Textile design books

From the Publisher. From medical implants to spacesuits, advanced textiles have the potential to transform human habitats and transportation, protect the environment and support personal health and wellbeing. The world’s most creative designers and engineers are working together to develop high-performance fabrics that are sustainable, fireproof, soundproof and anti-bacterial, and offer protection against extreme weather conditions and man-made disasters.

Advanced Textiles for Health and Wellbeing celebrates the latest technological advances in fibers and fabrics. The first part of the book looks at the materials themselves, including synthetic and hybrid fibers, new weaves and knits, three-dimensional materials, coatings, biotechnology and nanotechnology. The second part considers the design innovations that have been made possible in clothing, transport, and the natural and built environment.

More than 200 colour illustrations demonstrate the beauty and ingenuity of the latest advanced textiles and their exciting applications, which impact on all aspects of our lives. An authoritative glossary of technical terms and a list of suppliers complete this indispensable guide.

From the Publisher. Embroidered textiles are the most personal and immediate art form practiced by the Arts & Crafts Movement (c. 1860-1910). This art from another time has its own story to tell. Some items are the humble workaday pieces for utility in the home, while others are priceless works of art. Whether you are a long time collector or have only recently become interested in the Arts & Crafts Movement, this guide will help you better understand the history behind such needlework. This book features over 380 beautiful photographs of the work of famous designers including William Morris and Gustav Stickley. You will see the English, the Scottish, and the American styles of Arts & Crafts needlework and come to understand their similarities and differences. This book will delight all connoisseurs of textiles as well as Arts & Crafts aficionados.

This comprehensive compendium brings together a visual history of British fabrics with over 1, 000 images. It shows the amazing creative abilities of professional and amateur designers over three centuries. International experts introduce each period and the textiles produced in it.

From the Publisher. Over the past fifty years, archaeological explorations in China have unearthed a wealth of textile materials, some dating as far back as five thousand years. In this magnificently researched and illustrated book, preeminent Western and Chinese scholars draw upon these spectacular discoveries to provide the most thorough account of the history of silk ever written.

Encyclopedic in breadth, the volume presents a chronological history of silk from a variety of perspectives, including archaeological, technological, art historical, and aesthetic. The contributors explore the range of uses for silk, from the everyday to the sublime. By directly connecting recently found textile artifacts to specific references in China's vast historical literature, they illuminate the evolution of silk making and the driving social forces that have inspired the creation of innovative textiles through the millennia.

Dieter Kuhn is professor emeritus of sinology, University of Würzburg, Germany. James C. Y. Watt is Brooke Russell Astor Chairman Emeritus, Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Chen Juanjuan was senior research fellow, Palace Museum, Beijing. Huang Nengfu is professor at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing. Li Wenying is deputy director, Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology. Peng Hao is professor of archaeology, Wuhan University, and senior research fellow at Jingzhou Museum, Hubei. Zhao Feng is vice director, China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou; director, Chinese Centre for Textile Identification and Conservation, Hangzhou; and professor of textile and costume history, Donghua University, Shanghai.

From the Publisher. From the earliest weaves uncovered by archaeologists to today’s machine-produced, scientifically advanced fabrics, textiles have had a profound influence on civilization. As technologies change and world economics influence the direction that fashion and textiles take, it is vital that both skills and our textile vocabulary should be kept alive.

This encyclopaedia is a definitive reference guide to all the major types of fabric in circulation today, from abbot cloth to zibeline. In clear and engaging language, the author describes and illustrates more than 600 of the most important examples, from classic tweeds to state-of-the-art nano fabrics.

Each entry includes a brief definition, informative notes on structure, and a list of uses. More than 700 color illustrations show a fabric’s weave, texture, and other defining characteristics at a glance, and helpful diagrams demonstrate the structure of the most important types of textiles. The book concentrates on textiles in current use, but it also covers obscure or obsolete terms that one might come across—and that might still have something to teach today’s designers, manufacturers, and textile historians.

Each entry is carefully cross-referenced, and the book includes an extensive glossary and bibliography.

Janet Wilson is an associate lecturer at the London College of Fashion. She has worked as a textile designer and continues to design fabrics on a freelance basis.