Frock Consciousness

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their literature festival looking at the link between how we see ourselves and what we wear and how this is reflected in literature and culture based on a quote from Virginia Woolf.

The speakers were Justine Picardie , editor of Harper’s Bazar and Linda Grant, who has written novels about clothing. Justine talked about how Woolf had written articles for Harper’s and why the magazine has used Charleston as a backdrop. Linda talked about the role of clothes in our life and although fashion can seem trivial clothes are seen as a definition of humanity, think of the saying “all he had left were the clothes on his back”.

There was some talk about how fashion is a major industry in the UK but the BBC does not have a fashion correspondent and how interest in clothes is often seen as anti-feminist.

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