Don McCunn's Blog

Threads Magazine Archive

February 25, 2010 on 5:32 pm | In Book Reviews | No Comments

I just received the Threads Magazine Archive DVD. This DVD contains every issue of Threads Magazine from the very first issue from 1985 through 2009 and you can search it.

It is a little pricey at $149.95 but if you consider the content, it could be an extremely useful resource for you. I must confess that I have not maintained my subscription consistently during this time. And on occasion I have thought “gee I wish I had that issue.” But it may or may not have been still in print. The other problem is remembering where I put my issues. I am not very good about maintaining an accessible library of magazine issues. Now it is all sitting on my computer.

Then the question becomes how do I find the information I am looking for? With 146 issues, that is a lot to look through. I tried their search function. It seems basically okay but not, in my opinion, up to what I have become use to from Google or from my library’s catalog system.

For example when I typed Don McCunn into the “Author” box the two articles I wrote for them came up almost immediately. When I typed in “McCunn” as a keyword, no page returned. I could not find a list of their keywords. When I did a full text search for “Donald McCunn” it took awhile but returned 6 pages. It is not a perfect search function as it missed my name on the title page of the articles I wrote. When I did a full text search for “Don McCunn” some of the pages showed up that the first search missed including a review of my book How to Make Sewing Patterns that appeared in issue #3 and a reference to when I did Threads second video in 1994. When I changed the search function from “and” to “or” the results were pretty unusable.

I tried a few other searches for things such as mitered corners and french seams. The results were mixed. I either felt they must be missing something or I was overwhelmed by the number of pages I was going to need to look through. It does have the ability to search by departments and by year range.

They do highlight the words you search for which is helpful. The other thing I like is that there is a button where you can remove the highlighting when you want to print the page.

It seems strange that you can not search for a specific issue. The “Home” display shows the covers of the magazines which is nice. But you need to move your mouse over a cover to see what issue you are seeing. And then it is only the number of the issue. Not the year or month.

In short the search function is buggy. You may miss valuable information by relying just on the search function. Maybe someday they will add a comprehensive index to the Archive. That would be extremely useful.

What they Don’t Tell You:
I was actually a little surprised when I received the DVD. It turns out it is actually a program that you install on your computer which takes up 3GB of space. This is something that I could not find mentioned on the order form for the DVD. This means it is not for those of you who have a limited amount of memory on your computer.

The program actually appears to be the search function because the issues are stored as PDF files. So I suppose if you were so inclined you could just go to the folder with the individual issues and print out the complete issue you were interested in. I used the standard installation function and the PDF files turned up in the folder:

C:\Program Files\Taunton\Threads Archive\Data-THR\Issues

I hope this means that they are consider offering updates which will allow the additional issues to be added. Updates and a full and accurate Index would certainly be nice.

Well I have probably said too much so I will sign off.

Book Review: Chic Chicago

July 7, 2009 on 12:22 am | In Book Reviews, Favorite Designs, History of Fashion | No Comments

Chic Chicago is an exhibit catalog for garments from the couture collection at the Chicago History Museum. This exhibit runs from September 27, 2008 through July 26, 2009. An earlier version of the exhibit appeared at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York city in 2007 & 2008. If you live in the area or can get there before it closes, I would highly recommend it.

What I find interesting about this catalog and the exhibit is that it shows couture clothes from 1861 through 2008 in the social context of who was actually wearing these garments. When I see these elegant garments I can admire their aesthetic beauty. But this catalog also chronicles the women who purchased them, their social back ground, and where they wore them. For me this takes the appreciation of couture to an entirely new level.

The garments are featured in full color photographs from pages 14 through 133. These photographs feature both full length shots and beautiful closeups that show the immaculate sewing and detail that went into the garments. The photographs are followed by 6 pages that give photographs and brief bios of the 56 high society women who wore the gowns. The final 4 pages include brief descriptions of the 42 designers who created the garments.

Dear to my heart as a pattern maker for custom-fit clothes are the references to the fact that these women would travel 2 or 3 times from Chicago to Europe for fittings to ensure that the garments were correct for their specific bodies.

Amazingly the paper back book comes in a slip cover box that has an embossed sequin pattern from one of the gowns.

For more about this exhibit, visit the Chic Chicago website. I would also highly recommend you watch the video that describes how this exhibit came into existence from the curators who conceived it to the interns who worked on it, see the Behind the Scenes video.