Wearable Wonders product reviews

When I saw this book up for review I had to have it. My daughter and I love costume design and art. This book was therefore right up our alley. Fifi Colston is a fantastic artist and we already have a heap of books she has illustrated. From The Red Poppy, Tyler's Tower and Far, Far from Home, we love her work.

This book, has a striking black cover with vibrant almost glowing title. The costume on the front really pops out at you. Its artsy and exciting. I've always been fascinated by Wearable Art and was glad to see a little bit in the book about how it came about. It would have been hard slog to get people to run with the idea, but look at it now!

This book is full of inspirations. How to pick up an object and what questions to ask yourself in order to get your creative mind activated. I'm usually someone who will look at an idea and then mould it to suit me. In this book, the ideas are pretty much all yours. Colston just gives you the tools to do that thinking.

There are some great tips in here. Especially around what you can and can't recycle for wearable art. There is some cultural tips, like how to cut flax which I thought was excellent. So many different techniques with fabric, sculpture, using every day objects to make incredibly cool stuff.

Last week, my daughter needed a costume for school. Since we had this book, I asked her a few questions. We decided on a kiwi bird costume. Then I used a brown fabric I had in the cupboard. I cut feathered wing shapes and hand stitched them onto a poncho style top. Using the off-cuts and recycling a paper-plate and a old pizza receipt, I also made a mask. My daughter loved the results and I can not wait to try more of the techniques in this book for more creations.

Little Miss Five and Miss Six are studying wearable art at school and have just visited the WOW exhibition so this book couldn't have arrived at a better time. Next term the classes are making hats, accessories and t-shirts. I was a little overwhelmed with this but now feel totally prepared.

This book is just perfect. It starts right from the beginning of the design process. How to get an idea then follows through with templates, making models, how to design the outfit, budgets, materials, planners etc. At the end is an interview with a WOW model and talking all about the World of Wearable Art and how it came into being. The illustrations/pictures are fantastic and I have actually found this book incredibly inspirational. I have enjoyed reading through this with Miss Five and Miss Six and we are taking it into school for the classes to use to assist them.

If you have even the slightest interest in WOW or in design this book is a must. I think it is brilliant for any child who wants to understand how an idea can become a piece of art and it is great that it covers all aspects of the process so it gets you thinking about costs and time lines etc.

I 100% recommend this book and am really excited that we have the opportunity to put it into practice.