THE THOUGHTFUL DRESSER by Linda Grant. Virago, 308pp, $36.99. Reviewed by Cate Hogan. ——————– A well-tailored woman - adorned in glistening mustard-yellow shoes and a leopard-print handbag - graces the cover of The Thoughtful Dresser, and sets the scene for Linda Grant’s take on fashion.
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Grant has a blog called The Thoughtful Dresser and it has provided much of the insight used in this collection of thoughts about fashion. I found The Thoughtful Dresser funny and enlightening but conflicting.
On the one hand Grant was telling me that fashion is essential to life - everyone expresses themselves in the clothes they wear, even if they are making an anti-statement. She gets stuck into the ridiculousness of the designer fashion trade - the unrealistic model figure, the clothing that shapes fashion today, based upon anatomically impossible body shapes - but then says it is the basis of good fashion.
Wearing clothes is essential for acceptance. Bad makeup, bad skin - no matter how distasteful, society can accept them. But without clothes, society calls in the police.
Grant delivers some well-argued points - several chapters detail how some Holocaust survivors endured and kept their spirits intact during time in the Nazi death camps because of a desire to feel like a woman and be stylish.
One of the most poignant parts of The Thoughtful Dresser is when Grant talks to Catherine Sexy Costumes Hill, a Hungarian Jew who made it through Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hill migrated to Canada a few years after the war. She was alone; most of her family died in the camps. En route to Canada, Hill spent time in Rome and it is there she rediscovered her love of clothing.
Hill’s passion for fashion saw her through a failed marriage and gave her a career which included bringing well-known European fashion to Canada. It is an amazing story about one woman’s survival.
While recounting Hill’s story, and many others, too, Grant weaves in snippets of fashion history and asides. She comes across as a woman who desires beautiful designer clothes but, like many women, her budget and figure don’t allow her to fully express that passion. However, as a writer she can, and helps explain why women will go to amazing lengths to acquire the perfect coat.
As a follower of fashion, Grant observes that after 9/11 Americans’ fashion sense deserted them. They ditched suits for I Love NY T-shirts and the red, white and blue flag was used at weddings and incorporated into many designs. Fashion became a way of expressing patriotism.
This is a book to leave lying around. You can jump in and re- read it if you have time. It’s also one to recommend to friends with a love of retail therapy because it manages to unravel the mystery of why shopping is so compelling and why it can be so hard to find the perfect shoes.
* Cate Hogan is a Fairfax journalist.
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