Building a Fashion Library

Hope everyone in the States had a good Memorial Day weekend!  I didn't do much out of the ordinary - class on Saturday, more packing up and cleaning at the old apartment on Sunday, and a silly movie with my parents Sunday night.  Monday, Lumberjack and I hung out and did absolutely nothing responsible.  We woke up late, got hamburgers for lunch, and dinked around Ballard.  It was glorious.

We had been to Secret Garden Books on Market Street just once, about ten minutes before closing, and we hurried in and out so we wouldn't bother them.  When we checked them out on Monday, they had a small but excellent selection of fashion books.  Between the bookstore and the neat little art & frame shop next door that also sells cards and books on art and design, I got four great new additions to my growing fashion library.

So I'm a sucker for lists, and for things that are organized in interesting or unique ways.  Although all of these books cover similar subject matter, they approach it very differently.  

1.  Fashion Design Directory by Marnie Fogg.  This book lists designers and influential brands alphabetically, giving each a short description and chronological summary of their style evolution.  A really great reference.

2.  100 Years of Fashion by Cally Blackman.  This book is gorgeous.  It has two sections, 1900-1959 and 1960-present, and there are subsections within each of those sections that describe a particular genre or aesthetic, from Hollywood to sportswear to fashion subcultures.  It gives a broad overview of the 20th century in fashion, while still retaining focus in each subsection.  I read this entire book yesterday, because it is that enthralling.  (And before your eyes bug out, about 90% of the book's content is in photographs and captions.)

3.  100 Ideas That Changed Fashion by Harriet Worsley.  This book marks important fashion concepts and tracks their evolution from beginnings to current day.  I love reading about the history of how and when certain fashions began, and I think it's super interesting that so many of them had controversial beginnings, but are now completely accepted as wardrobe staples.

4.  Pantone: The 20th Century in Color by Leatrice Eiserman and Keith Recker.  This book lists a chronology of cultural influences - films, art, movements, and music, to name a few - and the color palettes that they inspired.  A great jumping-off point for thinking about color.