The Thoughtful Dresser
The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“You can’t have depths without surfaces,” says Linda Grant in her lively and provocative new book, The thoughtful Dresser, a thinking woman’s guide to what we wear. For centuries, an interest in clothes has been dismissed as the trivial pursuit of vain, empty-headed women. Yet, clothes matter, whether you are interested in fashion or not, because how we choose to dress defines who we are. How we look and what we wear tells a story. Some stories are simple, like the teenager trying to fit in, or the woman turning fifty renouncing invisibility. Some are profound, like that of the immigrant who arrives in a new country and works to blend in by changing the way she dresses, or of the woman whose hat saved her life in Nazi Germany.
The Thoughtful Dresser celebrates the pleasure of adornment and is an elegant meditation on our relationship with what we wear and the significance of clothes as the most intimate but also public expressions of our identity.
Customer Reviews
The Personal is Prologue
“Epictetus, who lived between circa AD 55 and AD135, advised:’Know,first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly’...it is the clothes that allow us to find out who we are.”
A book like this makes me happy. Linda Grant has encapsulated the history of personal fashion. As a plus-sized reader, it was refreshing to hear her calling out the icons of fashion to stop presenting women as thin=svelte= best when they themselves are “victims” of “middle aged spread “ such as Alexander McQueen in his “heyday”.
Using examples of Auchwitz, 911 in NYC, and other personal specific examples in history, Grant explains, in non-fashionista terms, what it means to dress oneself through history, down to a marvelous chapter on handbags(*my* personal “obsession”) and challenges the industry to present us with comfort, dignity and style.
This book will sit among my tomes on Chanel and Donna Karen. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend this. 5/5
[I received this book as part of a contest and voluntarily reviewed it]