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Historically, clothing has been made from many materials. These materials range from grasses to furs to much more elaborate and exotic materials. Some cultures, such as the various people of the Arctic circle, until recently, made their clothing entirely of prepared and decorated furs and skins. Other cultures have supplemented and replaced leather and skins with cloth. Cloth is either woven or knitted and can be made from a large variety of fibers, which in turn can be natural, cellulose, or synthetic.

Humans have shown extreme inventiveness in devising clothing solutions to environmental hazards and the distinction between clothing and other protective equipment is not always clear-cut; examples include space suit, air conditioned clothing, armor, diving suit, swimsuit, bee-keeper's protective clothing, motorcycle leathers, high-visibility clothing, and protective clothing in general.

Clothing materials[link]

Clothing is generally made of cloth. There are many different types of cloth, with different names and uses. Main differences between types of cloth include how the cloth was made (woven or knitted, and how either of those techniques were implemented), what fiber it was made from, and what weight the cloth is. Different types of cloth are used for different types of clothing.

Some common natural clothing materials are:

• Cloting, typically made of cotton, flax, wool, ramie, silk
• Denim
• Down for down-filled parkas
• Fur
• Leather

Some clothing is made from synthetic fibers, which are man made and not biodegradable, made primarily from petrochemicals:

• Nylon was first produced in 1935. Nylon is a thermoplastic silky material. It became famous when used in women's stockings ("nylons") in 1940. It was intended to be a synthetic replacement for silk and substituted for it in many different products after silk became scarce during World War II.
• Polyesters include naturally-occurring chemicals and synthetics. Natural polyesters and a few synthetic ones are biodegradable, but most synthetic polyesters are not. Polyesters may change shape after the application of heat and are combustible at high temperatures. They tend to shrink away from flames and self-extinguish upon ignition. Polyester fibers have high tenacity and E-modulus as well as low water absorption and minimal shrinkage in comparison with other industrial fibers.
• Spandex (or elastane) is known for its exceptional elasticity. It is stronger and more durable than rubber, its major non-synthetic competitor. It was invented in 1959.

Less-common clothing materials include:

• Bamboo
• Cupro
• Hemp
• Flannel
• Jute
• Lyocell
• PVC-Polyvinyl chloride
• Rayon
• Recycled or Recovered Cotton
• Recycled PET
• Recycled paper
• Rubber
• Soy
• Tyvek
• Other Natural Fibers

Reinforcing materials such as wood, bone, plastic and metal may be used in fasteners or to stiffen garments. Candy can also be used as material for example you could make a candy shirt/tuxedo

References[link]

See also[link]

• Clothing terminology

External links[link]

• International Textile and Apparel Association, scholarly publications
• German Hosiery Museum (English language)
• Molecular Evolution of Pediculus humanus and the Origin of Clothing by Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser and Mark Stoneking (.PDF file)

Suzanne Lee is a London based fashion designer working on fashion and future technologies.

She is a Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Director of The BioCouture Research Project.

Her recent Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project BioCouture looks at ecological and sustainability issues surrounding fashion. She is working with scientists to engineer optimized organisms for growing future consumer products.

In 2007 she published Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow's Wardobe. The book examines the work of the scientific researchers and fashion designers, such as Issey Miyake, Hussein Chalayan and Walter Van Beirendonck, who are transforming today’s science fiction into tomorrow’s reality.

BioCouture[link]

BioCouture is a research project using nature to suggest an innovative future fashion vision. Suzanne Lee uses microbial-cellulose (composed of millions of tiny bacteria grown in bathtubs of sweet green tea) to produce clothing. The idea is to grow a dress in a vat of liquid'. ^[1]

BioCouture has been included in Time Magazine's annual roundup of The Top 50 Best Inventions of 2010. ^[2]

External links[link]

• Official website
• New site for BioCouture project
• Suzanne Lee on TED
• Bio-Couture on Exposureroom, Video for the new Trash Fashion exhibition at the Science Museum

Further reading[link]

• Suzanne Lee, Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow's Wardrobe, Thames & Hudson, 2005 [1]

• Nicholas Jordan, From teabags to T-shirts, The Australian, 30 May 2011 [2]

• Stefania Vourazeri, V.O.W N°8 // BioCouture by Suzanne Lee, Yatzer, 25 February 2011 [3]

References[link]

Taylor Momsen
Momsen in April 2011
Born	Taylor Michel Momsen (1993-07-26) July 26, 1993 (age 18) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer-songwriter, model
Years active	1997–present

Taylor Michel Momsen (born July 26, 1993)^[1] is an American actress, musician and model who portrayed the character of Jenny Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl and Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.^[2] She fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless.

