Draping: The Complete Course
Laurence King Publishing, 2013. 2nd edition: 2020.
The best selling text has been translated into 10 languages and is considered the authoritative text on the subject.
First Edition, 2013
Second Edition, 2020
Draping—the art of using fabric to design directly on a dress form—is an essential skill for fashion designers. Covering the most basic to more advanced techniques, this series of master classes provides a complete course. Projects highlight iconic looks from the runway, stage, and screen, such as Audrey Hepburn’s’ dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ to styles from across the world.
Starting with the basics of preparing the dress form and fabric, the book advances through pinning, trimming and clipping, and creating shape using darts and tucks, to adding volume using pleats and gathers, and handling complex curves. Advanced skills include how to use support elements and how to handle bias draping.
Each exercise and project is explained with step-by-step photographs and line drawings that bring the art of creating women wear in three dimensions to life.
Featured in the 2nd edition are expanded sections on transferring the drape to a pattern and creating pattern blocks from them.
