Best fashion & textile business books according to redditors
We found 35 Reddit comments discussing the best fashion & textile business books. We ranked the 8 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 35 Reddit comments discussing the best fashion & textile business books. We ranked the 8 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
If you want to know the ins and outs of how luxury goods are made today, I highly recommend "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster" by Dana Thomas. Great examination of the industry, cuts through the mystique of modern "luxury."
Not a proper ELI5 response, but I read this book in college that went in on a lot of stuff about how luxury brands started targeting different audiences and how that affected quality; might be interesting for you as background reading material:
https://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-How-Luxury-Lost-Luster/dp/0143113704
Here goes the dump:
On perfume industry:
Chandler Burr - The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York - the book that originally got me into fragrances. It is exactly what it says on the cover: an inside look at how mainstream fragrances (specifically Jardin Sur Le Nil by Hermes and Lovely by S J Parker) are developed.
Jean Claude Ellena - Diary of a Nose J-C Ellena is the head perfumer at Hermes and a part time writer (and a hero of the previous book). This book is more about his personal reminiscences and thoughts about perfumes. He also gives an interesting list of cool fragrance recipes (accords) in the appendix
Jean Claude Ellena - Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent - by the same author. This book is mostly about the industry.
Denyse Beaulieu - The Perfume Lover: A Personal History of Scent This is an autobiographic book from a woman who reeeealy loves perfumes and managed to convinced a famous perfumer Bertrand Duchafour to make a perfume for her. Sometimes reads more like an erotic novel but a good book.
Perfume guides:
Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez - Perfumes: The A-Z Guide - a famous guide, very quirky and opinionated but their perfume descriptions are great fun to read.
Luca Turin's blog Turin is a famous perfume freak and olfaction scientist, he stopped writing, but the blog posts are available for download.
Chandler Burr - articles Burr is a self-styled perfume art critic, who writes for major newspaper and magazines. His articles make a good intro for a layman.
Barbara Herman - Scent and Subversion: Decoding a Century of Provocative Perfume This is about collecting antique perfumes. Reads a like a slightly edited collection of blog posts (which I think it indeed is).
Tessa Williams - Cult Perfumes A guide to niche perfumes. I suspect most of the text was written by the brands themselves, because sometimes it has a marketing blurb feel to it. Nevertheless it gives a good overview of major players.
The H&R Books (4 Volume Set) Book of Perfume, Fragrance Guide , Feminine Notes, Fragrance Guide, Masculine Notes, Guide to Fragrance Ingredients It doesn't say all that much about each perfumes, just the notes, but what it lacks in depth it makes up in breadth.
Michael Edwards - Fragrances of The World - another huge compendium. Don't have it myself, but looks very solid.
On general olfaction:
Chandler Burr - Emperor of Scent - it's about Luca Turin and his new theory of olfaction. I get the feeling that the technicalities are over the author's head but it's a fun read. Has a lot about fragrances as well.
Luca Turin - The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell the book by the man himself. Fun popular science.
Avery Gilbert - What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life A collection of popular sketches about olfaction, from Smell-o-vision to the way they train police dogs
Gunter Ohloff, Wilhelm Pickenhagen, Philip Kraft - Scent and Chemistry - I havent read it yet, but it comes with high recommendations.
I also have a bunch of books on perfume making, but these probably should go into a separate topic
These are my absolute favorite books about fashion history/the industry:
oh yes, absolutely. there's a great book on this from several years back. Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. The data is a few years old, but it's only gotten worse! https://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-How-Luxury-Lost-Luster/dp/0143113704
I'm kicking it off with Cheap (which some of us discussed on MFA last summer), but for future months I'm lining up Global Denim, Consumed, The Overspent American, and Where Am I Wearing. Other suggestions are absolutely welcome!
http://www.amazon.com/Global-Denim-Daniel-Miller/dp/1847886310
http://www.amazon.com/Consumed-Markets-Children-Infantilize-Citizens/dp/0393330893
http://www.amazon.com/The-Overspent-American-Want-What/dp/0060977582
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wearing-Countries-Factories-Clothes/dp/1118277554
I've been reading Brad's site since way back when it was called Commerce with a Conscience, and I'm really thrilled to start contributing. If you haven't read it before, definitely out this post on why clothes cost what they do - it's one of my favorites.
