Far more than clothes, fashion is a living system consisting of countless people, ideas, inspiration, technology and has a really exciting past, present, and future. Even if you are not a fashion student or working in the clothing industry, a knowledge on fashion and style is essential as it is a fundamental part of who we are and how we present ourselves. Said that, there are so many fashion books out there on style and fashion, from gorgeous coffee table books full of images to glossy style issues to maybe less inviting but more substantial, theoretical texts. Here is our selection of some of the best fashion books, to inspire you and enrich you.
Roland Barthes, the great linguist, draws the readers attention to the world of fashion and by using descriptions from magazines he uncovered a system of meaning and subjected it for the first time to semantic analysis. Bold and imaginative, The Fashion System is a highly stimulating reading.
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. 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, and licensing to image making and financing.
Author Elisabeth Cline documents her transformation from fast-fashion addict to conscientious shopper. She takes a long look at her overstuffed closet, resoles her cheap imported boots, travels to the world’s only living-wage garment factory, and seeks out cutting-edge local and sustainable fashion, all on her journey to find antidotes to out-of-control shopping. She looks at the impact the rapid cycle of consumption which isn’t just erasing our sense of style but is also causing massive harm to the environment and human rights.
This book examines how sustainability has the potential to transform both the fashion system and the innovators who work within it. Sustainability is arguably the defining theme of the twenty-first century. The issues in fashion are broad-ranging and include labour abuses, toxic chemicals use and conspicuous consumption, giving rise to an undeniable tension between fashion and sustainability.
In this book, Frances Corner, Head of London College of Fashion and a leading expert on the fashion industry teases out the glorious intricacies and contradictions of fashion that simultaneously values technology and craft, timeless style and fast fashion, the bespoke and the mass-market, consumption and sustainability, cold-hard numbers and creative expression. Accessible, instructive and hugely enjoyable, this book will be essential reading for anyone involved in fashion, business, education and beyond.