Early life and career[link]

Momsen at the Metropolitan Opera in 2008

Taylor Momsen was born on July 26, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents are Michael and Collette Momsen and she has a younger sister, Sloane Momsen, who is also an actress. She attended Our Lady of Lourdes School and was raised Roman Catholic. She began acting professionally at three years of age with a national commercial for Shake 'N' Bake. She was then cast in The Prophet's Game. In 2000, Momsen played the role of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Two years later she was cast in the motion picture: Hansel and Gretel, in which she played Gretel.

Momsen's career came to a halt for over three years until she received the lead role in the never-aired WB series Misconceptions. Momsen appeared in the 2006 film Saving Shiloh. She auditioned for the title role in Hannah Montana, and was in the top three, but the role was instead awarded to Miley Cyrus.^[3] In 2007, she starred in the Walt Disney Pictures film Underdog, as Molly and as Jennifer in the movie Paranoid Park, directed by Gus Van Sant.

As of 2007 she plays the character of Jenny Humphrey in The CW television series Gossip Girl, which is based on the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar. Taylor attended the Professional Performing Arts School in New York City alongside Connor Paolo, Gregory Malek-Jones and Karina Pasian. Momsen, who appeared in only four episodes through the first half of season four, was then scheduled for an indefinite hiatus from the show.^[4] On August 16, 2011, Momsen told Elle magazine that she quit acting to focus on her music career.^[5]

Modeling[link]

In June 2008, at the age of fourteen, Momsen signed to IMG Models.^[6][7]

Taylor was the face of British fashion chain New Look for its spring/summer 2010 collection.^[8] After weeks of speculation of who was the face of Madonna's 2010 fashion line "Material Girl", Momsen was announced on July 15, 2010.^[9] A week later, Momsen was announced as the model for John Galliano's new women's fragrance, scheduled to launch in autumn 2010.^[10]

Music[link]

Momsen in concert in April 2010

Momsen has stated that "music is where I can be me",^[11] saying that "Acting is easy. I've been doing it for so long and I totally love it. But you're playing a character instead of yourself. Music is more personal because you're writing it and you're involved in every step of it."^[11] Aged five, Momsen recorded the song "Christmas, Why Can't I Find You?" for the soundtrack to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In 2002, she recorded the songs "One Small Voice" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" for the compilation album School's Out! Christmas.

In March 2009 Momsen stated in an interview with OK! Magazine that her band The Pretty Reckless had then recently signed a deal with Interscope Records. She writes all the songs, sings and plays simple guitar on the album.^[12] She played her first tour with her band opening for The Veronicas on their Revenge is Sweeter Tour in spring 2009.^[13]

The band's debut album Light Me Up was released on August 30, 2010 in the UK,^[14] where it debuted at number 6, as well as at number 18 in Ireland. The first single "Make Me Wanna Die" was released on May 30, 2010, where it peaked at number 16, while the second single "Miss Nothing" which was released on August 23, 2010 peaked at number 39. The third single released has been "Just Tonight".

Heidi Montag recorded "Blackout", a song written by Momsen. According to Momsen, she wrote the song when she was 8 years old and recorded it as a demo with a producer.^[15] Montag released the song as a digital only single, with the music video being directed by her husband Spencer Pratt. Momsen commented about the recording: "I'm like, okay, dude, you're singing an 8-year-old's words, but that's cool. It's so funny because I didn't shop it or anything and I get this call going, 'Did you write a song for Heidi Montag'? And I'm like 'What?'".^[15] The track was later included on Montag's debut studio album Superficial.

On July 27, 2011, Taylor Momsen announced via Twitter that the band will be touring with Evanescence as the supporting act during the fall of 2011.^[16]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taylor Momsen

• Official website
• Taylor Momsen on Twitter
• Taylor Momsen at the Internet Movie Database

Adam Hughes
Hughes in June 2007
Born	Riverside Township, New Jersey
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Penciller, Inker
Notable works	Wonder Woman, Catwoman
Influences Dave Stevens Steve Rude Mike Mignola Kevin Nowlan Norman Rockwell Maxfield Parrish Drew Struzan Dean Cornwell Alberto Vargas George Petty Alphonse Mucha
Influenced Travis Charest[1] Chrissie Zullo[2]
Official website

Adam Hughes is an American comic book artist who has worked for companies such as DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures, Playboy magazine, Joss Whedon's Mutant Enemy Productions and Sideshow Collectibles.^[3]

He is best known to American comic book readers for his renderings of pinup-style female characters, and his cover work on titles such as Wonder Woman and Catwoman.

