50 Ways to Wear Denim – Lauren Friedman | Book Review

If you took a good look at my logo, you’d know I love sewing and watercolours/illustrations. Those are my two main creativity outlets. So when I find fashion illustration books I get so excited. I actually found this book in TK Maxx – I love browsing in their stationery section, I’d find nice sketchbooks, art supplies, or books like this.

As Christmas is just around the corner, I thought I’d put a review of this book here just in case some of you are looking for pressie ideas for the fashionista, art lover, or sewist in your life… or maybe as a pressie for yourself? This lovely book is retailed for £9.99 here in the UK, $14.95 for the US.

The Author.

…how you present yourself to the world, through clothes, makes a difference in how people view you, and how you view yourself. I believe that personal style is nothing more than having confidence. It’s not about following trends, it’s just learning to be comfortable in your skin. I believe sometimes you have to ignore the frightened voice in your head that says “you shouldn’t wear that” and throw caution to the wind. ~ Lauren Friedman

Amen, sister!

Lauren Friedman is an author, illustrator, and a stylist. She has published two other illustration books similar to this one; 50 Ways to Wear a Scarf, and her newest book 50 Ways to Wear Accessories that’s just been released Autumn 2018. When it comes to art, her medium of choice is markers. Her sense of fashion and style is so swoon-worthy in my book. You can read more about her art and fashion journey here. Need style tips and eye candy at the same time? Click here. If you’d like to see and get inspired by her beautiful portfolio, here‘s a direct link that will take you there. Just be ready to fall in love with this ah-ma-zing lady! ❤

The Book

The book is 127 pages long, filled with beautiful fashion illustrations. It is a perfect coffee table book – or in my case my “inspiration station”. I can’t say enough how much I love Lauren Friedman’s illustrations. I wish I could frame these beauties!

The introduction is lovingly titled A Love Letter to Denim. This bit is the wordiest part of the book. Next, she presents you the Denim Dictionary, where you’ll find a list of basic terms regarding this fabric. As a sewist, it was extra interesting to find familiar terms, such as bar tack, chambray, selvedge, twill, warp and weft, yoke. I did learn some new ones, like sanforize, which means a process that reduces denim shrinkage by stretching and manipulating raw denim before it is washed. The process was developed in the 1920s and patented by Sanford Lockwood Cluett.

In this book, you will also find tips on finding your perfect pair of jeans, as well as how to care for your jeans, and a short history of denim across the centuries. Yes centuries. From 1492 all the way to 2016. And of course, nice little “fun facts” about this fabric we love so much scattered here and there. I just learned that the earliest use of the term overalls was in 1776, when they were listed as part of the uniform for soldiers fighting in the American Revolution! Wow.

I find the styling guides in this book to be quite comprehensive; there are styles you can adopt for every day or special occasion, smart or casual, and it truly is full of inspirations to help you express yourself. I love picking up this book every now and then, either for inspiration when I want to doodle or for sewing – in fact, I got the idea for sewing my Clementine from this book.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, yes, and yes. If you love fashion, get this book. If you love art and illustrations, this book is for you. If you love fashion AND illustrations, well what are you waiting for?

Do you like these kinds of books? I have a few more fashion illustration books in my collection that I’m planning to share in future posts. Stay tuned.

Hope you enjoyed this post, hit the like button down below if you’d like to give it some love 😉 You can also subscribe to my blog if you’d like to see more posts from me. Have a nice weekend, you lovely peeps.

Happy creating.

Faye.

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