By Maria Eduarda Prior. Cover image: Sebastian Morelli-Peyton on Unsplash.
September is already the month when fashion becomes impossible to ignore, although some of the most interesting stories this season are happening away from the runway, because a new group of international books is looking at the people, memories and objects that have shaped the way we dress. Two are already out and three arrive later this month, moving from Paul Smith’s unconventional path into fashion to the new generation of Japanese design, while Sandy Liang turns her own archive into a visual diary and Dior returns to the childhood landscape that influenced an entire couture vocabulary. These are five genuinely new September 2026 releases worth making room for on your shelf.
Threads — Paul Smith
At 80, Paul Smith is finally telling his story in his own words, and Threads feels especially interesting because his route into fashion was anything but conventional, beginning with leaving school at fifteen to pursue competitive cycling before an accident changed his plans and eventually led him towards the creative scene of 1960s Britain. Published on September 10, the 336-page memoir follows the growth of a tiny Nottingham shop into an international fashion business while Smith also writes about dressing figures including David Bowie and Daniel Day-Lewis, keeping his company independent and maintaining the curiosity that has shaped more than five decades of work, which makes this as much a book about building a creative life as it is about clothes.
CFCL: Clothing for Contemporary Life — Yusuke Takahashi
Released on September 8, the first book dedicated to CFCL looks at the Tokyo label founded by former Issey Miyake designer Yusuke Takahashi and at an approach to fashion that starts with the way clothes are actually going to live on the body. The brand has become known for digitally developed knitwear and a strong focus on recycled materials, while Japanese photographer Yuriko Takagi photographs the garments in motion throughout the book, placing them on bodies that skate, swim or move through outdoor landscapes and turning what could have been a technical study into something much more alive. It is the one to pick if you are interested in where Japanese fashion is heading and in how technology can become part of design without overwhelming the person wearing the clothes.
Dressing Up: Sandy Liang — Sandy Liang
Arriving on September 22, Dressing Up: Sandy Liang is the designer’s first monograph and feels like the natural book for anyone whose Pinterest board already contains bows, downtown New York and at least one Sandy Liang look. The book reaches into Liang’s own archive through personal film photographs and iPhone images, mixing them with runway material and the references behind more than a decade of collections, while themes of girlhood and personal style run through a visual world that has helped make her one of the most recognisable voices in contemporary New York fashion. Rather than simply documenting the clothes, the book offers a look at the memories and images that exist before they become a collection.
Dior: Memories of Childhood — Laurence Benaïm
Christian Dior’s imagination began long before the first collection carrying his name, and Dior: Memories of Childhood, out on September 29, goes back to Villa Les Rhumbs in Granville to explore how the designer’s childhood home continued to surface throughout his work. Laurence Benaïm connects the garden and its flowers with Dior’s couture vocabulary, while Granville’s social life and seaside fashions provide another route into designs that came much later, supported by archival material and photography from figures including Richard Avedon. The story also extends through the house’s successive creative directors, showing how one designer’s personal memories became part of an identity that continued long after him.
Bolo: Design, Style, Heritage — William Matthews
The most unexpected book here might also be the one you end up spending the longest looking through, because Bolo: Design, Style, Heritage, published on September 29, takes the bolo tie seriously as both a piece of jewellery and an object whose meanings have shifted through fashion. William Matthews brings together more than 500 examples, many previously unpublished, while giving particular attention to work by Native American artisans from Hopi, Navajo and Zuni communities and tracing the bolo’s history across the American West and popular culture. Images of figures such as Bob Dylan show how an object rooted in craftsmanship can be continually reinterpreted through personal style, making the book an interesting reminder that fashion history can begin with something much smaller than a dress or a runway collection.
