Overview

Saddle shoes. Camp shorts. Girdles. Bell-bottoms. Each plays a significant role as we follow B., the wardrobe's owner, through her buttoned-up Midwestern childhood to the freedom of miniskirts, sundresses, and New York City. We watch as B. copes with the untimely death of her mother, makes a go of glamorous magazine work, and, after the inevitable false starts and fashion missteps, finally comes into her own.Part memoir, part fashion and cultural history of the last five decades, Autobiography of a Wardrobe is an exploration of the clothes each generation has embraced and the smallest details in which we are able to seek comfort and meaning.

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9780307386090

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Reviews

"“Wonderfully original.... A highly relatable account of body image, feminism, and fashion.”—Vogue“Belongs on every nightstand.” —Vanity Fair “A great history of women in the 20th-century. . . . Amazing.” —Slate “Nutty and delightful.”—The Boston Globe“Brilliant. . . . One turns these pages with anticipation and pleasure.” —The New York Sun“Powerful. . . . [It's] impossible not to remember your own clothes-what you wore, and where, and when.” —The New York Observer ""This is a book to devour with great pleasure, as it brings back our own reactions to youth's wardrobe: saddle shoe lust and, for me, in Brooklyn rather than in the Midwest, a decade earlier, bobby socks and penny loafers. But the passion is the same in every period: no one has gotten at the intense importance of these issues in the feminine bildungsroman. Kendall has given us something wonderful.""—Linda Nochlin, author of Bather, Bodies, Beauty""A writer of deep and delicious gifts, Elizabeth Kendall now gives us a subtle, original riff on the clothes we wear. Clothes may not make the man or woman, but they certainly make this book. It is at once whimsical and profound.""—Catharine Stimpson, University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University"

Wonderfully original.... A highly relatable account of body image, feminism, and fashion. <br>-- Vogue <br> Nutty and delightful. <br>-- The Boston Globe <br> Brilliant.... One of the beauties of Ms. Kendall's book is that it is not remotely about beauty. The evolving silhouette of her wardrobe has consistently been about truth--who she is and what she believes in. <br>-- The New York Sun <br> This is a book to devour with great pleasure, as it brings back our own reactions to youth's wardrobe: saddle shoe lust and, for me, in Brooklyn rather than in the Midwest, a decade earlier, bobby socks and penny loafers. But the passion is the same in every period: no one has gotten at the intense importance of these issues in the feminine bildungsroman. Kendall has given us something wonderful. <br>--Linda Nochlin, author of Bather, Bodies, Beauty <br> A writer of deep and delicious gifts, Elizabeth Kendall now gives us a subtle, original riff on the clothes we wear. Clothes may not make the man or woman, but they certainly make this book. It is at once whimsical and profound. <br>--Catharine Stimpson, University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University

Wonderfully original.... A highly relatable account of body image, feminism, and fashion. <i>Vogue</i> Belongs on every nightstand. <i>Vanity Fair</i> A great history of women in the 20th-century. . . . Amazing. <i>Slate </i> Nutty and delightful. <i>The Boston Globe</i> Brilliant. . . . One turns these pages with anticipation and pleasure. <i>The New York Sun</i> Powerful. . . . [It's] impossible not to remember your own clothes-what you wore, and where, and when. <i>The New York Observer </i> This is a book to devour with great pleasure, as it brings back our own reactions to youth's wardrobe: saddle shoe lust and, for me, in Brooklyn rather than in the Midwest, a decade earlier, bobby socks and penny loafers. But the passion is the same in every period: no one has gotten at the intense importance of these issues in the feminine bildungsroman. Kendall has given us something wonderful. Linda Nochlin, author of <i>Bather, Bodies, Beauty</i> A writer of deep and delicious gifts, Elizabeth Kendall now gives us a subtle, original riff on the clothes we wear. Clothes may not make the man or woman, but they certainly make this book. It is at once whimsical and profound. Catharine Stimpson, University Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University

Author Information

Elizabeth Kendall is the author of Autobiography of a Wardrobe, Where She Danced, The Runaway Bride, and American Daughter, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, among other periodicals. In 2004-2005 she was a fellow at the Cullman Center of the New York Public Library, and in 2006 she received a Fulbright grant to do research in St. Petersburg, Russia. She lives in New York City.

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