⚬ The little dictionary about fashion by Christian Dior
Christian Dior reveals the secrets of style in this charming handbook that no woman should be without. An indispensable guide that covers everything from what to wear to a wedding and how to tie a scarf to how to walk with grace, The Little Dictionary of Fashion is full of timeless tips. From afternoon frocks and accessories to traveling and tweed, Diors expertise ensures every girl will know the three fundamentals of fashion: simplicity, grooming, and good taste.
⚬ Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas
Today, the clothing industry churns out 80 billion garments a year and employs every sixth person on Earth. Historically, the apparel trade has exploited labor, the environment, and intellectual property--and in the last three decades, with the simultaneous unfurling of fast fashion, globalization, and the tech revolution, those abuses have multiplied exponentially, primarily out of view.
In Fashionopolis,Thomas sees renewal in a host of developments, including printing 3-D clothes, clean denim processing, smart manufacturing, hyperlocalism, fabric recycling--even lab-grown materials. From small-town makers and Silicon Valley whizzes to such household names.
⚬ The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business by Teri Agins
The time when "fashion" was defined by French designers whose clothes could be afforded only by elite has ended. Now designers take their cues from mainstream consumers and creativity is channeled more into mass-marketing clothes than into designing them. Indeed, one need look no further than the Gap to see proof of this. In The End of Fashion, Wall Street Journal, reporter Teri Agins astutely explores this seminal change, laying bare all aspects of the fashion industry from manufacturing, retailing, anmd licensing to image making and financing. Here as well are fascinating insider vignettes that show Donna Karan fighting with financiers,the rivalry between Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, and the commitment to haute conture that sent Isaac Mizrahi's business spiraling.
⚬ The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Fordon
Named one of the best books of the year by the Economist, House Of Gucci tells the remarkable story of the power of the Gucci Dynasty and their famed luxury goods house. While the business was achieving unprecedented success, the family found itself shrouded in personal tragedy.
The Gucci story is one of glitz, glamour, intrigue, the rise, near fall and subsequent resurgence of a fashion dynasty. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and widely acclaimed, The House of Gucci will captivate readers with its page-turning account of high fashion, high finance, and heart-rending personal tragedy.
⚬ Inside Haute Couture: Behind the Scenes at the Paris Ateliers by Désirée Sadek
From Maison Chanel on rue Cambon to Jean Paul Gaultier on rue Saint-Martin, the history of French fashion is often closely tied to those of Parisian addresses. With exclusive photographs by Guillaume de Laubier and text by Désirée Sadek, Inside Haute Couture offers a private tour of 10 meccas of French fashion. From the splendor of VIP reception rooms to the privacy of sewing ateliers, the daily lives of the most renowned figures in haute couture are showcased alongside the skilled artisans and their stunning creations. This book is an unprecedented journey into a world often closed to the public, against a backdrop of an exceptional architectural heritage.
⚬ The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake
In 1950s Paris, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld were friends, the rising stars of the fashion world. But by the late sixties the city was invaded by a new mood of liberation and hedonism, and dominated by intrigue, infidelities, addiction and parties. Each designer created his own mesmerising world, so vivid and seductive that people were drawn to the power, charisma and fame, and it was to make them bitter rivals. The Beautiful Fall is a dazzling exposé of an era and the story of the two men who were its essence and who remain its most singular survivors.
⚬ Fashionpedia: the visual dictionary of fashion design
Fashionpedia is the ultimate fashion bible, containing thousands of fashion items for more efficient and productive brainstorming.
Designed to be as visually driven as the people who use it, Fashionpedia contains thousands of fashion items, converting unapproachable technical terms on style, material and production into beautiful charts and infographics.
Whether you’re an industry insider or a fashion connoisseur, Fashionpedia is all you’ll ever need to navigate the fashion scene.
⚬ Historical fashion in detail by Avril Hart, Susan North, Richard Davis
Much of the finery seen here is too fragile to be on permanent display, or its detail too intricate to be captured in conventional photography. Jacobean blackwork, neoclassical tambour work, exquisite stitching, and knife-sharp pleats are pictured in stunning photographs, alongside such unusual techniques as stamping, pinking, and slashing--many of which are rarely employees in the modern world, as they require labor-intensive handwork impossible to replicate by machine.
