Shari Benstock

Until recently, fashion was considered the "F-word" in intellectual circles, dismissed as unworthy of serious attention. Yet no area of life, no individual moment, stands outside fashion's discourses. Intuitively, we all know that clothing is a language, incessantly communicating messages about its wearer. But who speaks this language, to whom is it addressed, what does it mean, and how are its meanings established and transformed? On Fashion explores the ways our material, political, psychological, sexual, even intellectual lives are woven into fashion's fabric.

A biography of the noted author, tracing her evolution from shy debutante to the social chronicler of her age.

An exploration of the lives and works of some two dozen American, English, and French women whose talent shaped the Paris expatriate experience in the early twentieth century.