Thursday, April 24, 2008

If Your Clothes Could Talk

For you, a preview of a new book coming out next week (on sale April 29), a charming memoir, social history, and fashion tour through the generations. Elizabeth Kendall's Autobiography of a Wardrobe is also smartly written, clever, and explores a subtle emotional trajectory that adds depth to what could be a simply material pursuit.

Take a peek:

"B. sat on the floor in a dark classroom with the other grad students. It was Sensitivity Training. The teacher told them to close their eyes and imagine in their hands, a book. The book was their own autobiography and they should start to read it.

"B. gripped the book tightly, took a breath, opened her eyes, and began to read--about something she had no idea she remembered. It was herself, when small, climbing out of the lower bunk in the early morning, crossing the room to a white dresser, opening a bottom drawer to find a pile of small red corduroy overalls that smelled clean. She took one off the top of the pile.

"There was I, present in her deepest of memories. I am B.'s wardrobe, her ever-evolving second skin. She is My inhabitant, My Body--My B."

--Elizabeth Kendall, Autobiography of a Wardrobe


Look out for my piece on the book coming out next week in Lei Chic.

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