With line drawings showing the construction of the complete garment and a text that sets each in the context of its time, this book is a visual feast for all fashion lovers, and an essential resource for curators, collectors, students, costumers and designers.
⚬ 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment by François Boucher
The book is widely cited as a reference for fashion trends in paintings and has 1150 illustrations which are mostly paintings, etchings and engravings from Western museums and collections. The book includes a glossary of terms and a bibliography of sources. It was originally published in French in 1965 as Histoire du Costume en Occident de l’antiquité à nos jours and was translated into English the next year, but was published after Boucher's death. In 1987 Deslandres updated a new edition with a section on modern fashion.
⚬ Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography by Meryle Secrest
One of the most extraordinary fashion designers of the twentieth century, Elsa Schiaparelli was an integral figure in the artistic movement of the times. Her collaborations with artists such as Man Ray, Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau and Alberto Giacometti elevated the field of women's clothing design into the realm of art.
Her story is one of pluck, determination and talent with scandal as spice. As the daughter of minor Italian nobility whose disastrous first marriage to a Theosophist caused near penury, she transformed herself into a designer of great imagination and, along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she was one of the few female figures in the field at that time
⚬ Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano by Dana Thomas
More than two decades ago, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen arrived on the fashions scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. Both wanted to revolutionize fashion in a way no one had in decades. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs. They turned out landmark collections in mesmerizing, theatrical shows that retailers and critics still gush about and designers continue to reference.
In her groundbreaking work Gods and Kings, acclaimed journalist Dana Thomas tells the true story of McQueen and Galliano. In so doing, she reveals the revolution in high fashion in the last two decades—and the price it demanded of the very ones who saved it.
⚬ Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty by Andrew Bolton
Arguably the most influential, imaginative, and provocative designer of his generation, Alexander McQueen both challenged and expanded fashion conventions to express ideas about race, class, sexuality, religion, and the environment. The book examines the full breadth of the designer’s career, from the start of his fledgling label to the triumphs of his own world-renowned London house. It features his most iconic and radical designs, revealing how McQueen adapted and combined the fundamentals of Savile Row tailoring, the specialized techniques of haute couture, and technological innovation to achieve his distinctive aesthetic. It also focuses on the highly sophisticated narrative structures underpinning his collections and extravagant runway presentations, with their echoes of avant-garde installation and performance art.
⚬ The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History by Robin Givhan
On November 28, 1973, the world's social elite gathered at the Palace of Versailles for an international fashion show. By the time the curtain came down on the evening's spectacle, history had been made and the industry had been forever transformed. This is that story.
Pulitzer-Prize winning fashion journalist Robin Givhan offers a lively and meticulously well-researched account of this unique event. The Battle of Versailles is a sharp, engaging cultural history; this intimate examination of a single moment shows us how the world of fashion as we know it came to be.
⚬ The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair
From colorful 30,000-year-old threads found on the floor of a Georgian cave to the Indian calicoes that sparked the Industrial Revolution, The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefi ne human civilization—from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole). Offering insights into the economic and social dimensions of clothmaking—and countering the enduring, often demeaning, association of textiles as “merely women’s work”—The Golden Thread offers an alternative guide to our past, present, and future.
⚬ Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline
Cheap fashion has changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to traditional chains like JCPenney now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. Retailers are producing clothes at enormous volumes in order to drive prices down and profits up, and they’ve turned clothing into a disposable good. After all, we have little reason to keep wearing and repairing the clothes we already own when styles change so fast and it’s cheaper to just buy more
⚬Hijacking the Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing the Spotlight from Fashion Designers by Teri Agins
From Coco Chanel’s iconic tweed suits to the miniskirt’s surprising comeback in the late 1980s, fashion houses reigned for decades as the arbiters of style and dictators of trends. Hollywood stars have always furthered fashion’s cause of seducing the masses into buying designers’ clothes, acting as living billboards. Now, forced by the explosion of social media and the accelerating worship of fame, red carpet celebrities are no longer content to just advertise and are putting their names on labels that reflect the image they—or their stylists—created. Agins charts this strange new terrain with wit and insight and an insider’s access to the fascinating struggles of the bold-type names and their jealousies, insecurities, and triumphs. Everyone from industry insiders to fans of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model will want to read Agins’s take on the glitter and stardust transforming the fashion industry, and where it is likely to take us next.
