Fashion & Color: Total Fashion Color Coordinate
by Kojiro Kumagai
Graphic-Sha Publishing, 144 pages, 1985
Ever since I did a school project on the psychology of colour in eighth grade I’ve been a sucker for bright books with lots of printed swatches showing how different colours look against each other. That, coupled with my interest in fashion, makes a book like Fashion & Color absolutely ideal.
That the book was originally published in Japanese and that some of the English translation is a touch spotty in places and maintains an overly formal tone, it’s really of no consequence since there is very little writing. The illustrations speak for themselves.
The book is chock-full of stellar ’80s fashion illustrations by Kojiro Kumagai, who has also published books of hair and makeup illustrations, as well as books specifically dedicated to women’s fashion illustration, men’s and children’s respectively. Below each sketch there is a visual summary of the colours in the outfit. There are also colour charts at the back for printing reference.
While anyone interested in fashion illustration of the ’80s will certainly find Fashion & Color a perfect addition to their library, the book does have some inexplicable tics, most notably that the fashion styles featured are distinctly divided into two categories: feminine and sporty. That’s it — nothing in between. This is a small thing, however, and more amusing than distracting.
There are too few fashion illustration books published in the 1980s, about the 1980s and this makes Fashion & Color a rare treat and a book I return to over and over again.
