10 Best Fashion History books 2025: The Ultimate Reading List for Fashion Students And Enthusiasts

1 // FASHION: By TASCHEN is not a complete fashion history but is a fairly comprehensive reference book for women’s fashion from the 18th-20th century, showcasing the Kyoto Costume Institute’s vast and expansive archive.

2 // Fashion And Costume: By James Laver is a brief history of fashion from beginning to end. A digestable introdution to fashion and it’s history for new comers who want to be ushered in to the vast world of fashion gently but efficiently.

3 // BIBA, The Biba Experience: By Alwyn W Turner tells you everything you need to know about the iconic 1960’s and 70’s London department store, it’s founders, it’s history and what the brand did for women’s fashion.

4 // Fashion In Film: By Christopher Laverty is a mix of fashion history and cinema. A tour of iconic costumes in film which had profound and lasting impacts on fashion culture and made shifts in the industry.

5 // The Fashion Book: By PHAIDON is the A-Z dictionary of every formative figure in fashion. From designers and photographers, illustrators to models. Every relavant figure and what they did for fashion is referenced in this book

6 // Why You Can Go Out Dressed Like That: By Marnie Fogg explains modern fashion by breaking down avant-garde looks from Lady GaGa’s meat dress to Viktor&Rolf’s infamous topiary dress (on book cover) and why fashion is - or should be - a respected art form.

7 // Notes On ‘Camp’: By Susan Sontag is vital reading for anyone in the arena of fashion. These two essays are classics of the fashion literary canon. Sontag dissects and critiques the difference between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

8 // Why Fashion Matters: By Frances Corner argues the case that fashion is not the frivolous industry we have garnered it to be as it impacts everything form the economy, society to each of us personally as we move through the world.

9 // The Hidden Facts Of Fashion: By FASHIONARY Did you know bullet proof vets expire? Or that you don’t really need to wash your jeans? Filled from cover to cover with facts, knowledge and trivia you didn’t know you needed to know about fashion.

10 // The Identification Of Lace: By Pat Earnshaw explains everything you’d ever want to know about lace, the different weaving patterns, different varieties, it’s history and origin, lace from around the world and everything in-between.