25 Best Fashion Books to Read: Alexander McQueen, Prada, Kate Spade

Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir by Daniel R. Day

With his world-famous store on Harlem’s 125th Street, Daniel R. Day, better known as Dapper Dan, blazed the trail that gave way to the modern high-end streetwear movement. As is often the case for creatives of color, his contributions to high fashion were largely overlooked by industry insiders until Gucci paid homage to one of his original designs in a recent collection, later collaborating with Day on an entire line. Day’s memoir takes readers back to the years before he dressed hip-hop’s biggest stars to tell his remarkable life story.

A Visible Man: A Memoir by Edward Enninful

Edward Enninful made history in the fashion editorial space when he became the first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue, and he continues to push the boundaries on the covers and within the pages of the industry’s most sought out legacy brand. A Visible Man traces his journey into one of the world’s most exclusive industries. Edward candidly shares how as a Black, gay, working-class refugee, he found in fashion not only a home, but the freedom to share with people the world as he saw it. 

Peter Lindbergh: A Different History of Fashion by Thierry-Maxime Loriot

This elegant hardcover from publishing house Taschen tells the story of fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh through pages upon pages of his most revered black and white work. Commentary from his frequent collaborators (including Jean Paul Gaultier, Cindy Crawford, and Anna Wintour) is interspersed throughout, giving Lindbergh’s thought-provoking images an even deeper meaning.

Dressing the Resistance: The Visual Language of Protest Through History by Camille Benda

We all, by now, should understand that clothes aren’t just clothes. Dressing the Resistance is a celebration of how we use clothing, fashion, and costume to ignite activism and spur social change. Costume designer and dress historian Camille Benda analyzes cultural movements and the clothes that defined them through over 150 archival images, photographs, and paintings that bring the history of activism to life, from ancient Roman rebellions to the #MeToo movement, from twentieth-century punk subcultures to Black Lives Matter marches. 

Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh

If you wanted an inside look into Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton world, then this is your chance. The newest addition to the Classics Collection, Louis Vuitton: Virgil Abloh, honors the designer’s boundary-breaking creativity on and off the runway. The book includes some of the biggest fashion moments in the late designer’s career and personal reflections from Abloh’s inner circle, including Nigo, Naomi Campbell, Luka Sabbat, Kendall Jenner, and Kid Cudi. 

Best Fashion Book for Decor: Little Book of Prada by Graves Laia Farran Graves

The Little Book of Prada is a pocket-sized and beautifully illustrated story of the legendary fashion house. Understated elegance and luxury, technologically advanced fabrics, and sublime originality of design are all hallmarks of the House of Prada.

Best Fashion Book for Coffee Table: Supreme Models: Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion by Marcellas Reynolds

Looking for a book that explores the epic history of Black models in fashion? Then Supreme Models will be the one. The book pays tribute to Black models past and present: from the first to be featured in catalogs and on magazine covers, like Iman, Beverly Johnson, and Donyale Luna, to the supermodels who reigned in the nineties — Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell. If learning the ropes of the early catwalks is on your to-do list, look no further.