• Fashion News World.  We are so delighted to have a new special arrangement with Fashion News World, Inc., the people who supply all the cinema newsreels, TV programs and those long fashion design specials to all the networks of the world.  Through CFPD, individual consumers can now purchase the same films on DVD for viewing at home, building a collection that will be loved and viewed for years.  Check the list.  The films show the actual footage then and now of famous designers' collections and interviews -- they are full of great views of the clothes moving on the figure!  In addition, if we offer a class on a particular designer, like the up-coming Dior Dress class, the designer's DVD will be discounted to class members.

• New Shoben Department from England.  Another coup -- and we are just as delighted!  CFPD is now the exclusive representative for the US and Canada of all the Martin Shoben pattern design products from England.  We have carried his books and tools individually and they have been so successful that we will now be able to offer access to all of his products. So take a look . . . Mr. Shoben is one of the world's best pattern designers.  His London School of Fashion Design became the much esteemed fashion design department at Northumbria University. He is a born teacher and pattern design problem solver -- his products work really well.

• Nothing to Wear, Victorian Englishwoman's fashion sensibilities revealed:  Written in 1859 by a poetic and perplexed suitor, Harry, this humorous poem is the first reprint of this rare book about the difficulties of fashionable ladies.  Bound with a garnet ribbon, the poem is 31 pages long on creamy paper.  It is delightful to look at and to read, plus it has a lesson -- the perfect fashion gift this season!

• Cut My Cote, from Toronto, by Dorothy Burnham, a new/old book full of Zero-Waste ideas -- 2011 will be a big year for ingenious zero-waste pattern design and this book laid the groundwork.  These concepts are perfect for use with expensive art fabrics that could bring tears if wasted.  Lengths and widths can be varied to bring historical designs into contemporary lifestyles.  Here's the link.  

• The Zarapkar System of Cutting, from the Zarapkar Tailoring College in Mumbai, India.  The only way to describe this small but very intense textbook is to say it is a book of fast drafting, featuring everything from basic blocks to a wide variety of styles for men, women and children -- with lots of beginner instruction and charts.  The great part is that it has all the beautiful Indian national dress garments and a lot of proper British garments, especially men's -- a Raj masterpeice of pattern design -- my favorite, the bias Chudidar pants cut from a bias bag!  Here's the link.

• Getta Grip Clips.  12 great light weight fabric clips from Paul Gallo that are so perfect for holding the two halves of a bias seam together as you drape, making it possible to stitch the seam without losing the draped position or leaving pin marks -- also great for working out quick fabric ideas.  Watch him work with the clips.
   

• Fashion Figure Templates.  For a wonderful close-up video on how to sketch designs on your own croquis figures or one using our Shoben Fashion Templates, check out San Francisco's Paul Gallo as he draws a dress on a croquis.  Paul teaches the draping courses at City College of San Francisco on Monday & Wednesday nights from 6-9 pm starting January 19th, 2011.  He does it like it should be done -- goes through the whole process from sketch, to draped first pattern, to tested sewn sample.  In our store, for people who can sketch a dress but not a body, there are 2 template poses to choose from; plus, the Draw Your Body download, for customizing the templates to your own figure, is free with purchase.

Pennisula Wearable Arts Guild Zero Waste Weekend.  We all know that preventing waste is a very noble cause but the great surprise is that you get incredible designs from the process!

Feb. 12 -13 in Palo Alto, CA.  Registration info in January on their website.



Couregges Draping Class.  Modern, very modern, sculpted, not soft -- totally different than the usual vintage and perfect for those more interested in a tailored approach to draping  -- and draping with more sculptural fabrics -- even the weird ones like window screening!
March  5 & 6 in St. Helena, CA.  Registration opens in January.



Draping the Designers - East. Three intensive classes from the Draping Series finally brought a little closer to the east coast. If you have a favorite designer and have been waiting for this, let me know as I think about which ones to drape.  At the Textile Arts Center (an amazing place with great facilities) in Minneapolis, May 13, 14, 15.  Registration opens in March.



St. Laurent Draping Class, We drape Le Smoking, the eternally perfect thing to wear to everything -- your whole life.  Just think, you could have this famous pantsuit, draped for you, in all fabrics, all colors and in art fabrics -- no end to the imagination for this look.  June 25 - 26 in St. Helena.



