February 2021 Theme--A La Mode

Fashion is the mirror of history. ~Louis XIV



Know First Who You are, then adorn yourself accordingly. ~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.1

Throughout time humans have found ways to adorn themselves to reflect who they are and signal that to others. We use clothing to communicate gender, ethnicity. status, class, rank and occupation. We tell others our politics, our religion, our hobbies, our causes, and our mood. We celebrate and mourn with specific clothing. This is a broad topic so there are lots of directions to go. Almost every work of fiction will include some description of the characters' clothing, hairstyle, accessories, etc. Especially rich descriptions are found in the classics from the 18th and 19th c. Historical fiction from every era will always set the scene with ample description of person and place. Fantasy is rich in world building, including the appearance of the characters. Look especially for books that are set in years of social change, often post war. Society is ready for a "new look" and creativity abounds as the world re-opens.
I've listed below some books that I've read or have familiarity with that have a particular focus on fashion. There are thousands more! I plan to diversify my reading by choosing some new-to-me books that are not focused on Western fashion. Have fun and I hope this helps clear some titles off your TBR.
Don't forget to update the Wiki. https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge#FEBRUARY_...

Fiction

Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw Set in 18th c. London Based on Greek myth
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel London 16th c.
The Tenth Gift Morocco 17th c.
The Daring Ladies of Lowell Kate Alcott Industrial Revolution 18th c.
Girl in Disguise Greer Macallister Set in Chicago during the US Civil War 1860's
Age of Innocence Edith Wharton set in mid-19th c NYC
The Gilded Hour Sara Donati set in NYC 1893
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Kerry Greenwood 1920's Melbourne, Australia
Women of the Silk Gail Tsukiyama Silk Industry 1926
The Collection Gioia Diliberto Set in Paris at the House of Chanel post WWI
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden WWII
The Gown Jennifer Robson set in London, 1947
Very Valentine Adriana Trigiani later 20th c. A fluffy book, but describes the history of Italian shoe-making.
My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante mid 20th c. Also Italian shoe=making plays a part in this first of four books
The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood Dystopian Future, shows lack of fashion as a form of suppression

Non-Fiction

Microhistories

Brolliology: A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature Marion Rankine
The Coat Route: Craft, Luxury, & Obsession on the Trail of a $50,000 Coat Meg Lukens Noonan
The Corset: A Cultural History Valerie Steele
Hats: A History of Fashion in Headwear Hilda Amphelt

Memoir and Reportage

Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped And Smoothed Richard Anderson
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
D.V. Diana Vreeland Covers fashion from 1930's forward.
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times

Fashion Icons

Elizabeth I
Charles II
Louis XIV
Marie Antoinette
Empress Eugenie
Coco Chanel
Elsa Schiaparelli
Audrey Hepburn
Josehine Baker
Steve McQueen
Eartha Kitt
Princess Grace of Monoco
True Grace: The Life and Times of an American Princess Wendy Leigh
Jackie Kennedy Onassis
America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Sarah Bradford
The British Royals

Fashion Adjacent

There are many books written about fiber, fabric, embellishments, mill machinery.

Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber Stephen Yafa

Middle Grade
Why'd They Wear That? Sarah Albee

Fashion. As in, cross-dressing. Which brings us to a tie-in with this month's quarterly (Renaissance and 16th Century) reading: Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night.

And there's Middleton's The Roaring Girl, although that's actually Jacobean. just past the turn of the century.

And more contemporary: Sarah Waters's Tipping the Velvet, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, Ellen Galford's Moll Cutpurse (a rewrite of Middleton's "The Roaring Girl")....

>2 CurrerBell: - I'd also add Misfortune by Wesley Stace.

Well, it's fiction, but I don't have a lot on the tbr that (directly) fits, so I think I will read:

The Shoemaker's Wife / Adriana Trigiani

I don't really have a close match on my shelf and I'm book dieting after my Thingaversary. So, I will probably have to go with a mystery/detective book The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen.

>1 beebeereads: I appreciate the excellant intro. I see books on the lists that I will be adding to my list.

At the moment I'm counting on getting The Hidden Thread by Liz Trenow from the library, a novel revolving around the silk trade. The UK has a different title, The Silk Weaver.

>6 clue: Thanks! I'll be adding more as I think of them. The possibilities are endless. I look forward to hearing what everyone has chosen.

I am planning on reading The Gown by Jennifer Robson for this theme.

I am reading Wolf Hall over in Club Read anyway (even though it will be January - but still...) so if nothing else fits, I will count that as my book for the theme but may also add something else - will see how February goes.

