Janet Reed brings her love for fashion and over forty 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 management, 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. Through her field experiences and participation in multiple cycles of fashion, Janet developed an adept ability to interpret social patterns and trends. You will cultivate your own skills and insight using her tools. 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 or occasion. 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. 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, Janet had taught for two community college districts and two fashion trade schools. Her well-rounded career in merchandising, buying, marketing, and design was aptly suited to becoming a fashion instructor and led to a 17-year profession. In retrospect, teaching provided the necessary platform for her to develop, refine, and clarify her material which initially began as supplemental handouts. By the early 90's, she had become increasingly discouraged by the textbook offerings for her courses and stopped using an outside text all together, exclusively lecturing from her own handouts. This led to the publishing of her first 2 books which were adopted as required texts. 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 her 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 only a handful of websites using the methodology, she was sold on the idea. She envisioned the freedom to use color limitlessly and to add video, sound, and other interactive features characteristic of the Internet. And the material could be readily updated to reflect the changing fashion environment. A textbook on fashion that's always current. "Hmmm", she thought, "Now that's a good idea". 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. Janet's imagination and love of fashion continue. Stay tuned and evolve with her in the celebration of fashion!