Book List of the Week

East Meets West: Books Every Fashion Designer Should Read—Akiko Fukai and Claire Wilcox

By Steve Kroeter March 15, 2011

Akiko Fukai

Among the books chosen by Akiko Fukai, Director and Chief Curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) in Kyoto, is Issey Miyake: East Meets West. The title provides a symbolic link to the books selected by Claire Wilcox, Senior Curator of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London.

While their lists reflect differing cultural traditions, both of these commentators see books as having an important role for fashion designers. “Let life and books lead you where they will,” Wilcox reminds designers. She notes that the V&A and its research libraries were “set up in the 19th century to inspire creative design.” Fukai suggests that “of the many tools at a fashion designer’s disposal, books may be among the most important, “ as “they provide access . . . to what may be the most critical tool for fashion design’s future: philosophical thinking.”

Claire Wilcox

The scholarly interests of these two curators have intersected both geographically and intellectually. Akiko Fukai, who oversees a highly regarded collection that features Western clothing beginning with the 17th century as well as the work of Japanese fashion designers, has organized a number of international exhibitions accompanied by major catalogues—including “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion,” which just ended its run at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in February. Claire Wilcox, a leading authority on 20th-century and contemporary fashion and the curator of exhibitions on designers Vivienne Westwood and Gianni Versace, examined in detail the work of 20th-century Japanese designers— including Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake—in one of her most talked-about exhibitions—and catalogues—Radical Fashion.

Steve Kroeter
Editor in Chief

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman

Love Letter to a Garden

By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025

From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.