Woohoo, finally after waiting for literally two months (I even already gave up hoping that the book would arrive) the book that I ordered from Abebooks finally arrived! It’s a secondhand book about technical fashion design for apparel manufacturing (product development) by two American fashion educators, Jaeil Lee and Camille Steen. The title of the book is Technical Sourcebook for Designers.

The online secondhand bookshop where I got this from already refunded me because they thought that it’s lost in transit and told me if the book ever arrives, I can keep it or donate it. I was sad because I really need the book, and the brand new price will cost me a fortune. Now that the book has arrived as well as the other textbook that I purchased, it means that I got them for free!

Before I bought this book, I already read a few pages of it from Google book page views, but of course, it’s only limited to about 50 pages out of 390 pages. I’m also renting it for 6 months from an online library for arts, Bloomsbury Fashion Central. So I’ve been studying with it. So I’m very certain that I need this book. To be honest, even though the brand new price is expensive, it’s nothing compares to what this book can teach me. The content and knowledge are like what I’ll never get from my circumstances here, especially for fashion design education in Indonesia.

And I’ve heard from so many fashion design graduates (abroad and local), they didn’t even get it in school. Most people are more interested in designing creative unwearable clothes only, meanwhile, the reality is, much of the works in fashion design is not about that. I just fall in love with how complex the field is, even to produce a simple T-shirt takes a lot of technical knowledge and attention to details.

This book is a geek book for people who want to study or work in the garment industry. It covers almost everything, and I think it’s as essential as Apparel Production Terms and Processes by Janace E. Bubonia.

In the first chapters of the book, the authors give a thorough explanation of how the global garment manufacturing works; the labels, causes, cycles etc. Then it gets more complex when we start talking about tech packs, the rest of the book is about the details in tech packs, from seam, pattern, measurement, even how to fold the garment for sales.

If compared to Janace E. Bubonia’s books, I think it’s easier for me to understand the language that Camilla Steen and Jaeil use, even though all of them are Americans. I found the explanation is more straightforward and does not use fancy words (except the fashion terminologies). Well, maybe only I feel like that because I am not a native speaker.

To be honest, this book is kinda intimidating because it makes me feel like I totally know nothing. It’s so thick and every page is important, so it takes me a long time to read one page until I really understand. And I think even pro technical fashion designers will still need to look up the book sometimes. I don’t think I can grasp it in even 3 months. This is so difficult especially since I don’t have first-hand experience in garment manufacturing yet (I will apply for an internship next year). So hopefully, these books will help me to prepare myself to meet the industry standards.