Contact me
To contribute to this collective history project, send pictures and stories about the older women in your life to americanagefashion@gmail.com. The more information you can include (date, place, etc.), the better.-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Bob Moeller on Florida Retirement Hotels in the 1970s
- Bob Moeller on Native Daughters of the Golden West
- Bob Moeller on Fashioning San Francisco
- Marianne on Grannies on the Red Carpet, 2024
- Nann on Duchess of Windsor Patterns
Categories
Tags
- About Me
- advertising
- advice literature
- African American
- Asian American
- book review
- California
- Chicana Latina
- coats
- colors
- comparative
- designers
- Florida
- fur
- generations
- glasses
- hair
- half sizes
- hats/headcoverings
- Illinois
- jewelry
- lace
- Mrs. Exeter
- New Look
- New York
- pants
- pantsuits
- photographer
- popular culture
- power dressing
- sewing
- sheath dress
- shirtwaist
- shoes
- sizes
- special occasion
- sportswear
- Texas
- textile patterns
- textile prints
- textiles
- Washington DC
- women's organizations
- World War One
- World War Two
Meta
Reference Links
Tag Archives: book review
Book Review: Real Clothes, Real Lives by Kiki Smith
What are “real clothes,” you might ask on encountering this book. As the preface explains, Smith College costume designer Kiki Smith gave the label “real clothes” to garments that were not designed as costumes but had that had somehow ended … Continue reading
Book Review: Worn by Sofi Thanhauser
This is a staggeringly ambitious book, evident already in the subtitle. By “people” Thanhauser means all people, everywhere. And by “clothing” she considers not only the sewn or knitted garments we use for protection and expression, but also the raw … Continue reading
Book Review: Dress Codes by Richard Thompson Ford
As usual with academic scholarship, it is the subtitle–“How the Laws of Fashion Made History”–that really tells what this book is about. In this wide-ranging study, Stanford law professor Richard Thompson Ford examines how dress codes—both formal legal regulations and … Continue reading
Book Review–The 1950s in Vogue: The Jessica Daves Years by Rebecca C. Tuite
This is what the cover of my copy of The 1950s in Vogue looks like—no book title, no author, and no indication of the fact that the book is actually about Vogue editor, Jessica Daves. Perhaps this is a new … Continue reading
The Olive Cycle
Although I have vowed to stop buying books, I couldn’t pass up Elizabeth Strout’s the new novel about Olive Kitteridge. I read it in a flash and then decided to read the two books–Olive Kitteridge and Olive Again–one after another. … Continue reading
Book Review—Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style by Cintra Wilson
What happens when a punk-inspired, all-black-wearing Brooklynite undertakes a wide ranging study of American dress? You end up with a humorous, and often snarky, assessment of Americans’ love of pastels, polyester, and malls. The book’s big message: break loose from … Continue reading
Book Review–The Devil’s Cloth: A History of Stripes by Michel Pastoureau
For those of us who love stripes, it is fascinating to learn something of their controversial history. In this short gem of a book, French historian Michel Pastoureau traces the meaning of stripes from the Middle Ages in Europe to … Continue reading
Making Clothes for the Older Woman
Imagine how excited I was when I discovered this British title on World Cat—Making Clothes for the Older Woman. As an older woman who sews, it seemed custom designed for me. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t … Continue reading
Book Review—Dress Like a Woman: Working Women and What They Wore
I was attracted to this book by the two big names on the cover, feminist scholar Roxane Gay and the New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman. Gay wrote the foreword, a brief examination of the many laws and customs … Continue reading
Book Review: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
What would you do if you discovered a large stash of material about a once-famous, now-forgotten woman? Kathleen Rooney wrote a novel. A librarian friend was one of the first to process a donated archive about the life of poet … Continue reading