Fabric for Fashion: The Swatch Book Revised Second Edition

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Secured in an attractive folder, with descriptions alongside them, the fabrics are in their raw state, before bleaching, dying or finishing, so that their properties can be observed without the distraction of colour or pattern.

Even more cottons can be found in the Introduction where cottons are mainly used to describe different weaves and knits. If you can master (you can, easily) the content in this book, you will likely pass Textile Science 101. Each section is accompanied with information on fibres, the basic construction of fabric and weave comparison. The first is a wonderfully illustrated book that explains the properties of different fabrics, their history, use and characteristics. I’m a total nerd about textiles and do already have some textbooks on the subject… but I’ve read them many times and like to read all the sources out there!It is the right match for the people in the fashion industry who are exhaustive users of colored pencils, artist-makers, pens, crayons, and more. The fabric swatch book consists of a guide that has procedures and answers for lab assignments and tables for fabric, fiber content, yarn, weave, knit types, and also the weight, width, method of coloring. It's great that there are no colours or patterns on the swatches so I'm not influenced by anything other than the feel and the description of what the fabric is good for. The swatches are quite large and, unlike the swatch book we used in college, come adhered to the book rather than in a large bag requiring you to sort through and try to figure out what is what. Along with the swatches, it has diagrams and photographs of the garments to illustrate the behavior of the fabric.

The book is packed with information about different types of fibers, and it’s all very clear and well-organized. I’m not sure I could’ve named 25 different types of fabric, let alone 125, before picking up this book! Marnie Fogg guides the reader through a particular approach to fashion design and production by introducing each fashion house. From there each fiber is broken down into the many different kinds of fabrics and weaves made from it and explains how each of these is produced and the specific properties they hold. I find prints and colours far too distracting, often considering them more than how the fabric will hang and drape when the garment is made.So, because of this, the fabric can become bent and warped, but for me, this didn’t detract from the book’s overall usefulness. FAYE FRASER NORTHAMPTON COLLEGE Great introductory coverage of natural and synthetic fibres and manufacturing processes within industry. It is designed to inform the reader of the endless possibilities that fabrics offer to the design process. One author, Hallett, previously worked at the London College of Fashion at Northumbria University, while Johnston still teaches there. This is a swatch book so, apart from descriptions of fabrics and comparisons, it contains many swatches of many types of fabric.