Discoveries: The delights and perils of fashion
Spent
Memoirs of a Shopping Addict
Avis Cardella
Little, Brown: 272 pp., $23.99
Madame Bovary had only herself to blame. Today, shopaholics can point to a dizzying array of cultural and commercial predators. Avis Cardella starts with her mother’s fashion magazines and brings us into the dark, scary shadow of the oniomaniac (there’s a clinical name for the compulsive desire to shop). As an adult, Cardella found herself living the good life in Manhattan. A freelance writer, she was “engaged to a wealthy European businessman, and we had two homes, two cars, and an abundance of friends. My closet was full of beautiful things to wear, and there were all kinds of places to wear them.” Sales associates at Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf’s, Barneys and countless other stores knew her by name. Cardella explains how fashion gave her an identity to cling to, a way of “turning fantasy into reality.” She learned her way around the world of labels, photographers, designers and models. Harder still to find her way out. We follow Cardella down the rabbit hole into compulsive behavior, hiding from her life and becoming alienated from friends and family. There are many portraits of addiction — Cardella’s reveals the powerful feeling of emptiness at the center of an addict’s life. It also exposes the trauma of wrenching yourself from the clutches of the culture that trained you to feel worthless, ugly and empty in the first place.
The Thoughtful Dresser
The Art of Adornment, the Pleasures of Shopping, and Why Clothes Matter
Linda Grant
Scribner: 224 pp., $25
On the other hand, writes Linda Grant, dressing is nothing less than an art form with the self as a canvas. Grant outlines her fashion phases: hippie to vintage to basic boho black to color and designer labels. To care or not to care? “Clothes matter,” she writes, addressing the naysayers who think fashion is superficial and clothes irrelevant. “We care about what we wear, and not caring is usually a sign of depression, madness or the resignation to our imminent death.” “The Thoughtful Dresser” contains many insightful passages on the history of shopping; on the difference between dressing for car ( Los Angeles) versus street ( New York) culture; on the beauty of certain fabrics; the mystery of the handbag; and, yes, on weight. Grant has a way of restoring meaning to clothing. She writes about women who, after World War II, covered their tattoos from concentration camps with long sleeves. She writes about clothing and identity: “The defining moment in the life of a young girl is when she is able to choose her own clothes.”
Cowboy
The Ultimate Guide to Living Like a Great American Icon
Rocco Wachman and Matt Pellegrini
Harper: 208 pp., $13.99
Why do you think they call it Rodeo Drive? Ranching, rodeos, boots, music — Rocco Wachman, senior instructor at Arizona Cowboy College (yes) and celebrity host of “Cowboy U,” spells out the details of the lifestyle, boots, tools and attitude. Complete with profiles of “real deal” cowboys, tips on where to buy the real stuff and how to make sourdough biscuits, ranch beans and other essential fare, it’s an antidote to over-serious, over-thought fashion freakishness of all kinds. The book itself is the carnal opposite, in book form, of, say, Vogue magazine. So how come you want a pair of those boots? Maybe you’re just “sored up” from walking around this fashion town. “Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand / Flows leisurely down to the stream, / Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along / Like a maid in a heavenly dream.”
Salter Reynolds is a writer in Los Angeles.
