Customer Reviews

9 Heads: A Guide to Drawing Fashion

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am a high school student currently taking Fashion Designing Classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, which is where I want to go to college. My professor told me about 9 Heads and after working with it for about 5 months now, she noticed dramatic (good) changes in my drawing. I strongly suggest this book for anyone who is considering fashion designing because it has everything and beyond in it- figures, collars, necklines, skirts, pants, sleeves, faces- EVERYTHING!

9 heads starts as a very professional teaching book with all the details needed for a design student who wants to learn more about fashion illustration. towards the end of the beautiful designed book itself comes the big plus: the examples of some of the finest and famous fashion designers worldwide, like the great christian lacroix or the new star bernhard willhelm. both represented with their fashion and their truly originally illustrations. the book is a great guide to get as good as them. not only is every way you can draw/see an eye, a hand, the body, the draping of the material, the light on clothes and many more important and helpful details presented - there are also fascinating interviews to be found.

I am a fashion student at Parsons, and this book is the exact equivilant of two years of training. My drawings improved beyond belief even after just a few days of studying this bible. The drawings are informative and have a style and flair that only the best illustrators posess. Impressive -- A must have for any fashion student!!

I found this book beautifully designed and rich in information.
After a long search for books that demonstrated contemporary fashion, 9 Heads is the only book available. It is a guide for people who are interested in fashion, both beginning and advanced, and the illustrations are fantastic. I especially loved the interviews with designers and artists, and there is no other book available which incorporates technical flats.

this book is a great guide for designing beginners.
it's mostly pictures and few words, so you could never get bored of it.
the price can keep people teeter-tottering but it's definitely a must buy.

I can say that Chapters Four and Five alone is worth their weight in gold. This book is used on a daily basis by our CAD department as a reference when making flat sketches for specs. To take a designer's drawing or a sample of the garment and turn it into detailed, flat sketches takes skills. That particular section is great when it comes to drawing details for sewing such as types of stitching, where pleats/folds/darts should go, placements of notions/trimmings, etc. Flat sketching for specs is very important when a garment is produced in huge quantities by numerous operators. There's also a section in the front on proportion drawing using the croquis which is also very helpful. Since the company I work for produces a wide range of theatrical costumes that has tons and tons of details (think odd shapes and sizes), this book has come to the rescue many times.

Each section/chapter also comes with excerises/pratices that you use do to improve your sketching. It also mentions the Do's and Don'ts and common mistakes made when sketching. Anyhow, practice makes perfect.

I suggest getting a hold of the book at school or a book store to look through it and make sure it's what you're looking for or need before purchasing it and then not meeting your expectations.

Before I read 9 Heads, I did not even know how to draw. Now I can completely sketch fashon figures and dress them head to toe. I recently went to a portfolio review and the reviewers were amazed at how good my drawings were.

I was assigned this book when I went to FIDM. It is a little scant as far as details go, but I had the wonderfully fulfilling opportunity to enroll in Riegelman's class and it is THERE you learn her art of fashion sketching. The book feels like only a supplement, otherwise it would be a five star, hands down. The reference section she includes about sketching modern materials and accents is BEYOND valuable. I still make reference to these sketches because theyre so starkly and simply illustrated. It's not necessarily a step-by-step book, in my opinion it feels like you should have known a little bit about sketching before you entered the world of 9 heads. Riegelman just provides her lot of sketches and portfolio pieces as examples to encourage you to reverse engineer your own sort of drawing and rendering style (that's exactly what happened with me!). At FIDM, even outside FIDM, you can always pick out who has every been taught by or read something by Riegelman. I recommend!!

I am preparing my portfolio to apply to FIT, which I have dreamed of going to for years. This book helped me more than I ever thought possible. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to bring their fashion designs to life.

This book is perfect for any one who loves fashion and hopes to go into a fashion career. The book in cludes 100s of sketches of fabrics, shoes, faces, shirts, any thing you can image. A perfect gift for any one!