Early life[link]

Adam Hughes was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey. He grew up in Florence, New Jersey,^[4] staying there until he was 24.^[5]

Career[link]

Hughes, who had no formal training in art,^[4] began his career in 1987.^[3][6] He penciled two short stories and the first issue of Death Hawk, created by Mark Ellis. In 1988 Hughes' work appeared in Comico's Maze Agency with co-creator/writer Mike W. Barr, and stayed on the book for one year. When Maze Agency was canceled by Comico, DC Comics offered him a job on Justice League America. He did both covers and internal renditions on that series for two years, before switching to providing covers only.

At the age of 24, Hughes moved to Atlanta, Georgia in order to join Gaijin Studios, believing that working more closely alongside fellow artists would improve his own skills. Hughes stayed with Gaijin Studios for 12 years.^[5]

Hughes then had a short stint on the Dark Horse Comics series Ghost.

He has also had stints on Penthouse Comix, Legionaires and PlayStation Magazine.

Hughes wrote and illustrated the interiors of the 1996 two-issue miniseries, Gen¹³: Ordinary Heroes from Wildstorm. In late 1998 he began a five-year run as cover artist on DC Comics Wonder Woman. He also provided cover art on Tomb Raider from Top Cow Comics

When Wizards of the Coast created their d20-based Star Wars RPG, he created designs for both the original and revised core rulebooks, as well as the Star Wars: Invasion of Theed adventure game mini-RPG. When he reused his portrait of the Jedi guardian, Sia-Lan Wezz (his favorite character), for the cover of Star Wars: Purge as a gag, there was such editorial interest that she was written into the story as one of Darth Vader's early victims.^[7]

In May 2007, a month after the release of the feature film Spider-Man 3, Sideshow Collectibles debuted a miniature statuette of Mary Jane Watson, a perennial love interest of Spider-Man's, based on artwork by Hughes. The statue, which depicts Mary Jane wearing a cleavage-revealing T-shirt and low-cut jeans that expose the top of a pink thong while bending over a metal tub holding Spider-Man's costume, generated controversy among some fans who felt that the statue was sexist.^[8][9] Marvel addressed the matter by stating, "The Mary Jane statuette is the latest release in a limited edition collectibles line. The item is aimed at adults that have been long-time fans of the Marvel Universe. It is intended only for mature collectors and sold in specialty, trend, collectible and comic shops – not mass retail." Sideshow Collectibles stated, "Our product is not produced to make a political or social statement but is fashioned after entertainment properties currently in the market place (sic). We suggest that if you do find the Mary Jane product offensive that you refrain from viewing that web page." Elizabeth McDonald of girl-wonder.org, an organization dedicated to "high-quality character depiction" in the comics industry, was incredulous at the statue's design, though she stated, "Honestly, the difficulty with this statuette is that if you're a woman who likes comics, it's not even noteworthy. Many male comic fans can't understand the outrage it's generated, since this is fairly tame within the industry. This portrayal of Mary Jane could be considered superior to some in the industry, since her clothes don't seem to be actively falling off her". The Toronto Star's Malene Arpe echoed this, pointing to female characters with even more revealing appearances, such as Black Cat and Witchblade.^[10][11] Gary Susman of Entertainment Weekly lamented that the statuette was not issued some weeks earlier, so that it could have been included in the website 10 Zen Monkeys' list of "Ten Worst Spiderman Tie-Ins".^[12][13][14]

Although Hughes had been announced as the writer and artist on All Star Wonder Woman in 2006,^[15][16] he explained at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International that that project was "in the freezer" for the time being, due to the difficulty involved in both writing and illustrating himself.^[17] His website indicates that after the current Catwoman series ended with issue #82, he would cease his DC cover work, and would focus on producing the six-issue All Star Wonder Woman series,^[18] though he stated in an October 2010 interview with NJ.com, after the Catwoman assignment had concluded earlier that year, that All Star Wonder Woman was still on hold.^[4]

