16 books to start you off understanding the fashion system (+ a list of 19 more).
Stephanie Steele
Textiles Sustainability Specialist | Organic Food Growing | Food-Fibre-Fashion Communicator
A not-exhaustive compilation of personal recommendations on books that can help you holistically understand the fashion system, considering materials, design, production, trade, sales, and marketing.
I love a book, but I tend to have to have a ‘heavy’ and a ‘light’ one on the go at the same time. And I tend to have to underline or post-it note it all, and then read the book again because I’ll have already forgotten most statistics, though will have retained the theme. And it’s the themes I’m sharing here. A compilation of books I’ve personally read, that I feel give an holistic perspective of the fashion system.
This came in response to finding myself at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, and being jolted into the sameness of all the stuff on offer and having a moment of WTF are we going to do.
As I write this, it’s Black Friday. The day (or now month) where we’re sold all the things that we don’t need or didn’t think we wanted, purely because of manipulative marketing, and all to rid retailers or overproduced stock or unsold inventory.
So these are all books I’d class under my ‘heavy’ banner (some more so than others), but give them time and you’ll witness your thoughts being challenged for the better.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate — Naomi Klein.
If people have come across Naomi Klein and fashion before, it would be for her book No Logo (2010) that documents the generational uprising against consumerism. This Changes Everything (2014) doesn’t have chapters set aside for fashion, and frankly I’m unsure she mentions it that much, but there is a whole bit on the Multi-Fibre Trade Agreement that saw clothing trade become more globalised — and the problems that followed.
It’s super heavy. Super super heavy. It might have taken me 6 months for this one. But it highlights the fashion system within a wider context. What needs to shift in business before fashion can realistically and sustainably change.
To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? — Lucy Siegle.
I actually haven't read this in, I think, ten years. I read it before starting my MA in Fashion and the Environment and this was actually a turning point. I'd just finished my BA in fashion design, had worked in industry, but I read this and there were parts of it that really just switched me on to thinking in a different way, particularly when it came to a section on exotic skins. From that I went and did a project on designing against fur.
There was so much to take in I underlined and then I did post it notes to compile all the learnings and findings. I do need to give this another read and see how ten years on, if anything has changed in the industry and if my thoughts have changed.
Whether you're actually interested in the fashion industry or not, it will simply help you understand a bit more about where clothes come from, from a statistical and an anecdotal perspective as is the perogative of a journalist.
Harvest: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects — Edward Posnett.
[Now known as ‘Strange Harvests’]. Not about fashion, but if you're interested in origin, traceability, transparency... just how things are made, like the magic of stuff, then this one is really beautiful. There are materials in here which you wouldn't consider on a daily basis. One in particular is sea silk and there's a whole story behind it’s proprietary fight, so that’s interesting in itself. There’s also fibres such as eiderdown and vicuña that really don’t get much airtime.
Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Symbiosis, Reciprocity. Again, this is about where things come from, but how we can acknowledge the wisdom in that; not just the physical being of something, but the spiritual being too. Also again, it’s not about fashion, but it is about how we use stuff. Being more grateful than extractive.
Worn: A People’s History of Clothing — Sofi Thanhauser.
It's incredibly dense. It took me I think a couple of months to read it over many coffee shop sessions. Again heavily underlined, and I need to go back to it to take in what was said and disseminate it for my own way of thinking.
I did anticipate it to be fibre-led, and is split into chapters on linen, cotton, silk, synthetics and wool, though it does this to follow a timeline of how the fibre and fashion industries have shifted over time, particularly in line with other challenges. For instance, there’s a whole bit on growing cotton in the US and impact of drought. There’s insight into rayon and nylon, with a whole section on the rise of mass production and then on export processing zones (which I knew nothing about) explaining how clothing is traded. All this affects continued exploitation and globalisation.
So it’s very interesting if you’re in to textiles, though there are a lot of terms likely not known by those outside of this industry (I had to look some up). It’s definitely written from a more academic perspective, and yet some anecdotes are way too journalistic. You have to give it some time.
Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys — Kate Fletcher.
This has sections that go into detail about the challenges with implementing sustainability in fashion. First published in 2008 then again in 2014. I have read this a couple of times since the first time; It's completely underlined, it's got lots of tabs. It’s split into looking at design scenarios for what sustainability is in practice for fashion, with key sections of lifecycle and of consumption/use.
