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Last September, our Future Observatory programme unveiled its latest display, Tomorrow’s Wardrobe. This cutting-edge exhibit envisions a future for fashion that is both stylish and sustainable. It influenced our direction for this month's Book Club. We are sharing our third entry in the Design Discipline in Focus series and will be measuring up on fashion design.

Our books are bursting at the seams with creative and commercial content on garment-making. They will strengthen your technical ability, critical thinking, business management and industry knowledge, and even leave you a skilful and sharp-witted sewer.

Take part in a foundation course on clothes with Steven Faerm, muse on the Surrealist movement with Kathryn Johnson, flip through a page-turning guide on brand building with Fashionary and get acquainted with the avant-garde artistry of the late, great Lee Alexander McQueen. As always, you will find a bundle deal here with 10% off and free delivery. Why not also check out our edit of fashion gifting. Read on below. 

Steven Faerm, published by Thames & Hudson (2010)

 The fashion industry is renowned for being an alluring but competitive business to break into. An influential and successful designer must juggle artistic and entrepreneurial considerations, excelling as an inventor, a businessperson and a storyteller to produce ingenious, straightforward and expressive garments that stand the test of time. So, how do you defy the odds, pull off this balancing act and make your mark? Fashion professor Steven Faerm discloses all the answers in this textbook on clothes creation from 2010. He delivers an overview of the role of a designer, the foundations of design and how to develop your creative process, carry out assignments and assimilate into the sector. His schooling prepares you with a nifty bag of tricks. You can pull out these tools and use them to create collections of cultivated work.

Kathryn Johnson, published by the Design Museum (2022)

In 2022, the Design Museum staged the showcase Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today in collaboration with the Vitra Design Museum. This display investigated the Surrealist movement and traced its lasting impression on the design industry over the last century. Doing so by displaying pioneering, classic works by Salvador Dalí, Méret Oppenheim and Dora Maar alongside innovative, contemporary responses by Blaise Agüera Y Arcas, Mary Katrantzou and Tim Walker. Our show catalogue continues this enquiry by identifying five points of interaction: Interior Design - Surreal Crafts - Fashion Photography - Desire and the Body and New Directions. These discipline studies include a collection of illustrations, an essay segment and an interview portion from accomplished practitioners. This intricate and revealing text is a must-have for habitués of art history and psychoanalysis. Venture into the unconscious mind and fall for the dreamy works on offer.

- Kate Soper

Published by Fashionary (2019)

Penter Yip founded Fashionary in 2008. Their brand name is a portmanteau of: “fashion” “dictionary” and “diary” and expresses their business intentions perfectly. Since their inception, they have released a range of sophisticated, intelligent and personable fashion guidebooks, including The Hidden Facts of Fashion (2020), Textilepedia (2020) and Stylepedia (2024). Fashionary’s range provides eye-opening inquiries into specific sections of the trade. In 2018, they released The Fashion Business Manual. This guide includes attention-grabbing visuals, in-depth discussions and reflective questionnaires on the branding, production, wholesaling, marketing, retailing and starting up of a label. For many young, talented designers, founding a company is a central career goal. Do you share this aspiration? Come away with a bolstered understanding of yourself, your desired brand and the industry it will operate in.

Louise Rytter, published by Thames & Hudson (2022)

Alexander McQueen began working as a fashion designer in the early 1990s. He established a rebellious reputation in the industry because of his elaborate, provocative approach to garments and their runway presentations, gaining the moniker “l’enfant terrible”. His works were theatrical, controversial spectacles that teemed with surreal possibility, particularly in Spring 1997 - Bellmer La Poupée (1996) and Spring 1999 - No. 13 (1998). The British Fashion Council recognised his contributions on multiple occasions, awarding him Designer of the Year in 1996, 1997, 2001 and 2003. McQueen tragically passed away in 2010, but his work has remained enduringly relevant. He was honoured in the posthumous retrospective Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2011 and the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015. This title tells the story of McQueen’s consequential career through a series of his most revealing, thought-provoking quotes. It includes a preface from the author and commemorate the extraordinary creative chapters of McQueen’s life to ensure that his legacy lives on.