‘Project Runway’ star shows us the ins and outs of fashion

  There are clothes and then there is fashion. Clothes are what we use to cover our fronts and backs, to paraphrase "Project Runway" mentor Tim Gunn. But the garments that make the mouth water, the eyes glow, the heart beat faster, the credit cards catch fire and at least some discerning people turn and stare — that’s fashion.
   In the beginning, there is an idea. Before a skinny teenage model in smeared purple eyeshadow and 5-inch heels comes tripping down a runway, there is a flash of inspiration. Before a hot pink $3,000 trench coat makes an audience of jaded fashion editors, stylists and celebrities collectively gasp, then burst into applause — and someone else rush to get a $79.99 copy into your local department store — there is a lot of hard work.
  Fashion designer and "Project Runway, Season 2" finalist Daniel Vosovic dissects the mysterious, glamorous world of fashion design in "Fashion Inside Out" (2009, Watson-Guptill Publications). The book is lavishly illustrated by New York-based commercial and travel editorial photographer Michael Turek.
   "Project Runway," of course, is the television reality show, now on Lifetime, in which up-and-coming designers compete in a pressure cooker of limited time and resources to create the best garments, and are eliminated, show by show, by judges from the fashion industry.
   Vosovic, in his book, turns the fashion design world inside out and dissects it, seam by seam. Interestingly, he advises wanna-be designers to do this very thing, to take well-crafted garments apart and study their construction, as a key step in learning to design.
   Vosovic interviews numerous people in the industry — pattern-makers, design school instructors, drapers, stylists, designers such as Todd Oldham and Diane von Furstenberg, the inimitable author and style expert Tim Gunn.
   Chapters cover such subjects as creating a garment — making a pattern, draping, sewing and couture details. Ah, the details — the ABCs of turning a piece of fabric into an article of dress. Laura Moore, an adjunct associate professor in the Fashion Department at Pratt Institute, observes that many of her students don’t look at clothes — that is, they don’t turn them inside out and study them. And, she says, many of them have never sewn a garment. ‘‘It boggles my mind,’’ she says, ‘‘that people want to be fashion designers and it never occurred to them to make a garment.’’
  And of course, fashion is a business — many a genius young designer has faded and failed for lack of a business plan or the ability to sell the product. Vosovic interviews experts in fashion marketing, creating a brand, relating to customers, and, even more important, discovering who one’s customer is.
   "Fashion Inside Out" is an insider’s look at the gears of the fashion industry. People who follow the designer world or who appreciate beautiful, well-made clothes will enjoy this book. It will be particularly helpful reading for someone contemplating a career in the business of style.