustainability, frequently describing what environmental collateral pitfalls can occur with the manufacture of these fabrics; I personally am a little bored by these modern PC niceties in the text, but perhaps I shouldn't be. Highly recommended to those at all levels in the fashion and textile industry.