Obsessed by DressAre you obsessed by dress? Do you wonder if your obsession is a virtue or a vice? The flourish of a creative spirit or a sign of conformity to social norms? If so, you're in good company. Juxtaposing quotations from Virgil to Coco Chanel, Tobi Tobias reassures us that the obsession with clothes is as old as human history itself. Jane Austen, Mae West, Christian Dior, Virginia Woolf, Andy Warhol, and Mark Twain are among the many who have their say. Arranged with incomparable flair, their comments will help you answer the eternally vexing question, "What shall I wear?" "One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art." -Oscar Wilde "Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim." --Jane Austen "Show me the clothes of a country and I can write its history." --Anatole France "Only God helps the badly dressed." --Spanish proverb "Probably every new and eagerly expected garment ever put on since clothes came in fell a trifle short of the wearer's expectation." --Charles Dickens "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." --Henry David Thoreau "Almost every man looks more so in a belted trench coat." --Sydney J. Harris "Brevity is the soul of lingerie." --Dorothy Parker "There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they would mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking." --Virginia Woolf |
Contents
the argument | 13 |
acquisition | 14 |
the cost of clothes | 19 |
clothes at the heart of the story | 22 |
the bodydress connection | 29 |
dress as selfexpression | 37 |
dress revealing dress concealing | 40 |
dressing for others or ourselves? | 42 |
style | 97 |
the street | 99 |
indigenous dress | 101 |
dressing for effect | 102 |
parading dress | 103 |
dishevelment | 105 |
decorum | 108 |
artifice | 112 |
the persuasive power of dress | 44 |
fancy dress | 47 |
fashion vs mind and character | 48 |
pleasure in dress | 51 |
dress in words | 52 |
accessories | 57 |
lingerie | 59 |
shoes | 60 |
jewelry | 65 |
cosmetics | 68 |
mirrors | 72 |
appearances | 74 |
dressmaking | 75 |
the mannequin | 77 |
the tyranny of fashion | 81 |
the mutability of fashion | 83 |
secondhand clothes | 87 |
fashion as history | 90 |
fashion as art | 92 |
color in dress | 95 |
against ostentation | 114 |
nudity | 116 |
dandyism | 120 |
feminism and dress | 125 |
crossdressing | 130 |
the erotic power of dress | 133 |
dress as depravity | 139 |
the material world | 140 |
what every woman knows | 142 |
ball dress | 145 |
mourning costume | 148 |
uniforms | 149 |
defying convention | 154 |
nostalgia for clothes | 159 |
age and dress | 162 |
animals in clothes | 165 |
fashion axioms | 169 |
afterword | 171 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adorn ANNE HOLLANDER appearance artist attire Babar beautiful body bought bright buttons CHANEL CHARLES BAUDELAIRE charming CHRISTIAN DIOR cloak clothes coat color Copyright costume dancing dandyism dark desire DIANA VREELAND division of Random drawer dream dwarfs elegant ELIZABETH WILSON everything Excerpt eyes fabric fantastic fashion feel female finery Freyja GABRIELLE COCO garments GEORG SIMMEL girl glass gloves hair heart HONORÉ DE BALZAC ISAK DINESEN jacket James Version 1611 JEAN JEAN RHYS JOHN KENNEDY FRASER King James Version lace lady Lolita look mannequin Marge Piercy MARK TWAIN mind mirror neck necklace never old dressing gown pairs PAULINE RÉAGE Penguin permission of Random petticoats PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE power of dress QUENTIN BELL Random House renewed Reprinted by permission satins shirts silk skirt smile soul street style suit taffeta things THOMAS CARLYLE VIRGINIA WOOLF W. B. YEATS walked wardrobe wear wearer woman women wore