The Work Blog: "Sex and Suits" and Bragging

Here's a recent post from my work blog. It's caught the attention of a few people in the office, so I thought I'd post it here and see how you, the valuable readers of my design blog, react:

Please note: I read recently that people are more likely to be promoted if they brag. Earlier this year, I read about the results of another study, which confirmed that bragging gives people pleasure and a sense of satisfaction. So in attempt to accomplish more and achieve a state of bliss, I’ve included some of my skills and strengths in this post in bold text for efficient reading and retention. Human Resources, this post is for you!

Many of you know that I have begun a graduate program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. While I love fashion design, I am interested in learning about fashion and textile history and the theories about the emergence and development of fashion and trends. By pursuing this degree, I hope to find opportunities to express my enthusiasm and share the knowledge I’ve accumulated, as well as document my critical thinking skills and my intelligence.

Before I began the program, before I even applied, I spent a good deal of time searching through my local library network for books on fashion history. Similarly, I searched Amazon.com, hoping the site would recommend a list of popular fashion history books. I didn’t have much success, but I did find a few authors to read. This August, I was delighted when one of my professors gave us a whole list of authors and texts to read -- for the first semester!  A second, even more interesting list will be available the spring.

So, if you are interested in learning about fashion and textile history, I suggest you read the following:

1. Understanding Fashion History by Valerie Cumming. This book is a fine introduction to the history of fashion history. Cummings traces the desire to understand historical and contemporary costume to its origins as she describes the lives and works of authors who first recorded and researched the fashions of cultures all over the world. As fashion history became an accepted field of study, museums accumulated more and more examples of clothing and fashion accessories. Cumming provides the history behind the development of these major costume collections, and alongside it, presents some terminology and some information about a museum’s accession process.

2. Sex and Suits and Seeing Through Clothes by Anne Hollander. I’ve been told that anyone who knows anything about fashion history has dog-eared copies of these books. I have read a couple of photocopied chapters for class, and have ordered both books from Amazon.com. I would like to be somebody who knows something about fashion history! As the titles suggest, Hollander chronicles the various motivations behind the unpredictable changes in fashion history, and in Sex and Suits, addresses how gender roles and sexuality have influenced both men’s and women’s fashions.

3. The Rise of Fashion, edited by Daniel Leonhard Purdy. I found this book during one of my early Amazon.com searches; it’s a collection of essays by Charles Baudelaire, Simone De Beauvoir, Oscar Wilde, Adolf Loos, Voltaire, and others. Purdy sets the tone of the book with a quote by Walter Benjamin: “Every season brings in its newest creations secret signals of coming things. Whoever understands how to read them can know in advance not only the newest trends in art, but also in laws, wars, and revolutions.” And you thought fashion was superficial!

4. The Fashion System by Roland Barthes. From what I can tell, the most important part of this book is the author’s name, which should be pronounced with a French accent. Proper pronunciation is critical; it gives the impression that, while you have the ability to read this book in the original French, you will make allowances for those who cannot, and will take the time to discuss Barthes’s theories in English. I kid, of course! In this book, Barthes argues that fashion writing is more influential than the clothing it describes, and develops a theoretical model that can be used to deconstruct the written garment.

5. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times and Prehistoric Textiles by Elizabeth Barber. Barber provides insight to how politics, religion, and trade influenced the development of weaving patterns, looms, and material culture of ancient civilizations. Because so few textile remnants have survived, each archaeological textile provides precious information about the contemporaneous culture and technology. Textile historians continue to reevaluate when and where textile weaves and patterns originated and how these textiles were manipulated to form clothing. These books are a pleasure to read; Barber’s conversational tone is a pleasant change from some of the more academic writing included in this list, and her enthusiasm for her subject is contagious.

The goal of FIT’s Fashion and Textile Studies graduate program is to prepare students  for a variety of jobs within museums, historic homes, fashion houses, publishing, and higher education. While I am interested in aspects of all of these career options, I would like to combine my knowledge of fashion with the excitement I find working in an office. I love the sense of urgency that working in an office creates and hope to contribute to an office environment by using my leadership skills, my ability to generate viable ideas, and my ability to solve difficult problems with innovative solutions. While I pursue this degree part-time, I am excited to learn more about marketing, business research, and management by continuing my career here at [company]!

So, how did I do with the bragging? Too bold? Just bold enough? I’m feeling happy and confident, so at least one of the studies was accurate! I’d love to hear your thoughts about fashion history or your opinions about the results of these two studies!