Available for pre-order.
Did you think her book was out now? Oh, no, no. Won’t be out till next March, but it’s too late—you already clicked on this newsletter, so here are some other books to consider while you wait. :)
CRITIQUE
Eugene Rabkin. Zer0 Books, 2026.
Read a fashion critic’s sharp polemic on the creatively inert state of modern-day fashion. Rabkin’s premise places the blame squarely on postmodern philosophy and makes a compelling case against the capitalist commodification of subcultures.
HISTORY, FASHION, AND CLASS
‘Read this book if you want a sociological deep dive on how fashion influences our perception of class and status. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020.
Across many genres of fiction, describing characters’ clothing can stand in as a symbolic statement about their social class as well as their aspirations.
The social-climbing Jay Gatsby played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Film based on The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Time for some shameless self-promotion. Read my novella, Little Papers, which is set in the 1940s and explores class tension through the complicated friendship of a young male art patron, James Emory, and the talented object of his charity, Helen Smith.
“Cassandra Talbot, in a belted white sundress, stepped out first, followed by her parents, George and Sarah Talbot, who were friends with everyone worth knowing back in Boston and never at risk of befriending anyone else.”
- from Little Papers, 2025
“Helen’s eyes were as dark as his, yet somehow more inscrutable, James always thought…
To go with him outside, she’d thrown on a yellow cardigan, which rather ill-suited
her pale complexion, but he saw that her cheeks were beginning to color the longer she was out and figured she was in as much need of the fresh air as he was.
Strands of black hair hung loose at the sides of her white uniform cap. Her apron was tied crookedly around her waist. If Mother were around, she would have told the girl to go and tidy her appearance…”
- from Little Papers, 2025
Read this book to learn more about the fashion in colonial and early America. The chapters cover a “span of more than three hundred years, tracing the history of New England clothing from the colonial seventeenth century, through the Revolutionary eighteenth century, and into the national nineteenth.” It also explores “how New Englanders used costume to establish their situation, especially in terms of class and gender, and also to express their political affiliations.”
Material Culture is a reader-supported newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Otherwise, like, share, or leave a comment…or do all three. Thank you!
DOLLS, DOLLS, DOLLS
Read a book that explores the historically symbiotic relationship between dolls and fashion. To be published by Rizzoli Electa on October 6, 2026.
Or read a vintage book about a young girl discovering her great-great-great-grandmother’s fashion doll in a secret place.
from The Wonderful Fashion Doll by Laura Bannon. Houghton Mifflin, 1953.
PRESERVATION
Alexandra Carl. Rizzoli, 2024.
Love, love, love this book, considering I’m a mini-baby fashion collector. Read this interview-style book to enjoy the stories and photographs of fashion’s most dedicated archivists.
From Collecting Fashion - Alexandra Carl. Rizzoli, 2024
From Collecting Fashion - Alexandra Carl. Rizzoli, 2024
SHOP GIRLS
Originally published in 1930.
Read High Wages by Dorothy Whipple, a story that follows a young woman’s rise from sales assistant at a draper’s shop to owning her own business.
The Ladies’ Paradise is Émile Zola’s classic novel, which details the ins and outs of a department store in Paris, primarily through the eyes of a salesgirl named Denise Baudu.
Originally published in 1883.
Read a riches-to-rags story about a socialite who has to work as a high-end personal shopper in the wake of a family tragedy. Speaking Volumes, 2022.
