If anyone knows anything about me, you’d know I absolutely love books. I’m more of a romance type of reader (I know, typical teenage girl), but every so often, I love myself a good historical book.
While strolling through Instagram one day, I came across a short video about a few fashion books: mostly encyclopedias. It made me realize that I don’t have any fashion books. So, I decided to make a list of a few of the fashion books I (and what I believe most new fashion lovers) should have.
Stylepedia: An Illustrated Guide of Style, Culture and History
This is an encyclopedia of styles and subcultures of the past 100 years. Iconic eras are covered throughout this book like the roaring 20s to modern day trends that are shaped by social media. It dives into stories of origins, cultures, and fashion elements of each style.
To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? by Lucy Siegle
From what I’ve found, this is a good book for anyone interested, yet not even interested, in the fashion industry. This book is good for helping you understand a bit more about where clothes come from. It’s from a statistical and an anecdotal perspective of a journalist.
Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas
This book goes over how fast fashion is destroying the planet and poses more questions than it answers. It brings attention to the environmental and human effects of brands such as Zara, which produce mass-market fashion at cheap prices (read my column about Depop to learn more about fast fashion). This book is essential for anyone’s fashion library.
Dressed: A Philosophy of Clothes by Shahidha Bari
The author of this book stops to consider the symbolic language of clothing. She pinpoints cultural and historical moments and trends. She even offers a comprehensive and compelling study on the way we all get dressed.
A few other fashion books I’ve found are:
- Slave to Fashion by Safia Minney
- The Battle of Versailles by Robin Givhan
- Fashion Work: 25 Years of Art in Fashion by Jeppe Ugelvig
- The End of Fashion: How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever by Teri Agins
Those are just a few of the many fashion books out there. I don’t know which one I’ll end up getting first, but I know whatever one it is, it will help me understand more of the fashion world.
Leave a comment below with a fashion book you have/want to have.
