Fashion and friendship don't always go hand in hand... Mickey Williams is a top student at Fashion Academy of Brooklyn, the premiere school for aspiring designers. So it's no surprise when her teacher selects her to compete in a new competitive fashion TV show. Even better? Her BFF JC is selected too! But with a major prize at stake, the friendly competition turns into a full-on wardrobe war and the fabric starts flying! Can Mickey stop her TV debut from turning into a fashion (and friendship) fiasco?

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The history of clothing begins with the origin of man, and fashionable dress can be traced as far back as 25,000 years ago. Recent scientific explorations have uncovered graves in northern Russia with skeletons covered in beads made of mammoth ivory that once adorned clothing made of animal skin. The Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans each made major contributions to fashion's legacy from their textile innovations, unique clothing designs and their early use of accessories, cosmetics, and jewelry. During the Middle Ages, "fashion trends" emerged as trade and commerce thrived allowing the merchant class to afford to emulate the fashions worn by royals. However, it is widely believed that fashion didn't became an industry until the industrial and commercial revolution during the latter part of the 18th century. Since then, the industry has grown exponentially. Today, fashion is one of the biggest businesses in the world, with hundreds of billions of dollars in turnover and employing tens of millions of workers. It is both a profession, an industry, and in the eyes of many, an art. The A to Z of the Fashion Industry examines the origins and history of this billion-dollar industry. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced entries on designers, models, couture houses, significant articles of apparel and fabrics, trade unions, and the international trade organizations.

Never underestimate a scientist in a fancy dress. Why do people think sixth-grade scientist Amber Rosenberg can’t be smart and fashionable at the same time? Maybe by winning an internship at the hottest boutique in town, she’ll prove she can. Competition may be fierce, but so is she. Too young? Too much homework? Sabotaged by wild lunatic squirrels—or something more sinister? Amber’s got it covered. No one knows the science and engineering behind fashion like she does, and she has the best inventors at Ada Lovelace Charter School at her side, the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club. But when a research project unexpectedly reveals fashion’s dirty environmental secret, Amber must rethink what it means to win. Does she want to stand out, or stand up for what's right? The Science Channel meets Project Runway Junior in this charming story about friendship, the scientific method, and our impact on the world. Build DIY PROJECTS along with the Renegades in this interactive adventure encouraging the STEM in all of us. Instructions included for hands-on science and building projects.

An illuminating introduction to the expanding influence of fashion from the perspectives of design, technology, sustainability, and business Fashion matters for the economy, to society, and to each of us personally. Faster than anything else, what we wear tells the story of who we are—or who we want to be. It is the most immediate form of self-expression. Yet even as fashion touches the lives of each and every one of us, its influence and the vast creative industry that it supports can seem mysterious to outsiders. In Why Fashion Matters Frances Corner, Head of London College of Fashion, guides readers into the dizzying world of this rapidly expanding, increasingly global, always exciting industry. In provocative and intriguing entries, Corner teases out the glorious intricacies and contradictions of an industry that simultaneously values technology and craft; timeless style and fast fashion; the bespoke and the mass-market; consumption and sustainability; cold, hard numbers; and creative expression. From “Shop 'til We Drop” to “The White Shirt” to “The One Trillion Dollar Business” each entry offers a unique avenue into fashion and its impact, both positive and negative, on lives around the globe.

From Rococo to Edwardian fashions, Japanese street style has reinvented many western dress styles, reinterpreting and altering their meanings and messages in a different cultural and historical context. This wide ranging and original study reveals the complex exchange of styles and what they represent in Japan and beyond, contesting common perceptions of gender in Japanese dress and the notion that non-western fashions simply imitate western styles. Through case studies focussing on fashion image consumption in style tribes such as Kamikaze Girls, Lolita, Edwardian, Ivy Style, Victorian, Romantic and Kawaii, this ground-breaking book investigates the complexities of dress and gender and demonstrates the flexible nature of contemporary fashion and style exchange in a global context. Japanese Fashion Cultures will appeal to students and scholars of fashion, cultural studies, gender studies, media studies and related fields.