Fashionable Minds

From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of pieces on the world of fashion and how it influences our culture. View in browser | Update your preferences Fashionable Minds Fashion has always been about the latest trends, but compelling and inventive design ultimately transcends era. In 2013, Kelefa Sanneh published a New Yorker profile of Dapper Dan, a Harlem couturier whose work influenced a generation of hip-hop legends. The designer’s rogue creations restyled brand-name iconography from luxury houses such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton into custom-tailored jackets and other clothing. (“It was like wearing a Rolls-Royce on your back—it was so cocky,” a stylist told Sanneh.) His designs ushered in a renaissance in hip-hop style in the nineteen-nineties, and would help influence the reinvention of Europe’s design houses at the turn of the century. This week, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces on the world of fashion and how it influences our culture. In “Some Clothes of One’s Own,” Ingrid Sischy explores the radical simplicity of Miuccia Prada’s designs. In “Heavy Threads,” Salman Rushdie recalls his introduction to British fashion, in the nineteen-sixties, when he lived above a legendary boutique. In “Life as a Look,” Hilton Als writes about the edgy influence of the performance artist and muse Leigh Bowery. Malcolm McLaren, the late manager of the Sex Pistols, chronicles the fashionable anarchy of the late nineteeen-seventies, and Winthrop Sargeant, in a piece from 1958, describes the innovative fashion photography of Richard Avedon. In “Tavi Says,” Lizzie Widdicombe examines the surreal life of the teen-age fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson. Janet Flanner recounts how Coco Chanel helped liberate women from the corset and transformed high design, and Lois Long, in a piece from 1936, considers the differences between Hollywood and East Coast fashion. In “The Divine Marquise,” Judith Thurman contemplates the outré style of the Belle Époque fashion priestess Marchesa Luisa Casati. Finally, in “The Fashionable Mind,” Kennedy Fraser explores the influence of style on American culture and society. We hope that these pieces add some enchantment to your weekend. — Erin Overbey, archive editor From The New Yorker’s Archive Annals of Style Harlem Chic How a hip-hop legend remixed name-brand fashion. By Kelefa Sanneh | March 25, 2013 In Fashion Some Clothes of One’s Own Miuccia Prada was a woman of progressive ideals before she took over her family’s business, and there’s still a radical dream in her designs. By Ingrid Sischy | February 7, 1994 Personal History Heavy Threads My sixties education in cool. By Salman Rushdie | November 7, 1994 Profiles Life as a Look When Leigh Bowery died, he was hailed as an influence on everyone from Vivienne Westwood to Lucian Freud. By Hilton Als | March 30, 1998 Personal History Elements of Anti-Style Is there a reason that a style or an attitude becomes a fashion? By Malcolm McLaren | September 14, 1997 Newsletters Sign Up for The New Yorker’s Food Newsletter Get essays on food, restaurant reviews, and notes for the kitchen, all delivered to your in-box. Profiles A Woman Entering a Taxi in the Rain How Richard Avedon redefined fashion, glamour, and femininity. By Winthrop Sargeant | November 8, 1958 Blogging Dept. Tavi Says Fashion dictates from a fourteen-year-old. By Lizzie Widdicombe | September 20, 2010 Profiles 31, Rue Cambon Coco Chanel’s revolutionary style. By Janet Flanner | March 14, 1931 On and Off the Avenue Hollywood’s Feminine Fashions The differences between East Coast and West Coast clothes. By Lois Long | October 31, 1936 In Fashion The Divine Marquise Luisa Casati’s Belle Époque fetishes and perverse costumes no longer seem so outré. By Judith Thurman | September 14, 2003 Reflections The Fashionable Mind Fashion is good for business, but in the long run may prove very bad for life. By Kennedy Fraser | March 13, 1978 This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.