What I would say about this one is that it won't necessarily inspire you towards sustainability, because it was made at a time when sustainability wasn't particularly trendy. There were a lot of niche brands with a particular aesthetic, and this book follows that. So it's not going to show you what sustainability is like nowadays (which is a bit more mainstream), but it does go into a lot of technicalities, particularly when it comes to the use phase and repair.
Let My People Go Surfing — Yvon Chouinard.
I read this when I was working for a business that was trying to shift things, and the writings here sort of reinforced the ways that you could do that from a business model and from a marketing direction. Ultimately, it shows you how fashion can be done differently, and is generally just a nice insight into Patagonia.
Field Fork Fashion: Bullock 374 and a Designer’s Journey to Find a Future for Leather — Alice V Robinson.
This is about leather, but also more deeply about how food and fibre and fashion all sit together, and the complexities of trying to work with the provenance of something. So, Alice buys a bullock, has it butchered, tans the hide, makes leather goods, and sells the meat. This is all about that — and Bullock 374’s — journey.
It's beautiful and well written. Even if you're vegetarian or vegan, or otherwise you don't wear leather, you should read this anyway to better understand how that side of the industry could be different, how it can fit in to both a more regenerative food and a more regenerative fashion system — or better yet, a connected regenerative food-fashion system.
Fibershed: Growing a Movement of Farmers, Fashion Activists, and Makers for a New Textile Economy — Rebecca Burgess.
In a similar vein as Alice’s book above considers working more regionally and with shorter supply chains, Fibershed looks too at bioregional models; it’s idealistic in how we can create things in smaller slower ways. Fibershed is a movement that began in California with one person, Rebecca Burgess, wanting to make a wardrobe out of fibres and colours that were grown in a bioregion (a small area of California), and now there are Fibersheds all over the world, all trying to create this local system where everyone uses materials within a given area.
It’s about decentralisation, degrowth. It's about recognising that infrastructures used to exist in these regions and they're no longer there. It’s Rebecca’s journey to creating that wardrobe, but it's also talking more about a wider movement and how it can shift not just textiles and fashion, but food as well.
It is, however, a very particular niche style; imagine lots of wool and muted natural colours. In contrast to the fast fashion industry, which is bright and varied, the wardrobe that Rebecca created is functional and limited. If you want to understand the starting points for sustainable fashion, or a starting point for what a more regenerative economy for fashion can look like, then look to this. Though don't expect to be truly inspired to a) make your own stuff because you'll realise how long everything takes, and b) that this is viable solution for a swift fashion industry shift because not everyone wants this style. It highlights how collaboration, commitment, patience and compromise are key.
Regenerative Fashion — Safia Minney.
This one goes through different ways in which fashion could be regenerative, though doesn’t only consider the environment. It's quite social focused and about building economies back.
It's very much focused on cotton and bast fibres and little bit of wool, so it could be a bit more holistic. It doesn't mention anything about leather and I’m pretty sure nothing about silk either, which I feel is a bit remiss as these materials very much can be (and are) regenerative in terms of livelihoods, land use, emissions and owner use phase. Perhaps it’s simply what the case studies and word count could offer, though I’d appreciate more objective inclusions of all fibres when we’re discussing regenerative shifts.
However, it does get you thinking about how fashion looks in a conventional system and how it could look if we change things even slightly. It’s on nice paper, with lovely images, good stories, and is a pleasure to read. I lent it out months and months ago (in exchange of Footwork by Tansy Hoskins) so it may be a while before I can read it again!
Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox — Sandy Black.
I never originally included this, essentially because I was annoyed when I first read it that it wasn’t properly proof-read, and in fact I highlighted everything in the book that was missed (I also did the same with Regenerative Fashion…)
The title “eco chic” is telling of the state of sustainable fashion back when this was published in 2008 (at the same time as Kate Fletcher’s book above). There was slightly more of a distinction between these brands as sustainable and these brands as ethical, with practices divvied up into how they shifted the fashion system. And actually, back then, “systems change” or “systemic shift” wasn’t really a phrase heard, but it’s what was being spoken of amongst researchers.