I'm thinking about The Shoemaker's Wife for this theme. Trigiani has been a bit hit or miss for me in the past, so I may look for something else...

I've been intending to read The Women in Black, set in 1950s Australia (if that counts), by Madeleine St John since last year.

>8 DeltaQueen50: Good choice!

>9 AnnieMod: annie, has that thread started up yet? I thought it was starting in January?

>13 cindydavid4: Yep - https://www.librarything.com/topic/328265 - hiding under the trilogy name, not the book name (as it is technically a trilogy read for the next few months) :) Some people are 100+ pages in already.

>10 katiekrug: I really liked The Shoemaker's Wife!

>15 Tess_W: - Good to know! That's a point in its favor!

The link to the Wiki on the Main Page does not seem to be working so here it is:

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge

Change of plans: I was looking for something else and stumbled upon Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle which sounds perfect for this topic... :)

The link to the Wikis that is posted on the Group's Main Page is now working again.

>18 AnnieMod: I had other plans but this one has pulled me in. Just put it on hold. I expect to get it by February. Thank you!

Delta Queen got me with a BB and I read The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John. A good book for a lazy rainy day.

I have completed my read of The Gown by Jennifer Robson. This was a good choice for this theme as the main characters were embroiderers who worked for Norman Hartwell on Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown. There was a lot of detail about the embroidery work and the process of assembling the finished product.

>21 clue: Glad you enjoyed The Women in Black!

>22 DeltaQueen50: It was a good choice for this theme! I just read it last year, or I might have also gone with it! :-)

Isn't anyone reading? :)


Threads of Life: A History of the World Through the Eye of a Needle by Clare Hunter

Type: Non-fiction
Length: 299 pages
Original Language: English
Original Publication: 2019
Genre: textile, history, personal history
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Abrams Press, 2020
Reading dates: 8 February 2021 - 16 February 2021

First ignore the subtitle. While there are elements of history in this book, that specific title can be very misleading.

"Thread of Life" is the personal story of one woman's relationship with textile, sewing and needlework, peppered with history of both the evolution of needlework and almost peripherally the world. There are real historical figures here - some well known (Mary, Queen of Scots), some not so much. The story is almost weaved together - a personal story gets connected to a traditional one which evolves into a historical account and then circles back. Most of the history is from the English speaking world (mainly USA and UK) but there are glimpses of traditional crafts from all over the world - from the Chinese minority and Ukraine to Africa, Chile and aboriginal Australia. Some of it is elaborated on, some of it is just mentioned in passing.

If you have any interest in embroidery or history of objects, this book is a treasure trove of anecdotes and history. Most of the book is about using the craft for banners and home objects and its relationship to art and not about clothing but as a history about textile, clothes are not forgotten - from the special motives sewn for protection from time immemorial to Singer and the sweatshops.

The book does not really follow any chronology - we jump in time - both in the author's history and the real history. The organization is based on the usage of the craft -- and the chapters follow that. That's also what makes the later part of the book somewhat weaker - because most of the works have more than one meaning, Hunter gets into a pattern of listing previously made points, then adding a new one and then doing it over and over again. The book start sounding repetitive - while these textiles are connected, the separate chapters are part of a whole and not just separate essays so the repetition grates.

The other big topic is the role of the women - the changes in the perception of needlework through the ages traces the changes in the position of women and their ability to provide for their families and to have their voices heard. The role of textiles through history and the changes brought by the markets and displacement run through the heart of the story - the traditions which had come before and the ones made today may sometimes be at odds and their balancing is not always easy. And sometimes things get lost in that shuffle.

Overall it is an engaging story (although I wish the last 1/3rd was consolidated in half the pages it took). There are two mostly visual problems with it:

- No graphics, pictures and images at all. The author discusses pieces of embroidery and various techniques and there is not even a small drawing let alone a picture somewhere. There is a list of sites and a bibliography at the end end where one can go and find these but... this is the kind of book where you want to read on its own, not with opening additional resources. I suspect that it was a cost cutting measure but...

- Someone decided that putting a nail on the cover (instead of a needle) is a good idea. The positioning does not work for a nail so I am not sure what the thought behind that was -- I cannot figure out a way to get that picture to work at all. (after a helpful second eye below): Unless it is a pin - which would make more sense but it looks closer to a nail to me...

===
As it turned out, I have two more books on my shelves that fit so I may actually read them this month The Pocket: A Hidden History of Women's Lives (which is not about ALL pockets - just the tie-on ones, the precursor of handbags - which is clear from everything BUT the title) and Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times.

How is everyone else doing?

