"The advice offered throughout this book supplies a selection of starting points for fashion designers of all levels. It provides a wide variety of useful examples for each stage of the design process including: How to define concepts and render them; Understanding textiles and the process of selecting fabrics; Developing sewing skills and constructing garments; How to build a reputation and find an audience for your work."--Cover p. [4].

This acclaimed volume provides a strong, multidisciplinary foundation for individual and family clothing choices as it balances theory with actual applications. The authors present a broad base of knowledge at an introductory level for readers' general education—unlike other books, which focus more narrowly on the needs of fashion professionals. Packed with activities, learning objectives, illustrations, and photographs, this user-friendly book meets the needs of future fashion professionals.The authors address fashion and personal appearance issues such as influences on consumer clothing selection, target market influences, cultural, socio-psychological and physical influences, design elements and principles applied to clothing, and consumer clothing selection issues such as fit, quality, care and planning.For fashion professionals and others interested in the fashion industry.

The objectives of the study were (1) to determine the differences in ability of seniors and freshmen to apply principles learned in a clothing selection course to selection of clothing, (2) to determine retention of concepts learned in the course, (3) to determine if age, grades, social class, and occupational plans affected application of principles to selection of clothing, and (4) to determine the value of the course to the student. A questionnaire was used to obtain the data needed. The 102 participants included in the study were freshmen and senior students enrolled in the School of Home Economics who had had the clothing selection course during their freshman year. The information was compiled on judging sheets and distributed to a board of five judges who were considered authorities in the subject. The judges determined the appropriateness of choices made on a five-point scale. Scores of four and five on the scale were combined for analysis in one category to indicate appropriate choices made, and scores of one and two were combined for inappropriate choices. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no significant difference in the ability of seniors and freshmen to apply design principles to an important garment or to selection of clothing in general. The scores made on the retention of concepts test in relation to the scores made on application of design principles to the most important garment proved to be insignificant for both groups. However, for seniors, the relation of scores on application principles to selection of clothing in general in relation to scores on concepts retention was significant. Age, grades, social class, and occupational plans were other variables analyzed to see if they affected the application of principles of design to clothing selection. There was no statistical difference between the ability of the freshmen and seniors to apply the principles of design, thus indicating age had no effect on ability of application. The relationship of grades to application of principles of design to selection was significant for freshmen, but not seniors. If a freshman made a high grade in the course, she most likely made more appropriate choices on application of principles to clothing selection. The relationship of social class to the application of principles to selection of a most important garment was significant for seniors only; whereas, the relationship of social class to application of design principles to selection of clothing in general was statistically significant for both seniors and freshmen. Occupational plans as a variable did not prove to be significant. Both seniors and freshmen thought that the most valuable part of the clothing selection course was on choosing becoming clothes according to figure and facial analysis. The least valuable part for seniors was the clothing inventory and for freshmen, clothing expenditures for the family. It was concluded, therefore, that there were no significant differences in the ability of seniors and freshmen to apply design principles to clothing selection. The relation of application of design principles to retention of concepts was significant for seniors, to occupational plans was insignificant, to grades was significant for freshmen, and to social class was significant for both seniors and freshmen.