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As a child I was always interested in stories. Any kind of stories.. scary ones, realistic or surrealistic, every story I found worth knowing. Growing up, I found history to be the ultimate brain muscle exercise tool. You see history is like Prada Eyewear... 100% stylish and necessary.
For me the past three years have been a research through the time closet of fashion, a long realization of what defines me as a being and what I'd love to do for the rest of my life. And while I have red books, half wikipedia and a lot of stuff online I still feel, and probably always will, like I know the basics, and basics only. The amount of knowledge there is out there is overwhelming, and I would be a fool to tell you that I know lots... I only know enough to get me where I want to be and I'm working on going further day by day. Now, the pleasant factor of all this is that first of all I loved it since day one. I never felt like actually studying , which is why I am always like, do I know enough? It's not like maths.. you do not get tired, you never want to stop. That at least if you love your stuff.
So my list of fashion essentials is consisted of 3 books only, but trust me when I'm saying, if you do get to understand these in depth, you will have build for yourselves a solid ground to work on in order to get the career of your dreams!
Work hard study hard! The only recipe! Enjoy.
1)Fashion Since 1900, V.Mendes / Amy de la Haye, published by Themes & Hudson World of Art
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| This book will help you realise fashion throughout the 20st century in a socio-economic context that is 100% necessary. Fashion and society are one, and this book will tell you why. Analytical as it is, it is the most important out of all 3. So do read this first and more than once! |
2) 100 Ideas That Changed Fashion, Harriet Worsley, published by Lawrence King  |
| What this book does is get the ideas, the most important moments of the 20st century you red in Fashion Since 1900, and focus on them alone. You see when you read so many things at once you sometimes miss the point, on which someone might ask you something. For example, you might remember when the Make Do & Mend craze took place but because of all the other information miss what it truly was. This book takes 100 moments in fashion 1 by 1 helping you realise how important they all are. |
3) 100 Years of Menswear, Cally Blackman, published by Lawrence King  |
| What Fashion Since 1900 lacks, this book fills in. Menswear. Not a few pages of it as a small part of the radical changes in 20st century, but a full-on focus on sartorialism and how men defined fashion for both sexes. A good read, rich in imagery. |