>25 AnnieMod: No pictures doesn't seem a sensible choice, so I suppose there must've been a pressing reason. (Psst... that's a pin in the cover image, securing the heart.)

> I haven't begun reading my choice yet, but it's short and fun so I was saving it for light relief.

>26 spiralsheep:
The only reason I can think of is not securing the right for the pictures but even then, some drawings would have helped... Looks more like a nail than a pin to me (my pins tend to have round heads, flat ones are on nails so they can get nailed...) -- even more on a bigger picture. But that at least makes some more sense... Thanks for pointing it out - I think I will adjust my review a bit around that.

>25 AnnieMod: I just got this from the library. I have been enjoying the description of the Bayeaux tapestry. We visited this a number of years ago and so I have personal memories of it. I am not sure I'll stick with the whole book, its too early to tell, but I will soldier on for now. Thanks for the recommendation and review.

>28 beebeereads: I was smiling when I read these parts - I had been on a somewhat of a 11th century kick lately so I had been reading a lot about the tapestry in my history reading. And here it was, larger than life in my non-11th century book. Not that it is surprising - talking about the embroidery craft and not talking about it would have been weird but still... Sometimes it is weird how unrelated books just connect.

The author has a good eye describing textile art - all kinds of it. It carries the book sometimes... :) I will be interested to see what you think when you get further in the book. :)

I've already finished As You Like It (cross-dressing) but I'm reading the Norton Critical (400+ pages) so there are substantial supplemental materials to finish before I claim the read.

There was fashion involved in The Dressmaker. How could there not be with a title like that? The year was 1912 and there was an ocean voyage included as the young heroine tried to ingratiate herself with a well known aristocratic fashion designer. Design was only one strand of the story as the voyage was on the Titanic. The glimpses of a design house and changing fashion were interesting as was the rendition of the aftermath of the disaster.

>30 CurrerBell: OK, just finished As You Like It (Norton Critical). The supplementary materials contain several articles on cross-dressing, not just as a gender or homoeroticism subject but also as a "disguise" or masquerade during political upheaval (such as the enclosure insurrections {Wiki}). This also qualifies for the first quarter – Renaissance & 16th Century.

I met my goal to read about fashion history from countries other than Europe or North America. The African Lookbook is a new publication which came past my eyes at just the right time for this challenge.
It is a fascinating look at photography and fabric in Africa during the 19th and 20th centuries. Perhaps the best way to describe the content is by quoting from it.
From the Preface

For African Women across the continent, many of the most powerful but less remarked upon modern legacies were born of the sewing machine and the camera...steadfast instruments that offered a powerful means to author one's own life.

Reading this book was a virtual museum day during this pandemic. Those who appreciate portrait photography will be as gratified as those who study fashion and fabric. I appreciate the author's collection and the work she has done to notate the history behind the photographs. As a lover of fabrics this book spoke to one of my inner passions.
Page 86

The history preserved in fashion can be more resilient and revealing than what is stored or memorialized in other kinds of repositories.

I read The Women in Black, by Madeleine St John, which is a novel about the lives of women working in the Ladies' Frocks Department at Goode's Department Store in Sydney, Australia, during the 1950s. 4*

Quote

Lol: "the doorman in his uniform of a lieutenant-colonel in the Ruritanian Army"

>34 spiralsheep: and all the others who mentioned this book, thanks for the BB. I'm hoping to read that one very soon. I recently finished #4 in the Lady Sherlock series The Art of Theft. As in any book about the 19th c. there was much made of all the stylistic features of the current fashion: bustles, tight bodices, bloomers, waist coats, boots. In this case those features were an integral part of the story as the characters used costuming to support their deceit. Fun read.

The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen by N.L. Wilson. This was a free Kindle read from 2014 and quite good! Dix Dodd is a PI and gets herself embroiled in a case where a woman hires her to spy on her husband. Of course, things are not what they seem and go awry. I'm not a big mystery fan, but this was a good read. 205 pages 4 stars This was loosely related to the theme by the fact that both the poser and the real wife had very different clothing styles, which played a minor part in the story.

The Shoemaker's Wife / Adriana Trigiani
4 stars

It’s around 1900 in Italy. Ciro and his brother are only about 5 and 6 years old when their mother, who has just lost her husband (the boys’ father) and just can’t cope, drops them off at a convent. She tells them to be good, help out, and she’ll be back in 6 months for them. Well, she doesn’t come back. At 15-years old, Ciro is hired out to dig a grave for a little girl, when he meets, Enza, that little girl’s oldest sister. There is an instant connection. But, something happens soon after and they are kept apart.

