Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style

by Cintra Wilson

Overview

As the former New York Times Critical Shopper, and voted one of Fashionista's 50 Most Influential People in New York Fashion, Cintra Wilson knows something about clothes. And in Fear and Clothing, she imparts her no-holds-barred, totally outrageous, astute, and hilarious wisdom to the reader.

Wilson reports the findings of her "fashion road trip" across the United States, a journey that took three years and ranges across the various economic "belt regions" of America: the Cotton, Rust, Bible, Sun, Frost, Corn, and Gun Belts. Acting as a kind of fashion anthropologist, she documents and decodes the sartorial sensibilities of Americans across the country. Our fashion choices, she argues, contain a riot of visual cues that tell everyone instantly who we are, where we came from, where we feel we belong, what we want, where we are going, and how we expect to be treated when we get there. With this philosophy in hand, she tackles and unpacks the meaning behind the uniforms of Washington DC politicians and their wives, the costumes of Kentucky Derby spectators, the attractive draw of the cowboy hat in Wyoming, and what she terms the "stealth wealth" of distressed clothing in Brooklyn.

In this smart and rollicking book, Wilson illustrates how every closet is a declaration of the owner’s politics, sexuality, class, education, hopes, and dreams. With her signature wit and utterly irreverent humor, Wilson proves that, by donning our daily costume, we create our future selves, for good or ill. Indeed: your fate hangs in your closet. Dress wisely.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393248401
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/27/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Cintra Wilson is a playwright, novelist, and a past columnist for the San Francisco Examiner, Salon, and the New York Times. She lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Place of Birth:

Chico, California

Education:

G.E.D., 1984; attended San Francisco State University

Editorial Reviews

…Wilson demonstrates her acerbic wit in this hilarious survey of contemporary American style…Wilson's talent lies in her ability to decode fashion's signifiers.

The New York Times Book Review - Thessaly La Force

07/13/2015
Wilson (A Massive Swelling), a former New York Times columnist, takes readers on a tour of America’s wardrobes, showing that our nation’s sartorial decisions are more than the simple donning of clothing each morning before work. Instead, these choices are as much about the communities we live in as they are about personal identity. In the nation’s capital, for instance, the region’s inhabitants “tend to dress very defensively. Their overprotective office-wear essentially serves as both camouflage and psychological body armor.” Wilson describes the Southern woman’s arsenal of poise, from big pearls and imperturbable hair to their expectations that “if women... aren’t using our femininity strategically, we just aren’t being smart.” Though Wilson’s cultural insights are not always profound (when describing the scantily clad actresses attending a film festival in winter, she writes, “Their fashion statements were supreme sacrifices of comfort that whimpered: Cast me: I have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever”), her sharp tongue, sardonic wit, and philosophical detours keep the journey entertaining. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"On this hilarious and insightful road trip across the country's fashion landscape, Cintra Wilson undresses America with eagle-eyed flair, showing who we are and how each of us could be much more awesome."

Trevor Paglen

"All you need to know about Cintra Wilson's new book is CINTRA WILSON WROTE A NEW BOOK. And you get to read it. I envy the gorgeous, razor-blade garden you're about to picnic in."

Patton Oswalt

"While I may know as much about fashion as the average farm animal, I am in awe of Cintra Wilson's savage, untamed, and deeply learned writing on the subject. Clotheshorses are advised not to attempt reading her book while consuming beverages, since the resulting explosions of laughter may ruin their outfits."

Luc Sante

09/01/2015
Previously a contributor to the "Critical Shopper" column of the New York Times, Wilson debuts with a sociological travelog documenting style throughout the United States, journeying from Washington, DC, to her native San Francisco and on to Hollywood, Miami, and Brooklyn, with stops at the Kentucky Derby and the Sundance Film Festival. Along the way, the author considers faux military attire; fetish clothing; and "masstige," in which luxury brands collaborate with mass-market stores (e.g., Versace at H&M, Vera Wang at Kohl's), noting that fashion has stagnated in the past ten years, whereas each decade in the 20th century was indicative of a specific trend. Successfully arguing that our desires are tailored to us, Wilson examines the origins of Victoria's Secret and high-end lingerie shops, the commercialization of goth culture, and hip-hop's love affair with fashion. At times, it's uncomfortable to read Wilson's judgments about women's body sizes even while she claims she is not fat-bashing. Her derision of "ubiquitous" brands such as Ann Taylor and championing of luxury designers is intended to be snarky but awkwardly comes across as elitism. Yet, Wilson convincingly asserts that wealth defines fashion, fashion reflects politics, and "we are at our most naked when we have our most deliberately selected clothes on." VERDICT For skinny thrift store lovers who would never set foot in a department store or boutique shop unless absolutely necessary.—Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Library Journal

2015-06-30
Irreverent, outspoken culture critic Wilson (Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny, 2008, etc.) charts the "discovery of my own fashion evolution" through an American road trip. Armed with her unique talent for biting observational wizardry, the author embarked on a cross-country walkabout to gain new perspectives on fashion's impact "with as little an impression as possible going in." She approached this journey with the same modest naiveté as when perusing uptight Soho and Madison Avenue boutiques to offer an outsider's perspective for the New York Times "Critical Shopper" column. Before decrypting the unique couture dress codes throughout America's "belt regions" (Cotton, Rust, Bible, etc.), Wilson offers background on her formative years growing up in the 1970s on a houseboat in the Bay Area, where her artistic appreciation for the punk scene and the "magic of garments" was born. Fitted into her finest black, monotone clothing, Wilson's first stops included Washington, D.C., where restrictive, formal business wear and "confrontational cleanliness" rules; high-end consignment shops in modestly draped Salt Lake City; and one of the author's funniest inspections (aside from a piece relentlessly dehumanizing Los Angeles culture): the mini-monokini versus moneyed white-jeaned aesthetic of Miami Beach, where "the only good iguana is a pink belt." Midway through, Wilson digresses to address the 2009 fiasco surrounding a painfully honest yet offensively inciting column she wrote criticizing a new J.C. Penney flagship store for manufacturing polyester clothing "five times larger than any large you've ever seen." The article's backlash seemingly fueled her anxiety about traipsing further into Midwestern states like Iowa and camouflage-heavy Kansas. Ultimately, there's an undeniable sense that little falling outside of Wilson's own gothic "crypto-sadist" uniform is deemed passable, with the remaining scraps merely fashion roadkill. Nevertheless, her deliciously snarky ode to American fashion is unceasingly entertaining. Prime sartorial satire for fashionistas aching for a dose of comic relief. Few write as bitingly about pop culture as Wilson.

Kirkus Reviews