Book Alert: The Fashion Business Manual by Penter Yip’s Fashionary

In the last few posts we looked at advice for students who would like to enter the fashion industry. If you're still in two minds about your career and would like to know more about specific issues relating to fashion, or if you're already enrolled in a university course, but are looking for a compact manual that explores various fashion-related issues and paths, opt for The Fashion Business Manual published by well-known stationery brand Fashionary. Founded by graphic designer Penter Yip in 2008, the company has moved from publishing diaries and notebooks featuring Men and Womenswear templates to releasing also books about the world of accessories and a lengthy and fashion dictionary – the Fashionpedia, a tome covering History and Styles, Apparel, Accessories and Textiles among the other topics.

The Fashion Business Manual is not a traditional business book featuring detailed analyses and essays, but it is conceived as a practical and simplified guide for fashion businesses. The 216-page volume covers indeed different issues in just seven chapters.

Yip and his team open the book with a theme that will certainly immediately capture the attention of many students out there – the concept of the brand.

Then the manual moves on to explore further issues such as how to develop eye-catching and desirable products via tech packs and detailed yet easy-to-read labels; how to organise a runway show and write coherent press releases; joining a showroom and negotiating sales terms.

Retailing, maintaining one's brand and managing less creative but equally necessary aspects of the business such as dealing with paperwork close the volume. There are plenty of templates also in this book, but this time they do not relate to garments and accessories, but they consist in cost, sale and line sheets, very useful resources that often nobody shares with students.

The Fashionary team compiled the volume keeping in mind three different categories of readers – fashion designers, entrepreneurs and people working at different levels of the fashion industry.

Yet, given the format, the short paragraphs illustrated with easy to understand visual explanations and infographics, students remain the book's best readers as they can use the info they find in the manual as a starting point and build upon them as they gather experience.

The Fashion Business Manual follows the Fashionary Headwear A5 Notebook and last year's Fashionpedia. The manual cna currently be pre-ordered (shipping in January) from the Fashionary shop (USD 39.90). You can bet that quite a few libraries linked with fashion design universities and institutions will get a few copies, but the book is also a great idea for a (late) Christmas present (as stated, it will be out in January).

You can keep updated on the latest Fashionary releases by checking out the brand's blog, and its Facebook or Instagram pages that often feature illustrations and sketches by Fashionary collaborator Vikki Yau.