Some time later, they both separately arrive in America – New York City, to be exact. Ciro is a shoemaker’s apprentice, while Enza is working as a maid (very ill-treated), and also finds a job as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera. We follow their lives as immigrants in the US in the early 20th century.

I really liked this. It didn’t move fast, but I really enjoyed the story, and was rooting for Ciro and Enza. I liked the characters and their relationships. The author’s note at the end tells us that this is based on Trigiani’s grandparents’ lives.

Thank you all for participating in this challenge. Seeing fashion as part of the story has always been an interest of mine. It tells us so much about how people and societies relate to one another. I know I found some great recommendations and hope others did too.

>39 beebeereads: Thanks for hosting, what a brilliant idea!

>29 AnnieMod: Didn't think Id find anything of interest in this months theme, but your mention of the bayeux tapestry struck a chord. I happen to have a book of the same name, written in 1856 by John Collinwood Bruce, with colored plates reproduced from 1838 by Victor Sansonetti. . The author covers the history of the making of the roll as well as the history of the time it portrays. Bought this 1987 edition on my first trip to england, and think I read the text but dont remember, certainly had no idea how old it was. Here is an example of the style

The pen of the writer of romance is not the only impement which confers immortality upon man. The chisel of the sculpor, the pencil of the painter and the needle of the high born dame can confer a lasting renown upon those whose deeds are worthy of being remembered. The work which we are about to consider was effected by the simplest of these impliments - the needle

Over the decades I've learned about this period through histories and historic fiction, and now I think its time I put it all together with this book. Glad I found it, even so late!

ETA this text has lots of cringeworthy descriptions, such as how William seized Matilda and rolled her in the mud. So not sure I want to recommend it......

>33 beebeereads: hee just coming here, rather late, to post about that book. Excellent review of it in this Sundays NYT Book Review, one I am very interested in reading.

>37 LibraryCin: Too many books have titles like 'the (choose your profession) daughter?wife' with mixed results that I wasn't interested when I saw this one. However your recommendation, and my interest in the story make me take a second look. thanks for that

I couldn't find anything that remotely fit this theme, but last week I was re-arranging my book shelves and found a slim volume: The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick. The volume contains 2 related pieces: the short story "The Shawl" and the novella "Rosa."

"The Shawl" is a brief (6 pages), yet powerful, story about Rosa, a young mother in a concentration camp, who hides her baby in her shawl, for if the baby is found it is certain death. "Rosa" (about 60 pages) is set almost 40 years later, and Rosa has recently moved to Miami from New York. She is slowly slipping into fits of mental illness, with memories of her life before the war, of her baby and of the shawl. Both stories are told in Ozick's tough, gritty, dark style and packed with symbolism.

>43 cindydavid4: Oh, yeah - I see your point! It seems to be a trend now. I'd have to check when this was published, but it was before those types of titles were a "thing". And many of the current trendy ones are thrillers, and this one is historical fiction.

I'm glad you looked close enough to decide it sounded good enough to try! Enjoy!

>42 cindydavid4: Well, 1856 is a long time ago :) Glad to see that I helped you find something that matched here ;)

I like how the Victorians wrote history - I find the style charming (outdated, occasionally maddening but usually readable). And that specific description won't even make me raise a brow in a text from the era. :)

PS: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55614 - this book? (you made me curious) :)

>44 kac522: oh I love Ozick, esp her Heir to the Glimmering World read some of her other short stories, this looks up my alley

>46 AnnieMod: yup but mine didn't have a dust cover. Glad to see its still in print, 2017. and I agree with you, there was more to it, like the lady decided she liked him well enough to marry....makes me grit my teeth (probabably not because of it being used then, but because there are still people with that attitude in our day) but I get your point. And I read lots of travel narraties from that time and yep usually readable and interesting and maddening Richard Halliburton perfect example, funny, interesting readable and yeah from that time.

>48 cindydavid4: I am not sure it is in print per se - it is in the public domain now so I am sure someone might be printing it. :) But it is in Gutenberg so if one wishes one can read it. :)

People are people. I’ve given up long ago on expecting every single person to evolve to the level of early 20th century let alone 21st. :) And I love Victorian literature and early and golden age Science fiction - and they all require acknowledging the time they are written in. Modern works are a different thing though...

>47 cindydavid4: When I finished, I wondered about the idea of a shawl and whether it had symbolic allusions to a tallit/prayer shawl. I don't know enough about Ozick to know her viewpoint on religious tradition.

I hadn't thought of that; and given her background, would not be surprised.

>49 AnnieMod: Oh I agree with you about acknowledging the time they were written (tho Im not that into victorian writing but very much golden age sci fi)