The Thoughtful Dresser

February 15, 2010
British journalist and Booker short-listed novelist Grant ("The Clothes on Their Backs") here offers in expanded book form the pieces she has contributed to the "Guardian" and on her blog of the same name, ruminating on particular issues relating to women and dress. Opening with a piece about a high-heeled red shoe found at Auschwitz, Grant writes that it is the pleasure taken from clothes that defines human beings, that "people have written and thought about clothes ever since we could write and think." These pieces cover a variety of topics, including the development of fashion after World War II, the use of clothes to make a woman feel sexy, and clothing for plus-size women and those (including the author) over the age of 50. An overall theme is the importance of clothes in the making of one's self, but Grant also explores such matters as the fashion industry's reaction to the 9/11 bombings. VERDICT A quick read that fashion enthusiasts will appreciate the most, but readers beyond that demographic will appreciate Grant's approach and will find themselves rethinking their views on fashion and clothes.Nicole Mitchell, Univ. of Alabama Lib., Birmingham

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