Fashion design is increasingly gaining attention as an important form of cultural expression. However, scholarship has largely focused on specific designers and their finished products. This collection reveals the crucial foundational art and craft of patternmaking design, with essays that explore the practice in specific historical and cultural contexts.

Probing the theoretical underpinnings that inform patternmaking, Patternmaking History and Theory interrogates topics that span cultures and time periods, ranging from high fashion to home sewing. Taking the reader from women’s making and mending for victory during World War Two, to Jamaican dress history and today’s complex 3D pattern cutting software, the book examines the creative aspect of a culturally rich skill.

Beautifully illustrated and rooted in original research, Patternmaking History and Theory brings together a group of leading international scholars to provide a range of perspectives on a key but often overlooked aspect of design.