Calm Down, It's Only Clothes! New Publication Sets Fashion Straight
Writer and editor Dal Chodha meditates on the irony of fashion and the relationship we have with our clothes in an ode to the seminal style guide Cheap Chic.
Writer and editor Dal Chodha meditates on the irony of fashion and the relationship we have with our clothes in an ode to the seminal style guide Cheap Chic.
Fashion may have sent us all barking mad, but in the cyclone of TikTok trends and never-ending fashion shows,You gotta keep your head straight about clothes. In the throes of another economic recession, buying less and dressing better makes sense, but it can also do wonders for your personal sense of style, and self.
It's a philosophy for wearing, and understanding fashion that the editor Dal Chodha uncovered back in 2010 upon his first sitting with Cheap Chic (1975). The seminal style guidebook urges the reader not to get too hysterical about fashion noise, and instead to hone on in their essential wardrobe building blocks. Now, Chodha has written a a long-form essay-cum-art-book with independent publishers Tenderbooks, as an ode to Carol Troy and Caterine Milinaire's fashion talisman.
Clothes often come down to ego, the ultimate privilege. They tell people who we are, or rather who we want to be. Chodha's essay begs the question - do we even know ourselves?
Chodha's entertaining observations, such as the 'bleak reality of fashion between self-love and self-worship' , compiled into a dynamic design by Kia Tasbihgou, make for reading to be devoured within an hour or so. But you'd be wrong to call this a minimalist philosophy, or to mistake Chodha for Marie Kondo. Despite humorous warnings against the 'seasonal distraction of a sequin', this is a book about how we can find ourselves again in our clothes, rediscovering the joy in getting dressed without the algorithm.
In short, this pocket-sized book is a must-read, but it's also a liberating one, which was exactly the point of Cheap Chic in the first place.
