14 best fashion books

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Find Power Through Fashion

Clothes can speak louder than words.

Since the Industrial Revolution and the democratization of fashion, people have been using personal style to express themselves—their identities, gender, and politics.

Whether we choose to stand out or stand together, caring about fashion is a way of reclaiming our power.

Fashion is freedom; personal style is currency. And you have an endless supply of it, baby.

Three Questions for Author and Illustrator Ann Shen

What surprising fact did you uncover in your research about iconic fashion? How controversial and loaded hair can be! Whether it's natural hair, cropped bobs, pixie cuts, hair is a huge part of iconic fashion.

Who is your personal fashion icon? Dita Von Teese. She's all about crafting your own image and embracing personal style, and I'm so inspired by that.

What trends do you anticipate to see in the next decade in female fashion? Protest fashion – it was a trend during the Suffragette era, and as we move forward to create a more equal world, I see personal style becoming a means of solidarity and community.

Ann Shen is an illustrator, letterer, and author based in Los Angeles.

The Cheongsam

The enduring power of this deeply Chinese symbol of fashion has roots in both royalty and rebels. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the Republic of China rose and, with it, ideals of equality. The first wave of women’s liberation hit China, specifically Shanghai, which was a port that saw many international citizens and female stu­dents pursuing higher education for the first time. These students established the New China Woman look by taking up the traditional menswear cheongsam and adapting it as their own, taking a physical step into equality by lightening up the weight of their wardrobe.

The Olympic Hijab

In 2016, New Jersey–born Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first Muslim woman to win a medal in the Olympics while wearing a hijab in competition. At the age of twelve, Muhammad and her mother drove past a group of high school girls fencing on a campus and saw that their uniforms covered the athletes from head to toe. That approach allowed Muhammad to observe her Muslim beliefs while also embracing her athletic ambitions, so her mom encouraged her to start fencing. Muhammad has risen to be a face and a voice for young Muslim people everywhere, accessing and normalizing hijabs in spaces that had pre­viously excluded them.

The Hot Pants

Following the miniskirts of the 1960s, hot pants reached the peak of their fame in 1971 with dozens of songs dedicated to the microscopic shorts. With an inseam no longer than two inches, hot pants are short shorts that came from fabric innovations that saw polyester and stretch fabrics become everyday wear. The style was celebrated by many as part of the women’s liberation movement: Hot pants furthered the notion that women could wear whatever they wanted to. They were symbolic of the sexual revolution of the ’60s and women’s newfound power in the public sphere.