Interestingly, the sun protective aspect has not been more challenging - to the naked eye, our fabrics appear to be normal lightweight to midweight knits, and factories have had no trouble accommodating us.
What is challenging about producing in the USA is that costs are higher than they are overseas - much of the money we spend on production funds the salaries of those cutting, sewing, and dyeing our merchandise - and the price of labor in the US is simply higher than it is in Cambodia or Bangladesh (two popular, overseas, low-cost manufacturing markets). We decided to produce in the US because it would allow us to do better quality control, plus we strive to be as sustainable a business as possible. Manufacturing in the US reduces our carbon footprint because we don't have to put our finished goods on an airplane or on a barge, or ship our components around the world.
Beyond just assembling our garments in the US, we also use American-made components; this is another quality control & sustainability effort. It also allows us to turn items more quickly, because lead times are often shorter than ordering from overseas. Some companies buy all of their fabric from markets with less or non-existent testing standards, then cut & sew the item in the US, and call it American made. They aren't violating any rules, but it's just a less supervised and regulated way to produce clothing. This subject itself is worthy of a lengthy discussion; one great resource for more information on this practice is Dana Thomas' Deluxe.
An Essential Reading List For Designers
Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk
All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.
Architecture
Communication Design
Fashion Design
Angela ButtolphEditors of Phaidon ?Furniture Design
Game Design
Graphic Design
Information Design
Industrial Design
(cont'd)
The show is more 'real' than actual real life, where prices are inflated. (that is to say, the target of the irony is reversed for me)
We believe the characters are working/middle class because a t-shirt 'means' a comfy casual thing that costs very little. The "symbol" is more real to us than the "actual thing" itself.
Real life prices that are laughable and subject to imaginary forces of 'brand value.'
Cool sweaters with prints on them are cheap. That specific sweater with that specific print is priced too high because 'specificity' is the only thing boutique or luxury companies can offer. Since luxury brands are now made with the same cheap labor as affordable goods are, the strategy of maintaining 'wealthy' market has changed. (the [the book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster] (http://amzn.com/0143113704) is a great intro to this idea..)
In the age of H&M practically every single look can be replicated for (american) middle class prices. The chinese teenagers are the last 'working class' in the old sense -- their labor is exploited for fast fashion, we are the beneficiaries of that. That reality is less disturbing to me than the 'lie' of expensive 'designer' stuff. Seems insulting to me to pay even more for the same basic looks.
Which is why the concept of these websites are obnoxious to me. They should be replicate-the-style websites, not buy-the-specific-item sites, but those partnerships/spnsorships is how the sites and the wardrobe departments make/save money.
I read a book on this, the retail price is roughly 14x what it cost to make. Which is completely ridiculous but you kind of have to admit that that's some real successful marketing.
One other risk they manage is successful communication with the factory about what exactly the factory will produce. Even if the factory is producing gis for several companies, they are likely being made to different specifications, features, quality control, et. cet. Getting all of that right requires expert knowledge and a bit of trial and error before the factory is consistently producing exactly what was ordered.
So if you get a few people together and go straight to the factory there is some chance you'll wind up with stuff that's not quite what you are after.
The garment industry is some fascinating stuff, I highly recommend the book The "Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy" which gives an in depth look at the whole life cycle of a t-shirt, from cotton to the African surplus market. That serves as a window in to the modern global economy, as well the history of how agricultural societies industrialize. Very cool stuff.
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster is incredible and important in today's market that focuses on aspirations towards high end purchases.
Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Fast Fashion is another good one.
