Meet the Author

Janet Reed brings her love for fashion and over 40 years of experience to you. By the time she reached high school, Janet knew she wanted to go into fashion. She loved clothes. She loved dressing up. And she loved sewing. She also loved to write though twenty more years would pass before she would begin work on her first book.

In 1972, she left Ohio and off to college she went. After earning a B.S. in Fashion Merchandising from Florida State University in 1976, she promptly pursued her life's vocation. Soon after, she fulfilled her dream of moving West and established roots in California which has been home to her since 1977.

During her first decade in the field, Janet explored many avenues of fashion: buying, store manage- ment, display, and retail merchandising. Eager to learn, she advanced quickly. By her mid 20's, she had attained the position of district store manager and during the second decade, she added regional account sales and custom clothing design to her growing resume. It has been a robust multifaceted career that spans over four decades of fashion cycles, fashion trends, and fashion history.

Through her field experiences and participation in multiple cycles of fashion, Janet developed an adept ability to interpret social patterns and trends. This would become an influencing factor later in her life when the study of fashion history became a focus of interest.

In 1985, Janet's entrepreneurial spirit encouraged her to pursue self- employment. With 18 years of tailoring experience and self-taught knowledge of pattern making, she designed, drafted and constructed made-to-measure garments for private clients. It was through this experience that she was able to study a multitude of body types and to master the art of creating proportion and line illusions in dress. She used her craftsmanship to design an aesthetically pleasing look for her client that simultaneously conveyed the outward image desired for the event.

This experience influenced Janet's incisive understanding of the elements and principles of design and provided the framework for developing the concepts she introduced in Vol. II: Elements of Art in Fashion. It also gave her the adeptness to discuss silhouette throughout the various fashion eras.

Concurrent with her design business, Janet taught pattern drafting and design classes through a private firm. There, she self-published and sold books on the subject to her students. This compelled her to pursue teaching more rigorously. By the late 80's, she had taught for two California community college districts and two fashion trade schools. Her well-rounded career in merchandising, buying, marketing, and clothing design was aptly suited to becoming a fashion instructor and led to a 17-year profession.

By the early 90's, she was exclusively lecturing from her own handouts. This led to the publishing of her first two books which became required course texts. In retrospect, teaching provided the necessary platform for her to develop, refine, and clarify her material.

By 2001, restlessness was beginning to set in once again. She wanted to begin a third title about the history of fashion and she could no longer ignore a yearning desire to reach others beyond the confines of her classroom. So she relinquished her teaching post and redirected her career to pursue writing full time. The next chapter in Janet's career began with an opportune crossing of paths with a programmer who encouraged her to explore a new developing styling language called CSS.

After looking at websites using the methodology, Janet was immediately sold on the idea. She envisioned the freedom to use color limitlessly as well as the ability to add video, sound, and other interactive features common to use of the Internet. And the material could be readily updated to reflect the changing fashion environment.

So she became a student again and set out to create a new version of her books. The launch of Fashion Merchandising Online marked a culmination of her career experiences and aspirations. But that only encouraged her to begin her next achievement - Fashion History Online. "The Evolution of Fashion" collection is a work of love that truly reflects the pinnacle of her mastery, knowledge base, cultural perceptions, and experience as she enters the golden years of her career. It is never finished as yesterday's news is history by today.