http://www.publicbooks.org//nonfiction/i...ns-fashion
EXCERPT: Heidi Julavits and Sheila Heti, who edited Women in Clothes with Leanne Shapton, make plain their intention to take the high road in the book’s introduction [...] We learn that the idea grew from Heti’s work [...] on what [...] was to be based on a six-question survey. Designed to investigate the “rules” that respondents followed on matters of shopping, dress, and brand loyalty [...] Julavits [...] responded enthusiastically: “i LOVE these questions!!!! maybe you and i should write a women’s fashion book that isn’t stupid like all women’s fashion books.” Days later Heti was on board: “I think this could be a great book collaboration! I was trying to find a smart women’s fashion philosophy (philosophy of style) book this weekend, and not one!”
[...] This introductory chatter raises questions about the state of fashion writing in the early 21st century. Have we reached the point where anyone who simply wears clothes or holds opinions about dress is “ennobled” to publish on the topic? Or is there still value in a mode of fashion scholarship founded in expertise, experience, and research? And, ultimately, what is the reader who is interested in fashion hungry to know?
[...] Amid all the counting and categorizing, the book has breakthrough moments, including journalist Julia Wallace’s interviews with Cambodian garment workers and Sara Ziff’s interview with Reba Sikder, an 18-year-old Bangladeshi garment worker who recounts in harrowing detail how she survived the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka. But nothing approaches the editors’ stated aim of creating “a smart women’s fashion philosophy (philosophy of style) book.” The raw material is gathered, but the critique and analysis remain to be completed.
The editors seem to have a blind spot, since they fail to acknowledge the long and distinguished line of critical and analytical work on fashion and style. That such a line exists is evident in the new book Fashion Writing and Criticism by Peter McNeil and Sanda Miller, which charts the history of dress as a subject of cultural and philosophical inquiry. Reaching back to Aristotle as an early touchstone for this tradition, the authors locate the true beginnings of serious critique about clothing in the work of Denis Diderot, whose reports from 18th-century Parisian salons connected dress to cultural trends and topics. Insightful writing on fashion by a parade of authors including Honoré de Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, and Pierre Bourdieu followed; Charles Baudelaire’s essay “The Painter of Modern Life,” published in 1864, provided a definitive example of how dress could be considered not simply a practical necessity but also a mode of artistry and self-expression. More recently, authors including Anne Hollander, Valerie Steele, and Judith Thurman have written probing studies that contextualize fashion in history and society.
[...] In short, and contrary to the editors’ claims, there is a rich body of literature on the topic of fashion and its philosophies. Women in Clothes chooses not to engage this work, but instead aims to forge a new set of pathways for contemplating and understanding dress in context. The book’s methodology is original, but its musings and imagery are largely anecdotal and experiential. This valuable raw data has the potential to gain worth when analyzed by someone interested in not simply presenting the material but pulling something out of it....
EXCERPT: Heidi Julavits and Sheila Heti, who edited Women in Clothes with Leanne Shapton, make plain their intention to take the high road in the book’s introduction [...] We learn that the idea grew from Heti’s work [...] on what [...] was to be based on a six-question survey. Designed to investigate the “rules” that respondents followed on matters of shopping, dress, and brand loyalty [...] Julavits [...] responded enthusiastically: “i LOVE these questions!!!! maybe you and i should write a women’s fashion book that isn’t stupid like all women’s fashion books.” Days later Heti was on board: “I think this could be a great book collaboration! I was trying to find a smart women’s fashion philosophy (philosophy of style) book this weekend, and not one!”
[...] This introductory chatter raises questions about the state of fashion writing in the early 21st century. Have we reached the point where anyone who simply wears clothes or holds opinions about dress is “ennobled” to publish on the topic? Or is there still value in a mode of fashion scholarship founded in expertise, experience, and research? And, ultimately, what is the reader who is interested in fashion hungry to know?
[...] Amid all the counting and categorizing, the book has breakthrough moments, including journalist Julia Wallace’s interviews with Cambodian garment workers and Sara Ziff’s interview with Reba Sikder, an 18-year-old Bangladeshi garment worker who recounts in harrowing detail how she survived the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka. But nothing approaches the editors’ stated aim of creating “a smart women’s fashion philosophy (philosophy of style) book.” The raw material is gathered, but the critique and analysis remain to be completed.
The editors seem to have a blind spot, since they fail to acknowledge the long and distinguished line of critical and analytical work on fashion and style. That such a line exists is evident in the new book Fashion Writing and Criticism by Peter McNeil and Sanda Miller, which charts the history of dress as a subject of cultural and philosophical inquiry. Reaching back to Aristotle as an early touchstone for this tradition, the authors locate the true beginnings of serious critique about clothing in the work of Denis Diderot, whose reports from 18th-century Parisian salons connected dress to cultural trends and topics. Insightful writing on fashion by a parade of authors including Honoré de Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, and Pierre Bourdieu followed; Charles Baudelaire’s essay “The Painter of Modern Life,” published in 1864, provided a definitive example of how dress could be considered not simply a practical necessity but also a mode of artistry and self-expression. More recently, authors including Anne Hollander, Valerie Steele, and Judith Thurman have written probing studies that contextualize fashion in history and society.
[...] In short, and contrary to the editors’ claims, there is a rich body of literature on the topic of fashion and its philosophies. Women in Clothes chooses not to engage this work, but instead aims to forge a new set of pathways for contemplating and understanding dress in context. The book’s methodology is original, but its musings and imagery are largely anecdotal and experiential. This valuable raw data has the potential to gain worth when analyzed by someone interested in not simply presenting the material but pulling something out of it....