Claire Wilcox
Books Every Fashion Designer Should Read
Nonfiction, Fashion Design
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Glorious and inspiring dress and textiles. Think of John Galliano’s Fall 2009 Russian-inspired collection.
The series of analytical case studies of dress Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold is essential reading for any fashion designer (or theater costume designer) interested in the cut and construction of historical dress. Arnold’s work is key to understanding Vivienne Westwood’s collections of the early 1980s, in particular the cut of her trousers, based on early menswear.
Beaton really is essential reading and his descriptions of designers in their heyday are thrilling. Writing of Chanel: “It was always impossible to guess Chanel’s age. She was dark and sunburned, with high cheekbones, an upturned nose with nostrils, as she said, ‘like tunnels,’ brilliant black eyes like buttons, and a gash for a mouth. Her hands were delicate, of a skin with a white sheen on it, and so strong that they could shoe a horse. She wore no red on her fingernails but reddened the tips of her toes, on the theory that feet were a dreary business and required every aid.” He also had the knack for summing up the elemental characteristic of a designer, calling Dior “the Watteau of dressmaking.”
A useful examination of the powerful relationship between the metropolis and fashion culture. Few images, but Breward’s many publications (often with a focus on menswear) make essential reading for any aspiring designer.
Lace was one of fashion’s most expensive commodities in its time and is surely due for a revival.
This boxed set would be a wonderful gift for a fashion or textile designer. Based on the V&A’s collections, it encompasses every pattern, weave, print, and color imaginable.
I hope the extraordinary garments in this book inspire designers to regard creative fashion design as a discipline in which anything is possible.
Beautiful and detailed photography that really gets under the skin of early dress.
A light read, co-written by the Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, which offers fashion advice from the 1960s. Some things never change.
An essential resource for any aspiring milliner, from both a designer's and a curator's point of view.
Eleri Lynn shines a light on the fascinating subject of undergarments and shows that the fashionable silhouette is achieved with an equal measure of pleasure and pain.
The relationship between innovative textile design and fashion design is emphasized in Ascher’s work for couturiers such as Balenciaga. Balenciaga in particular utilized Ascher’s mohairs in sculptural forms such as his barrel coats.
For admirers of Balenciaga, the most authoritative book on this extraordinary designer.
The first of three volumes resulting from a collaboration between the V&A and theater costume designer Jenny Tiramani. Excitingly, the publication includes x-ray images of garments, which reveal their skeletal understructures.
Designers need to know the history of their discipline, and this examination of the Dior fashion house (1947–57) by the leading curatorial authority provides just that. Palmer (who also authored the excellent Couture & Commerce: The Transatlantic Fashion Trade in the 1950s, 2001) had unrivaled access to Dior's archives. What is remarkable is how in just ten years Christian Dior set the model for fashion houses of the future, while retaining all that was commercially and creatively successful in prewar couture.
Not a book I would normally think to recommend to a fashion designer but, after all, both McQueen and Westwood have created collections inspired by armor.
An exploration of the beautiful relationship between dress and jewelry.
An example of brilliance transformed into megalomania. Beware, designers.
A great resource to have available, day and night. There are various online encyclopedic resources but I like to have this three-volume set in my hand, and this is my favorite for browsing.
An old-fashioned book, but very useful for understanding the cut of non-Western dress. It’s interesting how the planarity and drape of such costumes inspire a particular approach to pattern.
A deconstruction of fashion, both literally and metaphorically.
A reminder that nothing in avant-garde contemporary fashion has yet surpassed Schiaparelli’s surrealist designs of the 1930s.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.”
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.
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