Like Regenerative Fashion, it provides you with information on fibres and on case studies using those fibres, so I’m intrigued now to re-read them both together, and see how (if) the industry has moved on — especially as Safia Minney was a pioneer of the ethical-sustainable movement by founding brand People Tree. It’s a useful starting point, but I reckon a lot of the information has been updated in more recent publications so be aware of claims and statistics.
Open Source Fashion Cookbook — Ángela Luna + Loulwa Al Saad [ADIFF].
This is my most practical recommendation. It provides you with patterns and guidelines to make your own garments and accessories from materials you’d find dumped in the street, such as umbrellas and tents (similar to what I did for this project The Story of the Tents). It’s playful and radical, and gets you considering materials you otherwise might not consider, that fashion systems can shift from the grassroots citizen actions. It also helps you acknowledge on a personal level the time it takes to source, cut, design and create a piece.
Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-Hand Clothes — Andrew Brooks.
I read this via a PDF on Research Gate, rather than a book, so found it difficult to retain information. However, I would purchase this one. It’s really quite overwhelming, looking statistically at how clothing creates poverty, at the secondhand clothing market, at economic expansion. It’s an important read.
Circular Design for Fashion — Ellen Macarthur Foundation.
I actually wouldn't recommend this. It's good if you know nothing about circular fashion and you just want to understand the principles of what circularity means in fashion, but it's a really badly designed book. Most of the pages have text on its side so you have to turn the book, and double spreads that are just a few text boxes with a word in each one. It’s like they were wanting to fill space. Ultimately it’s not user-friendly, so because it’s a design book badly design, that makes me say don’t buy it. A lot of this information you can find online anyway as circularity in fashion is a massive topic.
If you want to understand one way in which fast fashion could change it’s ways, and one way in which fast fashion is jumping on the sustainability bandwagon, then look to circularity.
Cradle to Cradle: Re-making the Way We Make Things — Michael Braungart + William McDonough.
More of a design book rather than anything to read if you're just interested in what the fashion industry is like, but this was really important for me to understand how we can make stuff in a way that's simply mindful of the bigger picture. Cradle to cradle looks at both biological cycles and at technical cycles and how they differ, so designing with monomateriality. It’s about how we should be making things so that they fit into a system that they're suited for, rather than this amalgamation we've got where it’s difficult to recycle or disassemble. Perhaps you want to read this with the one below.
Design for the Real World — Victor Papanek.
Published in 1974, it’s actually pretty harrowing to read today knowing that nothing has changed, advice wasn’t heeded, and probably we’re worse off. It considers the moral role of the designer and the responsibility of conforming or being rebelliously creative. It talks of planned obsolescence, permanance and value. He even considers biomimicry.
Though we tend to distinguish fashion from product design, it’s no different. Perhaps when we’re looking at fast fashion we see it more as a commodity than as some sort of art, which is what a lot of product design (like furniture) is held up as. So Papanek’s insight can be useful for a designer or buyer or salesperson to better recognise the consumptive trading they’re a cog in.
Obviously there are so many more books that could be offered up here, but I haven’t read them, so I’m not going to make comment. Some also could be here, but are more loosely connected to the fashion system theme. However, to guide you I’ll give a list of the ones I can remember (i.e. that are on my “to-read” list).
Thank you for giving this a read. Do send a comment if you have your own recommendation on thoughts on any of the above! And please share if you found it useful. You can also find me on Instagram for other sharing options.
You might also like to read my other book compilations:
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Stephanie Steele is the founder of Steele Studio, a space that educates everyday folk on the interconnectedness of our food, fibre and fashion systems through community courses and workshops. As an organic food grower and textiles sustainability specialist, she otherwise writes about art, textiles, plants, running and systems design.
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Originally posted on my website on November 24th, 2023 and subsequently posted here, on LinkedIn and on Substack.
Freelance handbag designer helping emerging, independent, & luxury brands who value sustainability and craftsmanship bring their design ideas to life from concept to development
1yAdding all of these to my reading list!
Sustainable Fashion Business Strategist & Mindset Growth Coach l Helping discouraged fashion designers build & grow a thriving business l The Sustainable Fashion Design Portfolio Review £555 l DM for details
1yThis is so fab Stephanie Steele . Like you say, lots of continued reading in all of this. Not a pick up and read once type of a books.