Page 14 - Boca ViewPointe - March '20

Page 14, Viewpointe March 2020

Book Review

Fashion & Style Chaplain derived his reputation as the little tramp celebrating
his ill-fitting garb and shoes, his vagabond costume, similarly
Shahidha Bari. Dressed: The Secret Life of Clothes. London: a social commentary and protest. Chaplain’s mother indeed
Jonathan Cape. 2020. worked as an underpaid seamstress in the fashion industry.
Kyle Chayka. The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism. Bari points out that glamour itself derives from a term
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2020. associated with sorcery in old Scottish. Finally, she proposes
“To be born woman is to know . . [she] must labor to be the alternative: “But what if we could learn to be without
beautiful. possessions, to be instead utterly self-possessed, capable of
William Butler Yeats containing only ourselves as we are, carrying nothing but the
“the apparel oft proclaims the man.” Shakespeare truth of that alone? This is a foreshadowing if not a veritable
introduction to Kyle Chayka’s book on minimalism. vide
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers Marlon Brando’s rendition of Stanley Kowalski’s sleeveless
undershirt in A Streetcar Named Desire.
My late beloved wife disrupt, dazzle. Ms. Bari quotes the designer Alexander Kyle Chayka describes the motivation to simplify
Rina loved clothes, to shop McQueen, “I think of myself as a plastic surgeon with a and minimize the aesthetic of less. The popularity of the
for shoes, skirts, pants, knife.” Even an element of sadism to compel women to Japanese superstar Maria Kondo, who preaches minimalism
sweaters, bags, coats you squeeze into garments and constraints forced upon them by as therapy, with a massive following among millennials
name them; examine, feel their effort to please. Then there are, particularly in the Orient, and the mainstream in books and television. He suggests
and savor the fabrics, try-on, artistic artifacts like needles, brooches, and sharp pins to ward that the sources of minimalism, like fashion go back to the
never betraying obeisance off the dazzled, threatening male. “We buy aspirationally, ancient world. Just as Epicurus founded the philosophy of
to the price tag-- until the dreaming of bodies that are taller, fuller or thinner than those the fulsome life of self-indulgence, “eat live and be merry
decision on purchase, then to we possess.” Bari also suggests “the come hither” impact for tomorrow we die.” On the other in the same third century
hoard in a closet, and finally of shoes on the vulnerable male; and the handbags filled B.C.E. Zeno of Citium repudiated such indulgence and
to wear. Not so unusual as many husbands likely might chockablock with items that both “carry our neuroses” and materialism in favor of Stoicism, which has remained a
attest. So in a way this review is an opportunity for me to “absorb the function of the mother” rendering women’s secret dominant philosophical movement throughout the ages. Both
connect with joyous memories. The young British-Indian desires and lives. Judaism and Christianity scorned the Apikoros philosophy
author and scholar, Shahidha Bari, draws upon an amazing Bari also offers insights about the role of fashion for men and preferring to view life was as a vale of tears and Stoic test
array of sources and artifacts from art, mythology, literature, who similarly present themselves to the world through their to be tolerated and endured. Chayka identifies the wide range
film, advertising, popular culture to offer a brilliant in-depth appearance. Our clothing seemingly less constraining than for of minimalism from architect Philip Johnson’s Glass Houses
exploration of the fashion phenomenon. women; what is suitable, the structure of the suit has changed accoutered with less, as well as John Cage’s experiments with
Our species is unique in adorning its habiliments with very little over the past century. Rather than dazzling--more the music of silence.
remnants of nature. All about Appearance, in the famous apt for performers like Liberace and Prince. Men are more Still the force of minimalism was no less an Eastern
dichotomy proposed by Plato where Appearance is the conservative, their suits are about conformity, seeking both movement. Chayka represents that Buddhism “was about
false, the shadow of the Real. Throughout history, styles to fit in and at the same time to assert power. We have to look accepting the fact that life is ephemeral, that every material
have evolved in women’s fashion, folds and drapes in at athletic costume to find the razzle dazzle of fashion. thing will inevitably drift away and all that remains is
classical women’s dress to the tyranny of corsets, crinolines She offers a thoughtful analysis of Gogol’s “The whatever joy we can take in the midst of this process of
and bustles that the suffragettes rejected, to pants suits and Overcoat,” described by Dostoyevsky as the wellspring emptying.” There has been great appreciation of the simplicity
denim of today. Women dress with an eye on appearance, of Russian literature. The story about the obsession of the of Buddhist rituals, from the landscape and rock gardens
the gaudy dress uniforms of the formal ball, Spanx work anti-hero Akakiy Akakievich to procure a new overcoat, to the tea ceremony. Among its acolytes, Jews like Bob
out for the gym, understatements for lunch with the ladies. and then reclaiming it after it has been forcibly taken from Dylan embraced Buddhism as respite from the excessive
Ms. Bari notes the etymology of text derives from textile, him. Regaining his overcoat is absolutely critical to his self- and demanding rituals of Judaism and Leonard Cohen,
“What I mean to say here is that life happens in clothes ... esteem, even to his well being. Even as with the American who apprenticed himself to a Buddhist master for whom he
but [these] could be understood as ideas too, as fully formed Englishman T.S.Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock, insecure and performed menial chores for several years--until he reverted
and eloquent as any poem, painting or equation.” Bari further fraught about his appearance. “My morning coat, my collar back to his childhood faith. Hallelujah.
cites the objections of Karl Marx to the distorting effect of mounting firmly to the chin/My necktie rich and modest, but To summarize a Review of Fashion and a Style, originally
all commodities in capitalism and the exploitation of labor asserted by a simple pin.” intended as lighter Fare, with a Japanese Koan (a poem
necessary for its success; as well as Freud’s characterization She also references the focus of clothing by the male dressed or disguised with a deep, confusing, ambiguous
of narcissism embedded in fashion, reversion to the infantile movie star Cary Grant. He insisted on commissioning his message): “Perfect like unto vast space/With nothing wanting,
stage of development. own wardrobe clothes from a bespoke British tailor for the nothing superfluous.”
Whereas in nature, the male tends to be the show-off, sartorial movie North by Northwest, which introduced the
glamorous species, most would concede that fashion is iconic blue or? gray assertive suit he wore, no less defining Book Review is soliciting literary work from Residents of
considered more reflective of the female domain. Women his character as well as Grant’s own identity. No surprise Boca Pointe for consideration for the summer issue (due by
preening and punishing themselves in order to display, that Grant’s father was a British tailor. In contrast, Charlie May first) rmeyers@esu.edu. 

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