Jeebus, that's awful! I'll probably read more about it soon enough, though. I just borrowed the book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster from the public library.
I guess if I want to buy a Kate Spade bag in the future, I should actually purchase it by walking in a Kate Spade store (and allow both the colors and the price tags blaze into my eyes).
Style guides:
Historical:
Edit: formatting.
Thanks for the link! I read a book about this years ago before I knew anything about the rep world and it was pretty illuminating. It’s actually called “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster”. It was written in 2007 so it might be a bit dated however the basic thrust still definitely stands. If I recall correctly the only brands (at the time of publishing) that really were still worthy of the “luxury” label were Chanel and Hermés - they were specifically cited for their leather and textile quality and skill of their artisans. I think it also talked a lot about how brands like Marc Jacobs are made side by side in the same Chinese factory (lol) as unbranded cheaper merchandise. Which we obviously know and benefit from!!
Amazon link
>The main problem is that I feel anxious committing to pieces... my style/taste changes sometimes and I end up not loving pieces nice bought even just months ago.
I think this is something that a lot of people feel, which is the exact feeling fast fashion companies are trying to exploit. They thrive on constantly pushing trends out, selling clothes with weird bells and whistles that go out of style quickly rather than quality basics (ever wonder why there are so many cold-shoulder tops and tissue tees with sayings on them??), making consumers go through the churn of buying so quickly that they never get the chance to be thoughtful about what they buy.
In addition to what everyone's suggested (The True Cost & other educational things), I think a suuuper important thing is to get a handle of what your style really is. Please note that you don't have to limit yourself to one siloed style! But it is important to get a sense of overarching themes of stuff you both love and actually wear. Once you have that down, whatever random trend won't look that appealing anymore when it comes around.
There are lots of ways to do this. Personally, I found starting a pinterest board the easiest--it's pretty passive, you just get on every once in a while, pin some stuff and look through their related pins, but I've learned a LOT about what I love through doing this. Another method people here like is the visual wardrobe, or the curated closet/Into Mind.
Also, to add onto the reading material people have suggested, I highly recommend Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lusture for anyone curious about how fashion has in modern times become the massive, unsustainable and unethical mass it's become.
There's a really interesting book you could read with Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion that goes into this. It's really eye-opening, and gave me a bigger understanding when the media started focusing on factories in India after that horrible collapse. Another one is Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster that ties into the whole modern phenomena of cheap, "affordable" fashion.
I read a book last year called Where am I Wearing which is essentially about the many clothes manufacturing jobs around the world.
Obviously these jobs go to some of the poorest places around. But the book also showed the situation from the perspective of the workers. The author spent time with families, seeing how they live, and what they think of their situation. From what I remember, some people were grateful for having the opportunity to work there. The book ends up leaving the question of whether these jobs are good or bad for the people.
Now I can feel idealistic hatred about to rain down on me. But you need to look at this in perspective, a perspective outside of our very nice and sheltered lives. What else could/would we do for them? What if making clothes became automated and they no longer were given those jobs? Where would they be? All those people that live off those (admittedly extremely low) wages? And obviously not every situation is the same, and I know next to nothing about this nestle thing so I'm not going to talk about that. Saying that having those jobs (speaking about the book again) was "definitely not good for those people or places" seems entirely misguided. And calling it exploitation seems a bit of a stretch in some cases.
I'm genuinely curious how you would answer those previous questions, because I honestly don't know how well those people would do if those jobs disappeared. And I don't know how we could make their lives better. That's a lot of people in very poor countries.
TL;DR This isn't something you can easily generalize as just "exploiting poor people."
Would recommend you have a look at these:
Bare Essentials Underwear
Bare Essentials Bras
Sewing Lingerie That Fits
Like know where your food is coming from, know where your clothing is coming from. This book Blood Oil is about how, if you go back far enough in a natural resource supply chain, there’s often a terrible tyrant extracting it, coupled with a western approval process that basically says “it’s cool”. You see that with sweatshops, too. You can ask about sweatshop labor, but at a certain point Wal Mart will be like “we subcontract with regional suppliers and what happens with them is none of our business ”. The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is also a good resource to consult on supply chains.
