6 Books All Fashion Students MUST have!

Now it’s the end of September and all the uni students have headed off to start their uni journeys to gain their independence, moved into halls, had freshsers week and gone raving (*sighs* ahhh the memories!). I have a few tips for fashion students. If you are embarking on a fashion design course there are 6 books that are MUST HAVES to help you get through it.

The first book I would strongly recommend to get is ‘Designing Patterns’ by Hilary Campbell. This book literally saved my life in uni. This book is great for designers who need to get to grips with the pattern cutting basics or just need refreshing on how to do certain things. If you are a visual learner like me this book is perfect for you, and will take you step by step on how to draft patterns for things such as: shirt collars, halter neck tops, jacket lapels or how to move a dart. (etc).

 

Another book I would highly recommend is 'The complete guide to printing and designing fabrics' by Laura Wisbrun. If you love Textiles and print, this book is for you! The book is great for experimenting, like playing with print repetition, print scale. As well as teaching about different printing and embellishment methods such as: heat transfer, embroidery, digital print or using something as simple as paint and a stamp.

Now this book is one of my favourites! The Pocket Fashion Sketch Pad is full of fashion templates and perfect for carrying in your bag and just whipping out if a wave of inspiration hits you when you just need to quickly get a design done. The great thing about these templates is when you scan your designs in, the template lines disappear and all you are left with is your design – I know! It’s cool right? – yep get one! £11.99 from Urban Outfitters

 As a student, designer or stylist, it is vital to know and to understand fabrics, their properties and how they behave. Most of the time this process is trial and error, but a great guide to help you learn about and identify fabric properties, is a book by Amanada Johnston (who was actually one of my uni tutors) called 'Fabric for Fashion - The Swatch Book'. This book is amazing! It has in depth information of fabrics, where they come from, how they can be sourced, their properties, and then beside each description as well as a fabric name there is also a  swatch so it allows the reader to be interactive and tactile.

Now any students that want to start their own fashion business, this next book I would say is the most imperative of all, ‘How to setup and run a fashion label’, by Toby Meadows. This book is genius! It helped me write my final collection proposal about my own brand and takes you step by step through all of the things you need to consider when setting up: target consumer, studio space, marketing, packaging (etc) – just get the book lol.

Last but not least – YES! – the note book, the notebook is always important to carry with you, you never know who you are going to meet, or what you may have to write down, so my advice – always be prepared with a lovely pen and a fabulous notebook.

  

The  Note Book and the Fashion Pocket sketch book can be purchased from Urban Outfitters stationery section.

The Other 3 books can be purchased on Amazon