In February 2012, Hughes was announced as the artist on Dr. Manhattan, a four-issue miniseries written by J. Michael Straczynski, and one of eight tie-in prequels to the seminal 1986-1987 miniseries Watchmen. The books will be released weekly in mid-2012.^[19][20] Hughes commented, "I love Alan Moore's canon of work, with special affection for Miracleman, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and most definitely Watchmen. I hope to do some sort of justice to Dave Gibbons' brilliant art: he's one of the all time great illustrators ever to work in the field of comic...I'm fairly stoked to be working with the fabulous J.M. Straczynksi. I loved his Thor run, especially. The man knows how to craft amazing tales, so I feel like you & I are in good hands."^[21]

Technique and materials[link]

Hughes doing a convention sketch in May 2009

Hughes' artistic influences include comics artists such as Dave Stevens, Steve Rude, Mike Mignola and Kevin Nowlan, classic American illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Drew Struzan and Dean Cornwell and notable pin-up artists like Alberto Vargas and George Petty. Hughes also keeps collections of works by Alphonse Mucha near his drawing table.^[22]

Because of the time-consuming nature of his style of illustration, Hughes does not often do monthly series work, and as an example, points to the 1996 miniseries he wrote and illustrated, Gen¹³: Ordinary Heroes, which took him ten months to complete.^[6][23] Hughes varies his style between projects, sometimes exhibiting a "cartoony" look in his drawings, and at other times employing reference to achieve a photorealistic work in his art, as in an assignment he did for Playboy magazine, in order to produce more varied works for his portfolio, should his prospects in the comic book industry ever fade.^[5]

The penciling process Hughes employs for his cover work is the same he uses when doing sketches for fans at conventions, with the main difference being that he does cover work in his sketchbook, before transferring the drawing to virgin art board with a lightbox,^[24] whereas he does convention drawings on 11 x 14 Strathmore bristol, as he prefers penciling on the rougher, vellum surface rather than smooth paper, though he does enjoy brush inking on smoother paper.^[25] He does preliminary undersketches with a lead holder,^[26] because he feels regular pencils get worn down to the nub too quickly. As he explained during a sketch demonstration at a comic book convention, during this process he uses a Sanford Turquoise 4B lead, a soft lead, though when working at home in Atlanta, where the humid weather tends to dampen the paper, he sometimes uses a B lead or 2B lead, which acts like a 4B in that environment.^[25] However, his website explains that he uses 6B lead, with some variation. For pieces rendered entirely in pencil, he employs a variety of pencil leads of varying degrees of hardness.^[22] After darkening in the construction lines that he wishes to keep, he erases the lighter ones with a kneaded eraser before rendering greater detail.^[26] For more detailed erasures, he uses a pencil-shaped white eraser, and to erase large areas, he uses a larger, hand-held white eraser, which he calls a "thermonuclear eraser", because it "takes care of everything".^[25]

For inking, Hughes uses a size three Scharff brush and Dr. Ph. Martin's Black Star Hi-Carb ink.^[22] Hughes also favors Faber-Castell PITT artist pens, which come in a variety of points, including fine, medium, bold and brush tips, which Hughes uses for brush work on convention sketches, though not for cover work.^[25] He occasionally will use Copic markers in both warm and cool gray tones to render covers in gray scale.^[22] In a similar manner to his penciling, Hughes tends to ink different portions of the sketch at random.^[27] He uses Sharpie markers to fill in larger areas,^[25] which he feels would be too tedious to render in pencil, such as the costumes of characters like Batman, which he believes should be rendered in black rather than blue.^[24] He uses Photoshop to color his cover work.^[4][22]

Hughes will sometimes use colored markers to embellish parts of a convention sketch, as when he uses red for female characters' lips, or a silver pen to render scenes set in outer space.^[25][28] When rendering an entire sketch in grey tones or full color, Hughes, who once used Prismacolor or Design 2 markers, explained at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International that for the past four years, he had been using Copic markers, a set of which a fan gave him as a gift, because Copic markers are refillable, and because he found that they produce longer-lasting colors, and can be used several times longer than other brands,^[29][30] as he was still using the same package of nibs as of August 2010 that came with the first set of Copics he was given four years previously.^[31] When using Copics, he takes care to erase his pencils, and to not work dark-to-light, because of the mottled effects that result from doing so.^[32] He has conducted demonstrations of Copic markers at conventions on a number of occasions.^[33]

Personal life[link]

