Book/Publisher Reviews: Accessories and other topics, and some podcasts!

[labricoleuse]

My class next semester is going to be sort of random--a catch-all course on all the crafts-related topics not covered in Dyeing/Distressing, Millinery, and Masks/Armor. We're going to study glovemaking, shoe construction and repair, jewelry, parasol manufacture, body padding, and basic engineering of kinetic costume elements (macropuppetry, incorporated electrics, etc). I've been, as usual, looking at a range of books for potential texts and i thought i'd share some titles and publishers here.

If you are unfamiliar with Quite Specific Media, check out their website and page through their catalogue, particularly the Costume & Fashion Press section! I guarantee you will find some titles you want for your personal library.

QSM's Visual Encyclopedia of Costume Accessories, by Valerie Cumming will likely figure into my course as a reference manual, but what i'd had high hopes for was their Patterns for Costume Accessories. I've made up a couple of the patterns from it and they've gone together nicely enough (they scale up a lot better than most patterns of the sort) but there's not attendant info on tips and tricks of drafting/draping your own accessory patterns. If you hate patternmaking and aren't very intuitive about putting things together, it'd be a great resource, but it's a bit too simplistic for my course. Even so, the newsboy cap pattern in there makes up adorably. :)

Unrelated to my class, another title of theirs that's pretty exciting is Making Latex Clothes by Sian-Kate Mooney.

Another publisher of note is Fairchild Books, a niche press serving the fashion and interior design fields. Their Fashion titles are very definitely slanted toward industry and mass-production, designing enormous product lines that will sell, studying demographics, catering to and creating trends, etc., but that doesn't preclude their usefulness for the entertainment/art costumer as well.

The title they carry that i'm going to be using is the rather Mickey-Mousily named Know Your Fashion Accessories, by Celia Stall-Meadows. There's a great deal of useful historical and sociological information on all sorts of accessory items, as well as some form/function fashion theory on the hows and whys of wearing/using/carrying various items.

Dakota Prairie Treasures is a historical reprint house which carries low-end (think spiral-bound a la the copy shop) reprints of vintage and antique instruction manuals. They carry a glovemaking book i'm going to use (How to Make Gloves by Eunice Close), as well as titles on diverse and hard-to-find topics like Victorian hair-work and tatting. Many of their offerings are available in CD format as well, if you prefer e-books.

My own parasol textbook is oh-so-nearly complete--i expect to have news of its availability by December-ish. (I'll mention it here when it's done for certain!)


In other media, looking for something to listen to? How about some links to podcasts!

The Victoria & Albert Museum has three podcasts up on their site to accompany their "Golden Age of Couture" exhibit. Featured topics are Balenciaga suits, Lady Alexandra, and New Look suits.

And, the LJ community frockflicks features ongoing monthly podcast commentary on costume-dramas, hosted by members of the Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild.