Autobiography of a Wardrobe: A Memoir
Elizabeth Kendall
(Author)
Description
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.Product Details
Price
$15.00
$13.95
Publisher
Anchor Books
Publish Date
May 05, 2009
Pages
240
Dimensions
5.1 X 7.9 X 0.6 inches | 0.55 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780307386090
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About the Author
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.
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
