Necklines & Collars


Book Description

A visual directory to the many choices and techniques available when selecting collars and necklines to perfectly enhance a garment.




Shirtmaking


Book Description

Author Page draws on twenty years of shirtmaking experience to share the construction secrets of garments from the world's finest shirtmakers, using simple tools and techniques any sewer can acquire.




The Modern Gentleman’s Handbook


Book Description

The ultimate guide to style and social success for the modern gentleman. Ever wondered how to decode the infamous smart casual dress code? How many shirts a man really needs? How to master the art of small talk? Or even which cocktail recipes every man simply must have in his repertoire of bar skills? The Modern Gentleman's Handbook will have all the answers the modern man requires to put his best foot forward for all occasions, from the office, to weddings and sporting events and even long weekends away. This essential collection of do's and don'ts, from the fundamentals to the obscure and eccentric, will ready any man to conquer all of life's daily challenges and opportunities with finesse and good spirit. Effortlessly elevate your style and reputation with this vital handbook.




The Aloha Shirt


Book Description

Beautifully illustrated with more than 700 images, The Aloha Shirt: Spirit of the Islands tells the colourful stories behind the marvellous Hawaiian shirts: as cultural icons, evocative of the mystery and the allure of the Islands; as collectibles, valued by professional collectors and by the millions of tourists who still cherish the shirts hanging in their wardrobes; and as a lifestyle - casual, relaxed and fun. Drawing from hundreds of interviews, newspaper and magazine archives, and personal memorabilia, the author evokes the world of the designers, seamstresses, manufacturers and retailers of the Golden Age of the Aloha shirt (from the 1930s to the end of the 1950s), who created the industry and nurtured it from its single-sewing-machine shop beginnings to an enterprise of international scope and importance. Here are the fun-loving 1960s; interviews with collectors who preserve these shirts as fine works of art; and insights into the roles of coconut buttons, matched pockets, woven labels and exotic fabrics in the evolution of the Aloha shirt.




The Devil's Cloth


Book Description

To stripe a surface serves to distinguish it, to point it out, to oppose it or associate it with another surface, and thus to classify it, to keep an eye on it, to verify it, even to censor it. Throughout the ages, the stripe has made its mark in mysterious ways. From prisoners' uniforms to tailored suits, a street sign to a set of sheets, Pablo Picasso to Saint Joseph, stripes have always made a bold statement. But the boundary that separates the good stripe from the bad is often blurred. Why, for instance, were stripes associated with the devil during the Middle Ages? How did stripes come to symbolize freedom and unity after the American and French revolutions? When did the stripe become a standard in men's fashion? "In the stripe," writes author Michel Pastoureau, "there is something that resists enclosure within systems." So before putting on that necktie or waving your country's flag, look to The Devil's Cloth for a colorful history of the stripe in all its variety, controversy, and connotation.




The Big-Ass Book of Bling


Book Description

A fun, flashy, and sassy book for beginner and expert crafters alike—with more than 150 new projects that will add pizzazz to everything from jewelry to tote bags! All that glitters doesn’t have to be gold...and diamonds (even the fake ones!) can be a girl’s—or anyone's—best friend. With Mark Montano’s step-by-step guidance you, too, can let loose your inner fashionista and make fabulous, unique accessories to complement your entire wardrobe! Think outside the box when it comes to materials, and check through your recycling to find treasures In the Bin. Show people your New Mexico style, and make a papier-mâché Zigzag Turquoise Cuff out of newspaper. When the plastic store bags start crawling out from under the sink, tame them with a Fused Plastic Flower Cuff. Make the tree-mendous Nature’s Bling Bag decorated with branches sliced thin. Or Twine Not try the hardware store for some colored twine—and pick up some aluminum flashing to find out why Tin Is “In”? From punk to retro, from bobby pins to safety pins, with more than 150 projects there’s something for everyone, whether you want to glam it up Hollywood-style or go ultra-sophisticated like a newly crowned princess.




