Laurence King Lingerie Design: A Complete Course

Description

Lingerie and sleepwear is a large sector of the fashion industry. Most brands from designer to the high street have a lingerie line and most fashion design courses will have a lingerie elective. In this book, Pamela Powell takes a very practical approach, showing how to design and construct lingerie, sleepwear and foundation garments. Step-by-step illustrations demonstrate the basic blocks and show how to manipulate them into different styles. Advice is given about how to work with the speciality fabrics used in the industry including woven, knit, power stretch and bias-cut fabrics. Specially commissioned photographs and diagrams are used to showcase construction techniques specific to lingerie including boning, elastic and lace insertion and how and where to use the myriad of closures available. A final chapter on embellishment shows how to add unique and personal touches to garments and apply that luxurious finish. Review: Detailed overview - This book sounded promising but I couldn't find the kind of review I wanted before purchasing it so I'm making it in case anyone else goes looking for it. First off, this is a very thorough, very solid base with attention to details without getting too complicated. If you're new to pattern drafting, it goes into enough detail to teach a beginning or be a reliable guide and reminder for an intermediate. It goes through a number of basic shapes of undergarments and foundation garments, giving construction tips, a swift historical overview for those who are interested in that, types of fabric you can use and how to use them. It tells you how to make a sloper/basic block for non-stretch AND stretch fabrics, how to lay the pieces of garments that could benefit from stretch so that they may use the stretch in the most optimal form. It also gives you a lot of different ways to decorate your creations but leaving the field open for you, giving you the basics on how to alter basic patterns you've drafted to give your decorations space. One of my favourites was the sections that dealt with lace, appliqués, how to make and securely attach appliqués made from lace fabric and lace inserts. It also gives you sizing charts and explains them in decent detail as well as online suppliers in the UK, US and even one in Australia. As someone who's studied the making of proper corsets/stays, I would advice to take heed. While, yes, this book DOES touch upon and gives the same amount of attention to proper corsets, there is A LOT more to know and learn about corsetry. If your main interest are corsets, I would recommend you to get another book instead or in addition to this one. This book gives a good base but it is for MODERN corsets that still remain true to their predecessors (proper boning, lacing, etc). It just isn't one of this book's main foci. TL;DR All in all, it's a great book, well worth the money. It'll suit beginners as well as those of you who've studied this art before or hold experience from other avenues and are looking for a refresher or to delve into lingerie making. Pros: Highlights and teaches most basic forms of lingerie Teaches drafting Teaches material knowledge Provides construction tips Provides sewing techniques Provides decoration methods Basic specification sheet for bras (basic info you give the manufacturer if you were to make your creations on a larger scale) Cons: Like any course, it's a start. An in-depth start but a start nonetheless. Only a specification sheet for bras Noteworthy: This is a book on modern lingerie. That means the 20th century onwards, ca 1930 at its earlier and onwards. It's a large, decently weighted, medium-soft cover book (that won't fit through 90% of all letterboxes attached to doors out there). Review: Tres beau livre - Il vous faudra tout de meme des bases solides mais il est magnifique et tres bien illustre