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The classic book about the clothes we wear and what they say about us. Even before we speak to someone in a meeting, at a party, or on the street, our clothes often express important information (or misinformation) about our occupation, origin, personality, opinions, and tastes. And we pay close attention to how others dress as well; though we may not be able to put what we observe into words, we unconsciously register the information, so that when we meet and converse we have already spoken to one another in a universal tongue. Alison Lurie, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, is our savvy guide and interpreter on this tour through the history of fashion. She provides fascinating insights into how changing sex roles, political upheavals, and class structure have influenced costume. Whether she is describing the enormous amount of clothing worn by early Victorian women or illuminating the significance of the long robes worn by aging men throughout history to connote eminence, her analysis is playful, clever, and always on target.… (more)
User reviews
What is presented is brilliant, sensible, with many very acute
Primary focus is Americana, some British modes. Something "missing"--the unrelenting influence of product "advertising" is minimized or even dismissed. For example, "the lowering of the age of menarche has been exploited and even anticipated by manufacturers..." [47]. Isn't there really more causation here? Also missing is the enormous and direct influence of European--French, the Mata Hari postcard industry, and even Arab (as in veils, flowing and "arabesque" design)--fashion.
Her point seems to be that we can dissemble, costume, disguise and lie, but we cannot be "silent" in this language. She assumes the victims of the time and place of culture have actual "choice". The subject is far more complex than the disposition granted here; the writing is consistent and clear, and dilimited.
A lot of her assertions were dubious at best, like her theory that the widely-set stripes on baseball uniforms symbolize the long periods of inaction in the game. Um, what?
Also, a lot of it just seemed to be