The Vionnet Way.  Everything in my 35 years of study that I can put on the table in 24 hours over 3 days -- and then some.  Bay Area, July 16, 17, 18, details coming.





Three Events in the Planning Stage -- so you can plan too!


Shingo Sato in Chicago at the Art Institute.  (Pending #1)  If you love flat pattern and want to take it to new forms, shapes, pieces and surprises, Shingo's the man -- with his unique TR techniques (Transformational Reconstruction.) April 8 - 10.  Check out this video by Julian Roberts at a recent Shingo class at Central St. Martin's in London.  Final confirmation and more registration info in February.
 


Timo Rissanen & Shingo Sato in Vancouver at Kwantlen University, (Pending #2) each doing a day-long Master Class:  Timo in Zero Waste & Shingo in Transformational Reconstruction -- nothing short of THE weekend to change pattern designer's life. April 14 -16.  Final confirmation and more registration info in February.



Balenciaga in San Francisco at California College of the Arts.  (Pending #3) Amy Williams and I are working on a Tour of the Balenciaga exhibit at the de Young Museum, evening slide show and 2-day Master Class.  May -- date to be announced if it all works out.
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• Online Shopping Culprits!  The online shopping world is frought with little tech culprits that drive you crazy, so here is an easy, free download to help weed out those culprits that shorten your lifespan and keep you from completing your transaction.  Ahhhh . . . so nice to know  . .  and so easy to fix.

• Next Newsletter:  Early January.  We're doing the 'cutting edge' of pattern design!

• Threads Magazine Zero-Waste Challenge.  Each year Threads Magazine issues a design and construction challenge to the best dressmakers in America, members of ASDP -- Association of Sewing and Design Professionals -- to see who can best execute the difficult premises of the challenge.  This is a wickedly fierce competition since the winner gets to be on the cover of the magazine!  So this year the challenge is to design and create the most fascinating Zero-Waste piece and it is open to all who are members.  So jump in and prove you can be as divinely sustainable as the best!  All info here. 

• FREE: F.B.I. San Francisco MIXER!  December 1st, 2010 6:00 -- 8:00 PM, 455 Market Street, 6th Floor, San Francisco.  This is important.  It is the inaugural party for the new Fashion Business Inc. San Francisco branch. Network with like-minded fashion industry professionals and meet new resources to help your company!  The FBI offers the most comprehensive, nitty-gritty classes on making money for small fashion businesses you could ever imagine. Click to RSVP -- they need to know.  Contact 213-892-1669, Email: livia@fashionbizinc.org.  

• Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay, March 18 --  June 5, 2011. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will present the exhibition "Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay, featuring Sonia Delaunay's designs for textiles and fashion from the 1920s -- 1940s.  Among the more than 300 works on view are garments and textiles, with correlating designs, fashion illustrations and period photographs. This show will be a major inspiration for those who love color and work with geometric, contemporary design.  Partial image.

New Books

• Minimalism and Fashion: Reduction in the Postmodern Era
  Minimalism and Fashion is the first book to examine the minimalist movement in fashion and its cultural zeitgeist.  Each decade is presented with gorgeous photographs of the most significant designers' work, including Madeleine Vionnet, Andre Courreges, Halston, Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Miuccia Prada, Yohji Yamamoto, Helmut Lang, and many others.

• Kenzo.  The definitive book about Japanese designer Kenzo Takada and his house in Paris now under artistic director Antonio Marras. Kenzo Takada arrived in Paris in 1965 and transformed global fashion in the latter half of the twentieth century. The first book on Kenzo, it comes in a real fabric cover and has a pop-up that brings you the idea of Kenzo's famous romantic textiles, envelopes, and paper craft for which the house's fashion collection invitations are known.
  

• Gianfranco Ferre: Lessons in Fashion. This book is a seriously instructional look at a designer known to fashion lovers as "the architect of fashion."  In his long career, Ferre delivered hundreds of lectures on fashion in schools around the world which have been preserved and collected in this book together with an unpublished selection of sketches and photographs --  has lots of his wonderful ideas and concepts.