How fashion works : couture, ready-to-wear, and mass production

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 � Couture -- Its meaning and place in the fashion industry -- Couture house organisation -- Couture controlling and supporting bodies -- International couture -- Paris couture houses -- London couture houses -- Hollywood and haute couture -- The decline of the couture system in the 1960s -- The revival of couture in the 1980s and 1990s -- Making techniques and their influence on fashion -- Characteristics and specialities of fitters -- Couture today;Fashion deals with a world of illusion on the one hand and a hard-bitten, multifaceted and multi-billion pound industry on the other. This stimulating book clarifies how fashion operates on all its levels: the mystery of haute couture is explained, the complexities of ready to wear are simplified, and the power of mass production assessed and evaluated. Fashion terms, their use and meaning are explained in plain words and the complicated stages of design, manufacture and distribution are described in detail. Also included are sections on bespoke tailoring, wholesale menswear, dressmaking, mill. Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 � Couture -- Its meaning and place in the fashion industry -- Couture house organisation -- Couture controlling and supporting bodies -- International couture -- Paris couture houses -- London couture houses -- Hollywood and haute couture -- The decline of the couture system in the 1960s -- The revival of couture in the 1980s and 1990s -- Making techniques and their influence on fashion -- Characteristics and specialities of fitters -- Couture today Chapter 2 � Ready-to-WearDefinition -- Origins of ready-to-wear -- The evolution of ready-to-wear -- Utility Clothing -- Fashion revolution in London in the 1960s -- The influence of the 1960s revolution on Paris -- Design process -- Ready-to-wear manufacturing techniques -- Ready-to-wear workrooms or studios -- Factors in the growth of the ready-to-wear industry -- The regulating or supporting bodies -- Ready-to-wear versus haute couture -- The Japanese influence -- The emergence of Belgium -- Italy's role in ready-to-wear -- British ready-towear America: the first in ready-to-wearChapter 3 � Mass Production -- The mass production process -- Production -- Sizing -- Design strategies in mass production -- Lines within a design house -- Offshore production -- Ethical trading -- New trends -- Chapter 4 � Tailoring -- History -- Male-dominated craft -- Bespoke tailoring -- Savile Row -- The supremacy of the English tailors -- Royal patronage and influence -- The ethos of English tailoring -- Specialist tailors -- Tailoring techniques -- The bespoke tailoring process Tailoring cloth suppliersCouture tailoring -- Chapter 5 � Menswear -- Definition of menswear (wholesale tailoring) -- The British tradition -- Tailoring for the masses -- The middle market -- The effect of market forces on manufacturing -- Specialist, patented and branded items -- America -- The Italian influence -- Menswear and the 1960s fashion revolution -- Designer menswear -- Itinerant tailors and the rag trade -- Men's ready-to-wear today -- Chapter 6 � Dressmaking -- The origins of dressmaking Dressmaking as part of traditional female educationDressmaking as a career -- Paper patterns -- Levels of dressmaking -- The difference between the dress industry and the dressmakers' craft -- Chapter 7 � Millinery and Accessories -- The couturiers' ancillary trades -- Millinery -- Paris milliners -- The millinery manufacturing process -- The decline of the milliner -- Buttons -- Belts -- Shoes -- Embroiderers -- Pleaters, buttonholers and pressers -- Linings and interlinings -- Chapter 8 � The Designers Fashion deals with a world of illusion on the one hand and a hard-bitten, multifaceted and multi-billion pound industry on the other. This stimulating book clarifies how fashion operates on all its levels: the mystery of haute couture is explained, the complexities of ready to wear are simplified, and the power of mass production assessed and evaluated. Fashion terms, their use and meaning are explained in plain words and the complicated stages of design, manufacture and distribution are described in detail. Also included are sections on bespoke tailoring, wholesale menswear, dressmaking, millinery and accessories, the fashion calendar and short biographies on the most influential designers.

Every follower of fashion, whether at college or in big business, will welcome the information presented in this book.

The Author

Gavin Waddell, whose experience of fashion is wide ranging, has worked as a designer for two of London’s top couturiers, as a ready-to-wear designer with his own label, as a forecaster, menswear designer and illustrator and more recently as a writer on the subject. As an educator he has run three of Britain’s foremost fashion schools and performed the role of assessor, external examiner and advisor to many of the country’s leading colleges and universities. He studied fashion design at Saint Martin’s School of Art London and has had his work featured in, amongst others, Womenswear Daily, Vogue, Harpers and Queen and The Times.

Cover illustration drawn by the author from a photograph by Franco Rubartelli of Veruschka wearing the famous safari shirt by Yves Saint Laurent from his spring/summer 1968 collection.

Fashion deals with a world of illusion on the one hand and a hard-bitten, multifaceted and multi-billion pound industry on the other. This stimulating book clarifies how fashion operates on all its levels: the mystery of haute couture is explained, the complexities of ready to wear are simplified, and the power of mass production assessed and evaluated. Fashion terms, their use and meaning are explained in plain words and the complicated stages of design, manufacture and distribution are described in detail. Also included are sections on bespoke tailoring, wholesale menswear, dressmaking, millinery and accessories, the fashion calendar and short biographies on the most influential designers. Every follower of fashion, whether at college or in big business, will welcome the information presented in this book. The Author Gavin Waddell, whose experience of fashion is wide ranging, has worked as a designer for two of London's top couturiers, as a ready-to-wear designer with his own label, as a forecaster, menswear designer and illustrator and more recently as a writer on the subject. As an educator he has run three of Britain's foremost fashion schools and performed the role of assessor, external examiner and advisor to many of the country's leading colleges and universities. He studied fashion design at Saint Martin's School of Art London and has had his work featured in, amongst others, "Womenswear Daily", "Vogue", "Harpers and Queen" and "The Times". It features a cover illustration drawn by the author from a photograph by Franco Rubartelli of Veruschka wearing the famous safari shirt by Yves Saint Laurent from his spring/summer 1968 collection