A Dedicated Follower of Fashion - Hardcover

Brubach, Holly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071483887X ISBN 13: 9780714838878

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 1999

Synopsis

The clothes and accessories we wear and see every day are far more than just topics for the fashion literati: they provide rich clues to our personal identity and popular culture.

This collection of 28 incisive essays by noted critic and 'fashion anthropologist' Holly Brubach looks at clothing and the fashion industry as barometers of cultural and aesthetic change. In essays published over the past two decades in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker and the Atlantic, Brubach reflects on a wide range of subjects: from famous designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace to designer eyeglasses, from the timeless elegance of a Chanel suit to the decline of elegance in the 1990s, and from formal French style to the advent of casual athletic clothing as a fashion uniform.

Brubach's witty commentaries weave thought-provoking connections between fashion and the larger world around us, making this an essential book for fashion insiders as well as anyone who may be allured by popular culture and style.

About this title

Review:

"Once there was a little girl, growing up in a split-level house in suburban Pittsburgh, who loved clothes very much (too much, some would say)." 27 articles drawn from 16 years at The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine add up to a very intelligent collection of writing by that little girl who grew up to be fashion journalist Holly Brubach. In lucid prose, Brubach compellingly argues that clothes tell us a great deal about who we think we are and how the society around us has shaped those notions. Aptly describing herself as "perhaps slightly cynical but not entirely lacking in the capacity for romance", Brubach appreciates the appeal of the traditional bridal gown (which speaks to "the desire to create something absolute in a world where nothing is certain") but isn't convinced by it ("if weddings reflected all the ambiguities of married life, the bride would wear grey"). She writes entertainingly about models, particularly in a long profile of "self-proclaimed ugly duckling" Kristen McMenamy, without sounding like a gossip columnist; she discerns social significance in Ralph Lauren's vast popularity without sounding like a sociologist. Fashion writing is seldom this stimulating or this much fun. --Wendy Smith

Synopsis:

This collection of 28 fashion essays previously published in "The New York Times Magazine", "The New Yorker" and "The Atlantic" examines clothing and fashion as part of a larger cultural debate and as a barometer of social and aesthetic change. In essays published during the 1980s and 1990s, the author reflects on a broad range of fashion subjects, from famous designers to designer eyeglasses, from the elegance of a Chanel suit to the decline of elegance itself in the 1990s, from Gianni Versace's legitimisation of vulgarity to the advent of athletic clothing as a fashion uniform. Longer essays from "The New Yorker" and "The Atlantic" are interspersed with 450-word pieces from the "The New York Times Magazine".

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 071483887X
• ISBN 13: 9780714838878
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224