You like fashion but you don’t know where to start?
We have selected six useful books for you, each addressing a different aspect of the fashion system, so you can get a deeper idea of this magnificent world.
“Fashion shows: Yves Saint Laurent”, Musée Yves Saint-Laurent Paris, “Chanel”, Patrick Mauriès, “Louis Vuitton”, Louise Rytter, Jo Ellison, “Prada”, Susannah Frankel and “Dior” Alexander Fury
If you want to focus on certain designers and if you are looking for a more photographic volume, the ‘The Complete Collections’ series are definitely what you need.
Five different volumes that follow the history of the most famous Maison of all time: from Yves Saint-Laurent– in a complete overview on the haute couture collections from 1962, the year of the opening of the Maison, up to 2002, the year of the designer’s farewell, displaying 40 years of wonderful creations – to Chanel, collecting the key looks of all the haute couture, prêt-à-porter, cruise and métiers d’art collections created by the genius and sacred monster of fashion Karl Lagerfeld (since his debut in 1983) and by Virginie Viard, his successor. Twenty-eight new fashion shows and photos of unreleased garments are also included, for a total of 180 collections and 1450 runway shots. There is also Luis Vuitton, in an overview of the influential Louis Vuittondesigns and the famous collections in a chronological order, Prada, which entered the fashion field with Miuccia Prada in 1988, and Dior, in an excursus that starts from the 1974 first homonymous collection (passing through Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, Gianfranco Ferré, John Galliano and Raf Simon) until 2017 where, for the first time in the history of the Maison, the creative director is a woman, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
Each collection is accompanied by images taken from the catwalks and told in a short introductory text that contains the stylist’s influences, inspirations and creative process.
“Fashion: A Philosophy”
Lars p. H. Svendsen
The common thought that fashion is just superficiality is debunked in this book by the Norwegian philosopher Svendsen, who explains how fashion can be associated with a social change that has a specific duration and radically affects – more than we like to admit – many aspects of our life (even if sometimes we don’t notice it).
Svendsen tells us, through a fascinating and modern analysis, how fashion can help define our identity, how it sneaks into the most important aspects of everyday life, shedding light on some aspects such as the gap between fashion and art and commercial interests, between those who consider fashion to be related to clothing and those who consider it as a general mechanism, and highlighting how, consciously or un consciously, many aspects of social life are subject to fashion fluctuations.
“The fashion design course: principles, practice, and techniques: the ultimate guide for the aspiring fashion designer”
Steven Faerm
The fashion designer’s work is imbued with an aura of magic, but do you really know what goes on behind the scenes? Kari Fashion Design Course by Steven Faerm, with its practical approach, step by step explanations and exercises, will introduce you to the real world of an aspiring fashion designer and explain everything about the creative aspect of fashion.
Divided into stages, this volume represents an excursus between the history of fashion, the major stylists and the cultural changes that have influenced it, all necessary information for a journey in this sector. It also explains the market categories, how seasonal collections work, the fundamentals of design (talking about all the key subjects such as color, fibers and fabrics, knitwear, the study of the fabric and the bases to create a collection), and last but not least, he deals with the topic of professional reality between resumes, interviews and professional outlets.
“The Model as Muse”
Harold Koda, Kohle Yohannan
Who hasn’t dreamed of parading on the catwalk like Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell in the golden age of supermodels? Until recently, in the history of fashion the image of the model was that of a modern-day Venus that inspired the work of designers: “Model as Muse” offers a glimpse into that patinated world with some historical overview on the phenomenon of the supermodel and on the relationship between fashion and the icons that have represented the female ideal for a long time. Starting from the early 20th century, going through the ’80s, with models like Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, and the ’90s, with Kate Moss who revolutionized the fashion system, up to the present moment, this volume tells how the figure of the model has become a modern myth that has inspired generations of stylists.
