Usually girls who want to smash it in fashion don’t know where to start their journey. As a stylist let me tell you that the secret to make it in this job is a mix between your cultural background and how much experience you have. You can gain experience by assisting other stylists ,but fashion culture is often given only to those who attend a fashion school.
Attending a fashion school isn’t essential and you can learn about fashion through books and films.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming if you don’t have a teacher who tells you what’s important and what’s not. That’s why in this article you’ll find 5 must-read books that every stylist needs to read:
100 CONTEMPORARY FASHION DESIGNERS
This book is a must-have for everyone who want to become a fashion stylist. Why? That’s simple. To become a good stylist you have to know lots of brands and fashion designers. This book can be a wonderful first step because you’ll never stop discovering brands as a stylist, I promise.
In this book as the title says you’ll find 100 contemporary fashion designers, lots of information and pictures. It was my first fashion book and it has really helped me figur out which designers I felt more into at the beginning of my career.
STYLIST: THE INTERPRETERS OF FASHION
This great book tells you the stories behind lots of amazing fashion stylists around the world. It features lots of incredible pictures of many fashion editorials they’ve done and I think that seeing their works will help and motivate you starting this career.
At the beginning of your career as a fashion stylist, is useful to look at icons and idols, because it will help you with your first projects. When you’re not experienced enough having a visual fashion culture can really save you. Plus this book is so beautifully designed you could use it as your personal coffe-table book.
Fashionpedia is the fashion bible. This book doesn’t talk about styling, but it’s the one all the stylists usually carry in their purses. It’s an encyclopedia that contains every piece of information about fashion. In this book, you can find any type of jackets, dresses, seams, fabrics and also how to do a particular make-up style or how it was called that particular fashion silhouette in the ’90s. It’s a short and technical book, sort of a mini fashion course. Knowing fashion technical language is a must-skill for anyone who works in fashion and this book could really help you mastering how you communicate.
This book is not just for stylists but for anyone who wants to get a job in fashion. In this inspiring career manual, you’ll find practical strategies, mindsets, habits (Anna Wintour wakes up at 5 am and you?) and the skills (confidence above all) to break into the fashion industry. With this book, your dream of working in fashion becomes real by setting up a plan to make it happen. It also contains a list of different careers in fashion.
This book tells you Grace Coddington’s story. It’s not a book about styling, but it’s all about the life of one of the major stylist of Vogue America. It’s not about personal tastes, maybe she’s not your favourite stylist but her story could be really useful to understand how the styling world works.
Grace also talks about the fashion industry’s problems. By reading this book you’ll become more conscious of the fashion industry and this will make you look and be more professional.
That’s it, that was my list of 5 must-read books for every wanna-be-stylist. I hope you’ve found it interesting and useful. Please, if you know any other book you would recommend, share it with us in the comments below!
As a stylist I wish you to find ispiration every time you read or see something.
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