May want to check out this book. The title is literally "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy". Lighter read....goes through the supply chain thoroughly (and a brief history of textiles). Has an economics lesson embedded....Don't know if it's a practical lesson for your purposes though.
>During a 1999 protest of the World Trade Organization, Rivoli, an economics professor at Georgetown, looked on as an activist seized the microphone and demanded, "Who made your T-shirt?" Rivoli determined to find out. She interviewed cotton farmers in Texas, factory workers in China, labor champions in the American South and used-clothing vendors in Tanzania. Problems, Rivoli concludes, arise not with the market, but with the suppression of the market. Subsidized farmers, and manufacturers and importers with tax breaks, she argues, succeed because they avoid the risks and competition of unprotected global trade, which in turn forces poorer countries to lower their prices to below subsistence levels in order to compete. Rivoli seems surprised by her own conclusions, and while some chapters lapse into academic prose and tedious descriptions of bureaucratic maneuvering, her writing is at its best when it considers the social dimensions of a global economy, as in chapters on the social networks of African used-clothing entrepreneurs.
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy-Economist/dp/0471648493
This is the book you are looking for, that will explain the story behind the Hermès scent: https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Scent-Inside-Perfume-Industry/dp/0312425775
A bottle of Un Jardin Sur la Nil (and perhaps a small bottle of SJP Lovely?) would go well with a copy of The Perfect Scent, which tells the story of how both were created.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Perfect-Scent-Perfume-Industry/dp/0312425775
Brand name != Quality. Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster is a good read on this subject.
For a more detailed look at luxury items I highly recommend the book Deluxe.
With the exception of Hermes (which still hand stitches its bags and makes it scarves in France and has a lifetime service on its bags to ensure workmanship) no "luxury" brand is unscathed.
With that said, many brands do adhere to quality craftsmanship--it just may not be from a "fancy" country and many times its workers are not paid appropriately.
LV shoes, for example, are made in Romania with soles attached in Italy so they can carry the "made in Italy" tag. I believe LV sources their bags to France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the USA. Unsure if they are entirely made in China and sourced elsewhere.
Again, it's not like the bags or shoes are shitty in themselves--it's just false advertising because people like your friends won't buy a "made in China" or "made in Romania" product because it carries a stigma.
With that said, 99% of the "luxury" brand products you see--from perfumes to cheap keychains--are poorly made and just carry the "brand." "Luxury" brands no longer mean "quality."
Thanks! It's this book.
It's a subsidized industry that really only competes through protectionism.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy/dp/0471648493
^ great read on the subject
It is. Imagine what our society would look like if people didn't want to buy new clothes and instead wore used clothes. In the book "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade" the last stop for used clothing that is donated from America is often in used clothing shops in Africa. I love thrift shops- but I know that they don't provide many jobs or money velocity.
America does not want to be the "last stop" for cars. Used car lots cannot support the jobs and money velocity that America needs to remain a first world country.
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-T-Shirt-Global-Economy-Economist/dp/0471648493
And there's also Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, (the book).
Read this book It'll give you an amazing view of how fragrances are created, marketed and sold.
Yeah, it's actually covered in one of Chandler Burr's book, The Perfect Scent; totally a great book for learning about the art of perfume and the industry! Half of the book is about SJP and her scent, and the other is about Jean Claude Ellena and his first perfume as Hermes' in-house perfumer.
DELUXE is a good read.... Less strategy and more history of what luxury was.
read this: http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-How-Luxury-Lost-Luster/dp/0143113704
Should be active on Amazon UK!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sneakonomic-Growth-Scarcity-Storytelling-Sneakers-ebook/dp/B07NDPT474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1551233727&sr=8-1&keywords=sneakonomic+growth