Cintra Wilson wrote a book Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style, in which she looks at the psychological meaning behind typical style in various "belts" (hence the unbuckling) across the country. I read the excerpt about Washington, DC style and became curious about her.
Looked up her writings and saw she was the one behind the uproar about critiquing Penney's mannequins as "most obese" she's ever seen, in service of size diversity.
Here is a slideshow featuring a selection of her pieces as a critical shopper for the NY Times. Each panel features an excerpt and there are links to the full article. One seems to be the basis of her chapter on Brooklyn hipster style. I just find her fascinating to read, as she holds back nothing.
http://nymag.com/thecut/2011/04/cintra.html
Here is the Wash DC chapter for the curious.
http://www.theatlantic.com/pol.....ng/405919/
Her critique of Ann Taylor: The line has always offered tasteful middle-management office classics
in wool with just enough spandex to vaguely suggest a Sarah Palin
strip-o-gram. My shorthand for the look was always “capitalist burqa” or
“corporate office submissive”: cubicle-wear of so-so quality for the
single girl in her late twenties whose self-esteem has been almost
beaten to death by the beauty-industrial complex, and whose decent
education has been punished with a thanklessly demanding office job.
