5 Must-Read Books For The Fashion Entrepreneur

You’ve read #Girlboss, bought yourself a domain name and are ready to fire up your own empire. Ballin’. I may be a little limited in the business advice I can offer, but I’m always down to be your cheerleader (just drop me a note in the comments if you’re into that).

For now though, here are 5 books that shed an interesting light on what it’s like to be a woman building her own business in the fashion industry.

1. By Invitation Only: How We Built Gilt and Changed the Way Millions Shop by Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson

What if you have a great idea it’s ahead of the curve? Shopping online is a basic instinct for most of us today, but even five years ago it was far less common.

The duo behind Gilt did a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to convincing top designers (think Oscar de la Renta and Diane von Furstenberg) that fashion had a future online. Here, they describe their race to beat the competition to market, convince high-end designers that fashion could be a part of the e-commerce scene, and scale their business without having a physical breakdown.

The book provides some interesting insights into the startup world from a woman’s unique point of view. Many male venture capitalists didn’t get what their business was about, which provided a challenge straight out of the gate. They even admit to using photo shoot models to lure in the (predominantly male) engineers they needed to build the site!

2. In My Shoes by Tamara Mellon

Tamara Mellon is a co-founder of Jimmy Choo shoes, who’s credited in a way with “discovering him” from the days when he was London’s best-kept secret and cobbler to the upper crust. I wasn’t a huge fan of her as an individual (she actually complained in print that Christian Slater took her to a baseball game and bought her a hot dog – quelle nerve!) but the book shed some intriguing insights to how she got up and running.

She started out selling shoes out of a hotel room to the Hollywood set. Eventually, the financiers took control of the company, prompting her exit. One great point she makes is how her abilities to sense her customer’s needs, as someone who would be a customer of her own brand, helped her make the right product decisions for growth and success.

3. The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned It into a Global Brand by Pamela Skeist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor

Not long into this book, you’ll realize these ladies are bubbly pink fish out of Fiji water, endearingly reminiscent of Elle Woods at Harvard Law School. Despite the fact that they drink Icees by the gallon, eat candy like it’s their job, and are still as tiny as could be, they’re as likable as cotton candy itself.

I actually found myself holding my breath in hopes that Karl Lagerfeld would be nice to them when they met for the first time at Paris Fashion Week and I found myself holding my breath in hopes that he’d be nice to him (he was, and so was Anna Wintour).

Yes, Juicy Couture did unleash hot pink tracksuits on the world, and yes, they have since had an unsavory fate, but the outsider angle in this book is fascinating. There’s a lot about the culture clash between L.A. casual and the more buttoned-up, by-the-book New York fashionistas.

Think of it as a fluffy nonfiction beach read with a few fashion biz lessons sprinkled in for good measure. Best enjoyed with a large bowl of candy and a purse-sized dog in your lap.

4. The Woman I Wanted To Be by Diane von Furstenburg

This book is a business lesson, time travel device and personal memoir all rolled into one. It begins on a somber note, as DVF recalls how her mother ended up (and survived) Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.

She recounts her own mother and other female role models who inspired her earliest ideas of – yes – the woman she wanted to be. And then she grew up to become all that and more. She married a prince and an heir to the Ferrari fortune, became a mother and a socialite, created the iconic wrap dress, and headed up her own fashion empire.

DVF flaunts the good times and owns up to the bad, as the decades grew turbulent before propelling her back into the spotlight. Today, she’s a woman who’s lived a very big life and no doubt possesses some qualities in common with the woman you may want to be.

5. Find Your Extraordinary: Dream Bigger, Live Happier, Achieve Success on Your Own Terms by Embracing the Entrepreneurial Spirit in You, Jessica DiLullo Herrin

Jessica DiLullo Herrin, co-founder of direct sales jewelry company Stella & Dot, begins her memoir with a mildly relatable parable: when a high school teacher angrily called her a waste of potential, she abandoned her class-cutting high school habits and dedicated her energy to a university transfer. With her eye on the prize (Stanford), she pulled off the transfer, graduated, fielded the corporate career path for a few years, then decided to start her own company.

Herrin’s transparency about what makes a driven career woman tick is one of the things I liked most about her book. She admits that you can’t have it all – ballet recitals and board meetings will have to be decided between. It takes a village to keep it together, in spite of what modern folklore wants us to believe. Outsource the little tasks in order to make way for the big ones, stay true to the vision you’ve set for your career path, and there should be little that stands between you and your dreams.

What business books are on your to-read list? Let me know in the comments!