Sewing Shirts with a Perfect Fit


Book Description

Do you long to get a perfect fit when sewing your own shirts and blouses? In Sewing Shirts with a Perfect Fit, author, teacher, and shirt-sewing expert David Page Coffin shows how you can easily transform the patterns included with the book into three different customized basic shirt silhouettes. Learn to work with any body shape for men or women to achieve unique, personalized, and well-fitted basic shirt patterns for yourself or anyone else. The book includes detailed explanations of essential techniques; clear, step-by-step photos; and basic patterns for sizes XXXS to XXXL that are included in a pocket behind the front cover. Discover unique fitting options for shirts and learn how to drape fabrics to create a wrinkle-free garment. With these techniques, you’ll understand how to get a great fit with almost no measuring for any and all body types, including plus-size and athletic figures. Using his couture-inspired draping methods on both standard and custom-shaped body forms (with great tips on how to make your own form), David then demonstrates how to adjust shoulder and side seams, necklines, sleeves, and armholes, and add darts or new seams to achieve the fit you want for each silhouette: loose, fitted, or tight. Once you've covered the fundamental concepts and techniques, put your knowledge into practice with the four distinctive, original step-by-step shirt design and construction projects. These projects offer a variety of classic shirt, shirt-jacket, and dress shirt styles you can make and perfectly fit with the included patterns. In this book you’ll also learn: Correct ways to drape patterns in different fabrics for a great fit. How to make a denim Western shirt with sleeve plackets and snaps. Construction tips that will make your garments look more professional. How to create a fitted wrapped shirtdress that can be any length. Ways to position and reshape a yoke. Sewing Shirts with a Perfect Fit will give you the skills you need to get the right fit every time!




Dressing the Man


Book Description

Dressing the Man is the definitive guide to what men need to know in order to dress well and look stylish without becoming fashion victims. Alan Flusser's name is synonymous with taste and style. With his new book, he combines his encyclopedic knowledge of men's clothes with his signature wit and elegance to address the fundamental paradox of modern men's fashion: Why, after men today have spent more money on clothes than in any other period of history, are there fewer well-dressed men than at any time ever before? According to Flusser, dressing well is not all that difficult, the real challenge lies in being able to acquire the right personalized instruction. Dressing well pivots on two pillars -- proportion and color. Flusser believes that "Permanent Fashionability," both his promise and goal for the reader, starts by being accountable to a personal set of physical trademarks and not to any kind of random, seasonally served-up collection of fashion flashes. Unlike fashion, which is obliged to change each season, the face's shape, the neck's height, the shoulder's width, the arm's length, the torso's structure, and the foot's size remain fairly constant over time. Once a man learns how to adapt the fundamentals of permanent fashion to his physique and complexion, he's halfway home. Taking the reader through each major clothing classification step-by-step, this user-friendly guide helps you apply your own specifics to a series of dressing options, from business casual and formalwear to pattern-on-pattern coordination, or how to choose the most flattering clothing silhouette for your body type and shirt collar for your face. A man's physical traits represent his individual road map, and the quickest route toward forging an enduring style of dress is through exposure to the legendary practitioners of this rare masculine art. Flusser has assembled the largest andmost diverse collection of stylishly mantled men ever found in one book. Many never-before-seen vintage photographs from the era of Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, and Fred Astaire are employed to help illustrate the range and diversity of authentic men's fashion. Dressing the Man's sheer magnitude of options will enable the reader to expand both the grammar and verbiage of his permanent-fashion vocabulary. For those men hoping to find sartorial fulfillment somewhere down the road, tethering their journey to the mind-set of permanent fashion will deliver them earlier rather than later in life.




Breaking the Pattern


Book Description

Scandinavian fashion has long been admired for its stylish, clean-lined, interesting cuts and aesthetic. Breaking the Pattern is the first authentic dressmaking book that showcases the beauty and uniqueness of Scandinavian style. Complete with stunning photography, clear illustrations and instructions this book will show you how to create a coherent capsule wardrobe – complete with a collection of 10 garments that are easy to make, wear, and combine with each other. From the Finnish sewing duo behind the dressmaking fashion label Named, Laura and Saara offer up an enticing selection of tops, dresses, skirt and trousers for the modern seamstress. You will build your skills as you work through the book and with plenty of variations suggested for each garment, there's lots of room for you to add your own personal touches and quirks to each design. Taking you beyond the patterns featured in this book, Breaking the Pattern will inspire you to not only build on your sewing repertoire but to grow in confidence with your own sewing. Patterns come in a range of sizes from US sizes 4 to 16, with concise information of measuring yourself and finding the perfect fit. Full size pattern sheets are included in this neat package, perfect for the contemporary dressmaker.




Shirt Kings


Book Description

Jamaica, Queens, New York in the mid 1980s. Rappers, celebrities and hip hop fans came from all over the city to get their own customized T-shirt by the Shirt Kings. The style traveled all over the world through record covers and music videos, and the Shirt Kings designs soon became synonymous with hip hop and the culture of making something out of nothing. Shirt Kings: Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion looks at the early days of street wear through the lens of the pioneering group of artistic entrepreneurs known as the Shirt Kings. By adapting the graffiti skills from the trains and spray cans to shirts and airbrush they created a new look for a new generation. Edwin PHADE Sacasa is a founding artist of the group and it is through his archives that we are transported to the 1980s in New York City where the fashion was loud, colorful, and filled with cartoon imagery. But not just any cartoon imagery for the cartoons where urbanized. Mickey Mouse with a Fila suit, Casper the Friendly Ghost w