8 Fashion books of 2024 to add to the wishlist
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Need some inspiration for a festive season wish list or for your 2025 reading list? FashionUnited has compiled a selection of books published in 2024 that we believe would be perfect additions.
Total Ethics Fashion: People, our fellow animals and the planet before profit
Total Ethics Fashion is a manifesto for an ethical fashion system. “This book is for those who work in fashion, those who love fashion, those who love the planet, or quite simply, those who get dressed every day,” according to the description. The book delves into the current system within the fashion industry, its past and its future.
Fila: Timelapse
Sportswear brand Fila has a history spanning over a hundred years. The brand describes itself as one of the first to make the leap from the sports field to the streets. It is this history and impact that is then explored in this non-chronological book.
Look Good, Feel Good, Play Good: Nike Apparel
Note: This book will be released on December 10, 2024.
Sportswear brand Nike has many stories to tell, but in this book chooses to focus on women’s sportswear. The book highlights various athletes and explores their apparel, complete with quotes from the athletes themselves.
Simone Rocha
Irish designer Simona Rocha has become a staple of London’s fashion scene, having a regular presence on the city’s fashion week calendar and taking on the role of guest designer at Jean Paul Gaultier. In her dedicated book, publisher Rizzoli takes a first comprehensive look at Rocha’s work, bringing together catwalk images, editorials and backstage shots, with contributions from industry peers such as Cindy Sherman, Peta Collins and Ed Templeton.
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
In this book, author Julie Satow goes back in time to account the rise of three American women leading the region’s retail industry: Dorothy Shaver, Hortense Odlum and Geraldine Stutz. The trio’s real life stories are brought to life to tell the tale of growing consumerism, the rise of the department store and the industry from the perspective of female powerhouses.
Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unravelling of an American Icon
The polarising nature of Victoria’s Secret is explored in this 320-page book, which starts at the beginning of the lingerie giant’s birth in the late 1970s to its current status as it attempts to navigate the interests of the modern consumer. From bankruptcy close-calls to its fluctuating cultural influence, all sides of Victoria’s Secret are touched upon in an account contributed to by sources and industry experts.
In American Fashion: Ruth Finley’s Fashion Calendar
‘In American Fashion’ is described by its publisher as the “first scholarly analysis of the Fashion Calendar”, a trade publication for the American fashion industry that had been published by Ruth Finley for almost seven decades until 2014. It was on this calendar, presented in the book as a piece of history, that the American fashion industry relied in order to form its annual schedules, influencing fashion culture and aiding in the development of a time-system to which the region rarely strayed.
How to Build a Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from an Image Architect
One of the most talked about books of the year was none other than the one of Law Roach, the acclaimed stylist who has garnered fame of his own for dressing celebrity fashion icons like Zendaya. In this self-help book, Roach takes readers behind the scenes of his process, sharing tips and tricks that have helped him achieve the status to which he is known today.
Black in Fashion: 100 Years of Style, Influence and Culture
Black designers and creatives take centre stage in this publication, and are seen through the lens of photography and articles collected from the archives of industry publication, WWD. From the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movements all the way to hip-hops fashion takeover in the 90s, this book spans far and wide over the realm of the Black fashion community.
Honourable mentions
Palace Costume: Inside Hollywood’s Best Kept Fashion Secret
‘Palace Costume’ gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at LA’s famed Palace Costume & Prop Co., the treasure trove that has become the go-to for costumers and stylists since its opening in the 1970s. The book features interviews with hundreds of costume designers, as well as photography and film stills that intend to offer a comprehensive glimpse into the Palace Costume archives.
An Eye for Couture: A Collector’s Exploration of 20th Century Fashion
Note: This book will be released on December 3, 2024.
The world of French haute couture is told in this book from the perspective of a leading Asian art dealer, Francesca Galloway, who built up an archive of 20th century haute couture and fashion over a period of 35 years. Over 100 of those pieces are featured in the book, including garments from Gabrielle Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Christian Dior, exhibited in a range of photography to bring them to life.
Made Up: A History of Identity and Gender Expression Through Makeup and Style
Note: This book will be released on December 17, 2024.
The story of self-expression, particularly in the context of gender, is touched upon through the presence of makeup in ‘Made Up’, for which historical and modern uses of cosmetics provide what is described to be a “whistle-stop tour of gendered adornment through time”.
This article was written with contributions from Caitlyn Terra and Rachel Douglass.