Hughes and his wife, Alison Sohn,^[34] who designs his published sketchbooks and administrates his website,^[35] live in Atlanta.^[25]

Bibliography[link]

Interior art[link]

DC[link]

• 52 (DC Comics, 2006–2007):
  • "The Origin of Wonder Woman" (with Mark Waid, co-feature, in #12, 2006)
  • "The Origin of Power Girl" (with Mark Waid, co-feature, in #36, 2007)
• Fables #100: "Celebrity Burning Questions" (with Bill Willingham, Vertigo, 2010)
• Justice League of America (vol. 2) #31-35, 37-40, 43-44, 45 (4 pages), #51 (1989–91)
• Legionnaires #7, 9 (full art); #10, 12 (along with Chris Sprouse) (1993–94)
• Superman/Gen¹³ #1-3 (script, with Lee Bermejo, Wildstorm, 2000)
• Team Titans #1 (1992)
• Titans Sell-out Special (3 pages) (1992)
• WildC.A.T.s/X-Men: The Modern Age (1997)
• Wildstorm Thunderbook: "WHAM! A Tale" (script and art, Wildstorm, one-shot, 2000)
• Superman/Batman #75: "World's End...But Life Goes On" (script and art, DC Comics, 2010)

Image[link]

• 24Seven vol.2: "The Sweetest Thing" (with Phil Hester, Image, 2007)
• Gen¹³: Ordinary Heroes #1-2 (script and art, Image, 1996)
• Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence #1-2 (1997, layouts only) (Image Comics)

Marvel[link]

• Sensational She-Hulk #50 (2 pages) (1993)
• X-Men (vol. 2) Annual #1 (among other artists) (1992)

Other publishers[link]

• Blood of Dracula #4-5, 7-11 (1988–89) (Apple Comics)
• Comics Greatest World: Ghost (1993)
• Dark Horse Presents #50: "Hip-Deep in the Consciousness Stream" (script and art, Dark Horse, 1991)
• Death Hawk #1 (1988) (Transfuzion Publishing)
• The Dreaming #55 (2 pages) (2000)
• Eagle #9-12 (1987)
• Ghost #1-3 (1995)
• Many Worlds of Tesla Strong (5 pages) (2003) (America's Best Comics)
• Maze Agency #1-5, 8-9, 12; Annual #1 (1988–90) (Comico Comics)
• Nexus, Vol. 2, #57 (1989) (First Comics)
• Pat Savage: the Woman of Bronze - Family Blood Special (1992)
• Penthouse Comix #1-5: "Young Captain Adventure" (with George Caragonne, Tom Thornton and Joel Adams, Penthouse, 1994–1995)
• Solution #5 (1994)
• Star Rangers #2-3 (1987)
• Star Trek: Debt of Honor (1992)
• Warriors #1-3 (1987–88)
• Wizard #94 (1999) (Wizard)

Covers only[link]

DC[link]

• Catwoman (vol. 2) #43-82 (2005–08), as well as a special one-shot issue numbered #83 in 2010 which served as a "Blackest Night" tie-in.
• DC Comics Presents (Julius Schwartz tribute):
• Batgirl #1-ongoing (DC Comics, 2011–...)
  • Batman (2004)
  • Superman (2004)
• JSA: Classified #1-2 (2005)
• Just Imagine Stan Lee creating:
  • Aquaman (2002)
  • Batman (2001)
  • Catwoman (2002)
  • Flash (2002)
  • Green Lantern (2001)
  • JLA (2002)
• Rose and Thorn (miniseries) #1-6 (2004)
• Superman #710 (DC Comics, 2011)
• Uncharted #1 (DC Comics, 2012)
• Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #139-146, 150-161, 164-174, 176-178, 184-197 (1998–2003)
• Zatanna #13-16 (2011)

Marvel[link]

• X-Men Classic #71-79 (1992)

Other publishers[link]

• Gate Crasher TPB (Wizard Entertainment)
• Ghost one-shot (Dark Horse)
• Star Wars: Purge (Dark Horse)
• Star Wars: Legacy #1-7 (Dark Horse)
• Tomb Raider #18, 32-34,42-50 (Image)
• Vampirella #1-3 (Harris Comics)
• Voodoo #2-4 (Image)
• Wizard #83, 94, 129, 162

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Adam Hughes at the Grand Comics Database

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adam Hughes

• Official website
• Adam Hughes at the Comic Book DB
• Adam Hughes, Deviantart
• Things That Make You Go AH!