“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” — Orlando, Virginia Woolf

This book! Has utterly jumpstarted my year, because it seems to be all I can think and talk about. THIS is the book about women and clothes that I have always been looking for, and I think the editors knew that. Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton say, somewhere in the beginning, that they have
“Vain trifles as they seem, clothes have, they say, more important offices than merely to keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” — Orlando, Virginia Woolf

This book! Has utterly jumpstarted my year, because it seems to be all I can think and talk about. THIS is the book about women and clothes that I have always been looking for, and I think the editors knew that. Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, and Leanne Shapton say, somewhere in the beginning, that they have been thinking about clothes but not in the way that typical women’s magazines or fashion books assume that they are thinking about clothes. This is a very broad, vast, thoughtful, intentional, weird, and creative book. The editors survey 629 women (from a wide range of ages, races, backgrounds, gender identities) about clothes and why and how they wear them, and present their findings in an innovative and totally riveting way. One very interesting, intentional choice: Women surveyed are never shown or photographed. It’s a fashion book with very, very few photos of clothes. I love it, and I’m totally obsessed (and slightly peeved that the Goodreads rating isn’t higher, because it really ought to be).

I am still thinking about it, with fervent admiration and attention, even now, and I imagine it will stay with me for a long time. Clothes are important to everyone, even if we act as if our style and our sartorial choices were insignificant. The choices we make never are. To pretend otherwise is foolish.
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I don’t know that I will ever officially finish this book. I am checking in now to say that while I am enjoying picking through it for meaningful and coherent bits, it is a conceptual and aesthetic/design mess. How could a book on style have so little of it? The experience of reading this book is like finding a researcher’s file cabinet full of random folders of interviews, sitting down with a cup of coffee and a pile of those folders at your side and sifting through them. It is in desperate nee
I don’t know that I will ever officially finish this book. I am checking in now to say that while I am enjoying picking through it for meaningful and coherent bits, it is a conceptual and aesthetic/design mess. How could a book on style have so little of it? The experience of reading this book is like finding a researcher’s file cabinet full of random folders of interviews, sitting down with a cup of coffee and a pile of those folders at your side and sifting through them. It is in desperate need of editorial direction and curating.
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