⚬ The Cambridge History of Western Textiles
Textiles have been essential to the everyday lives of all societies. Besides helping to provide protection and warmth, they have fulfilled social, cultural, military, legal and symbolic functions, and have been an essential part of the economic activity of societies from ancient times. Brings together and extends current knowledge on the production and uses of textiles, through the eyes of archaeologists, economic and social historians, historians of fashion and the history of dress and museum curators familiar with surviving artefacts....
⚬ The Woman I Wanted to Be by Diane Von Furstenberg
In The Woman I Wanted to Be, “an intriguing page-turner filled with revelations” (More), von Furstenberg reflects on her extraordinary life—from her childhood in Brussels to her days as a young, jet-set princess, to creating the dress that came to symbolize independence and power for generations of women. With remarkable honesty and wisdom, von Furstenberg mines the rich territory of what it means to be a woman. She opens up about her family and career, overcoming cancer, building a global brand, and devoting herself to empowering other women. This “inspiring, compelling, deliciously detailed celebrity autobiography…is as much of a smashing success as the determined, savvy, well-intentioned woman who wrote it” (Chicago Tribune).
⚬ The Glass of Fashion: A Personal History of Fifty Years of Changing Tastes and the People Who Have Inspired Them by Cecil Beaton
Though known for his portraits, Beaton was as incisive a writer as he was a photographer. First published in 1954, The Glass of Fashion is a classic an invaluable primer on the history and highlights of fashion from a man who was a chronicler of taste, and an intimate compendium of the people who inspired his legendary eye. Across eighteen chapters, complemented by more than 150 of his own line drawings, Beaton writes with great wit about the influence of luminaries such as Chanel, Balenciaga, and Dior, as well as relatively unknown muses like his Aunt Jessie, who gave him his first glimpse of the grown-up world of fashion. Out of print for decades but recognized and sought after as a touchstone text, The Glass of Fashion will be irresistible to a new generation of fashion enthusiasts and a seminal book in any Beaton library. It is both a treasury and a treasure.
⚬ Chanel: The Vocabulary of Style by Jérôme Gautier
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (1883-1971) was undoubtedly the most influential fashion designer of the 20th century. Her clothes and accessories have remained perennially chic, and her legendary fashion house continues to exert a powerful sway over today's designers. Jérôme Gautier tells the story of Chanel's iconic style through hundreds of images. Through these dazzling photographs, Chanel: The Vocabulary of Style identifies key elements that have defined Chanel's style for generations, such as jersey and tweed, formerly considered menswear fabrics, and the little black dress, which transformed a hue previously reserved for mourning into a statement of elegance. Pearls were her staple, and she often embellished outfits with her signature camellia. Eleven chapters compare the original forms of these enduring trademarks with their later expressions over the years and to the present day, letting the vocabulary of Chanel's style speak for itself.
⚬ Fashion Climbing, by Bill Cunningham
For Bill Cunningham, New York City was the land of freedom, glamour, and, above all, style.
Fashion Climbing is the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original. But although he was one of the city's most recognized and treasured figures, Bill was also one of its most guarded. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away in his lifetime. He held off on sharing it—and himself—until his passing. Between these covers, is an education in style, an effervescent tale of a bohemian world as it once was, and a final gift to the readers of one of New York's great characters.
All of those book are available on Amazon and Barns and Nobles. Also the vast majority are also available for Kindle (the best way to read imo). If you short on money, some of those books are available on my Google drive. Due to legal and copyright factors, I don't feel comfortable posting here. But send me a dm on my Twitter and I'll happily share the link with you!
