Has anyone read 'the thoughtful dresser' by Linda Grant - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Book Club

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Has anyone read 'the thoughtful dresser' by Linda Grant

Sally

Veteran

I think its taken from her blog about clothes. It is kind of her musings /research on why people (especially women) take such pride in their clothes. She also talks about those who claim they are not interested in clothes and disputes their claims. I found it a good read because while I don't judge others for being interested in clothes, I often berate myself for spending time on fashion when I should be doing other things...work, family etc.
There is also a fascinating read about a woman who survived Auschwitz to go to be one of the leading directors of women's fashion in Canada and what clothes represented to her after her experience. I like how she ends the book "take pleasure, I thought: Take it while you can."

Book Club

15 replies

Latest reply was from christieanne

Fruitful

Veteran

Sounds fascinating Sally, I will follow this up. The tone you're conveying kind of reminds my of some stuff written in the field of material culture, which tends to look at people's usage/collecting/throwing away of objects as a universal and historical human activity, rather than just a sign of modern decadence.

Really like that quote, too. Thanks for sharing.

Fruitful

Veteran

Oh, and she's funny too! I just went to her blog (which I hadn't heard of before) and found this gem: "I sat down next to an exquisite Italian woman in the kind of skinny jeans that are artfully folded around the ankle, requiring the centuries of visual acuity only granted to a country of people who can wear beige without looking like a geography teacher." ^_^

Suz

(website)

Veteran

That's a great quote, Fruitful!! Sounds like a very interesting book, Sally! I will look it up!

During my undergrad degree I wrote a paper on fashion/ clothing references in two books, one Canadian novel and one Virginia Woolf. It was fun to write.

Virginia Woolf often obsessed about clothes in her journals and then wondered if she was being trivial. And at one point she says something like, "I must get to the root of this fascination I have with clothes." She goes on to say something about it signifying something important that she can't explain, "And what it is, I must discover."

Anonymous

Wow, that sounds like a good read. Clothing at it's most basic can be just utilitarian, yet when we get it stylishly *right* for ourselves, it seems to free the mind from discomfort and allows us to focus on things outward, seemingly more important things, and on others.

Fruitful

Veteran

Guilty, Suz - I've never got around to reading Virginia Woolf! I wonder if she found her answer.

Elly

Veteran

Humans have been using clothing and other outward appearance cues to indicate important messages about themselves for thousands of years. Why should it today be any less important than any other way we tell the world (other people) about ourselves--- even choosing not to participate in style and fashion is a form of communication that tells people how we feel about ourselves and others. I like to take this opportunity to tell the world that I love myself and want to share myself with other people because I think they are worth loving too. Participating in fashion and style is one way I can tell the world about who I am and what I like, about my strengths (as a visual and artistic person, amongst other less obvious choices) and share a commonality with others in the culture, community, and society I live in.

I don't feel that that is more or less frivolous than learning to express myself eloquently and effectively when I speak verbally or write . . . amongst other things.

I think I'd like this dame.

mrseccentric

(website)

Veteran

i read The Thoughtful Dresser a couple of years ago. While i agree with many of Linda Grant's concepts, especially as presented here in this thread, i actually found myself disagreeing with Ms. Grant more than agreeing with her when i read the book. I think it was more a personality clash than anything else.

The parts on Catherine Hill were worth reading the whole book. Amazing woman with a remarkable story, which i appreciated even more as i have friends and parents of friends who survived internment, slave labor, living in hiding, etc. during WW2. Definitely worth reading for anyone on the YLF forum!! steph

MNsara

Veteran

Thanks, Sally - I just found that my library has it - so I'm picking it up today. . .it sounds interesting.

mrseccentric

(website)

Veteran

p.s. Fruitful and Elly - i studied anthropology in college, and people who think clothing is primarily about protection from the elements, ie. utilitarian drive me nuts!

The first examples of clothing found, as well as clothing in hunter-gatherer societies, is primarily about signifying social status - gender, age group, marriage status, etc. We evolved in Africa, without much need for 'protection', in social groups. Humans left to themselves, during the vast majority of our existence, either die or are not human (no language, social skills, tool making or cooking skills, etc.)

Changing appearance is all about your position in a group - and being part of a group is absolutely essential to survival and is what makes us human. About as far from trivial as you can get.

End of diatribe!! Thank you for reading, steph

Fruitful

Veteran

*fangirls MrsEccentric yet again*

Steph, I studied anthropology too - it's like having a key to the code when it comes to human beings, reduces judgement of others and anxiety about ourselves - as well as making life infinitely more interesting. Glad you brought it up. ^_^

Inge

(website)

I haven't read it Sally, but will keep an eye out for it now. Thanks for the suggestion. I have no doubt it can offer lots of food for thought, even if I'd end up not agreeing with all of the author's points. And that's the marvelous thing about books, isn't it, they can start conversations like the one we're having here.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I read this book when it came out (meaning long enough ago that I would need to skim through to refresh my memory). I also read her novel based on some of the same themes (The Clothes on Her Back). I do remember enjoying both of them, and I would be happy to see The Thoughtful Dresser in the book club.

Sally

Veteran

I have to admit I didn't read it thoroughly. I enjoyed the quotes and reading about Catherine Hill. I also enjoyed the chapter - making a self: the creation of I.
I also read her novel which was nominated for the booker and had some references to clothes and dressing.
Fruitful -thanks for finding the blog. I have bookmarked it.
Its been interesting reading everybody's ideas about people and clothes and its links to our place in society because I hadn't thought about it before. Another quote is the one"the one thing worse than being skint is looking skint." Last night we were going for a walk and I pointed out someone's house. DH said "What? They own that! They look so poor". So there you go. We judge people all the time on their clothes.

Ginkgo

Veteran

I read The Thoughtful Dresser a few months ago and enjoyed it, particularly the parts about Catherine Hill. It would be an excellent choice for the book club.

I'm not sure how much we judge people anymore based on their clothes (since everyone has been dressing down for the last twenty years and looking quite slob-like); I think our sense of prestige now tends to come from where we live and the cars we drive.

christieanne

Veteran

Loved this book. It is too bad that Linda Grant doesn't update her blog very often because i also found her very funny and insightful.
If you like the way that MFK Fisher wrote about food, you will enjoy Linda Grant on clothes. Not your typical blog or book.