Fashion Books

Yes, today is the perfect day to find a great fashion book.  It is always a good time to read books about fashion.

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Thames & Hudson: Founded in 1949, Thames & Hudson is one of the world's largest publishers of illustrated books, with over 2,000 titles in print across fashion, art, and design.

Laurence King: Laurence King Publishing of London publishes illustrated books on fashion and textiles, including the popular Pattern Magic series.

Fairchild Books: Fairchild Books, part of Bloomsbury Publishing, is a leading publisher of fashion textbooks and references such as the Fairchild Books Dictionary of Fashion.

Hennessey + Ingalls: Hennessey + Ingalls in Los Angeles is a specialty bookstore carrying an extensive selection of fashion, art, and design books.

Don't forget to visit the fashion library in our fashion industry terminology section.

By the way, a book is no longer simply a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. You can also find numerous electronic or audio fashion books for your reading or listening pleasure.

Illustrated Fashion Books

Illustrated publishers are the natural starting point for fashion books that are browsed as much as read. Thames & Hudson's list, built since 1949 to over 2,000 titles in print, spans fashion alongside art and design, so its fashion books tend to place clothing in its wider visual culture — photography, illustration, costume and the work of individual designers. Laurence King works in the same illustrated tradition from London, with fashion and textiles as a named strength; its Pattern Magic series, which teaches experimental pattern cutting through constructed garments, shows how an illustrated book can also be a practical workshop manual. Books of this kind serve students building visual literacy, designers looking for references, and general readers who simply enjoy fashion as a visual subject.

Textbooks, References and the Fashion Dictionary

Fairchild Books represents the other essential shelf: the textbook and the reference work. A fashion dictionary is the book a student reaches for when a lecturer, a specification sheet or a factory e-mail uses a term that needs pinning down precisely, and the Fairchild Books Dictionary of Fashion is the reference named on this page. Textbooks from an education publisher are organised for learning in sequence — concepts introduced, illustrated, exemplified and reviewed — which makes them the right choice when the goal is to master a subject such as merchandising, textiles or fashion history rather than to browse it.

Specialist Bookstores and New Formats

A specialty bookstore such as Hennessey + Ingalls in Los Angeles does something a general retailer cannot: it gathers fashion, art and design books in one room, shelved by people who know the subject, so a visitor can compare the textbook, the illustrated survey and the niche technical title side by side. Alongside print, fashion books now arrive as e-books and audiobooks, which suit readers who study while travelling or working. Whichever format you choose, the publishers and the bookstore linked from this page are the reliable first ports of call, and the fashion library in the terminology section of this site covers the vocabulary you will meet inside them.