City Research Online

Abstract

Amongst the discourses that describe, construct and critique fashion, one form, which we might deem a kind of literary non-fiction that attends to how fashion, dress and social moods entwine has thus far largely escaped scholarly notice. While fashion criticism often attends to the “moods” a collection addresses, this mode of writing, primarily circulated on digital platforms, considers how clothes place us as social, affective beings within culture and everyday life, and elucidates the ways fashion interacts with one’s person in fanciful and sensory ways. Written in response to its writer’s perspective and experience, such writing uses literary devices to render palpable what clothes do, how it feels to long for a garment or lose one’s taste for dress. In this way, it helps us to understand what an attunement to fashion and/or dress looks and feels like in practice. This chapter argues that this literary non-fiction writing on fashion and dress reveals how social moods and clothing interact. It primarily considers two contemporary examples: the fashion writing published by Montreal-based luxury e-tailer SSENSE and writer Ana Kinsella’s newsletter London Review of Looks.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Insights on Fashion Journalism on 18 July 2022, available online: https://www.routledge.com/
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Media, Culture & Creative Industries

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