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The WORN Archive: A Fashion Journal about the Art, Ideas, & History of What We Wear
The WORN Archive: A Fashion Journal about the Arts, Ideas, and History of What We Wear is a manifesto on why fashion and clothing matter. For eight years, the Canadian magazine has investigated the intersections of fashion, pop culture, and art. With prescient, intelligent articles, WORN Fashion Journal strives to address diverse issues such as gender, identity, and culture with openness and honesty. WORN asserts that fashion is art, history, ideas, and most of all fun—that style is a personal experience that need not align with the fashion industry.
The four-hundred-page book features the best content from the journal’s first fourteen issues, assembled by WORN’S founder and editor in chief, Serah-Marie McMahon. Articles penned by a host of unique contributors (academics, writers, curators, and artists) touch on topics as wide-ranging as the relationship between feminism and fashion, discourse on hijabs, how to tie a tie, the history of flight attendants, and textile conservation. With eclectic photo shoots featuring “real” models, striking illustrations, and whimsical layouts, every page is a joyful, creative approach to clothing.
The WORN Archive is the ultimate cultural style map for those who don’t want to be told how to dress but are seeking a transformative understanding of why we wear what we do.
The four-hundred-page book features the best content from the journal’s first fourteen issues, assembled by WORN’S founder and editor in chief, Serah-Marie McMahon. Articles penned by a host of unique contributors (academics, writers, curators, and artists) touch on topics as wide-ranging as the relationship between feminism and fashion, discourse on hijabs, how to tie a tie, the history of flight attendants, and textile conservation. With eclectic photo shoots featuring “real” models, striking illustrations, and whimsical layouts, every page is a joyful, creative approach to clothing.
The WORN Archive is the ultimate cultural style map for those who don’t want to be told how to dress but are seeking a transformative understanding of why we wear what we do.
416 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2014
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579 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 9, 2014
To be completely honest, I hadn’t even heard of Worn until I came across this collection and once I read the synopsis, I was hooked. I will be the first to admit that I am not much into fashion but I like thinking about what I will wear, what the colours look like together, what clothes look good on me but I don’t let it consume me the way other people, who are more interested in fashion would be. Also, while I did not immediately put the superficial tag on all things fashion related, I was intimidated by the fashion industry because their ideals of beauty are ones that I cannot aspire to for many reasons.
However, The WORN Archive, from McMahon’s introduction sets itself apart from other fashion magazines and allows, in fact, demands that the reader redefine fashion – fashion is not something determined for a person by other sources but something that is individually defined by the person themselves. Each person defines their own style, according to their desires and expressions of self. According to the collective articles, fashion is more than the collection of designer apparel and accessories you own. In fact, material objects go only so far where fashion is concerned; it is how you interact with these objects that determines your fashion. Instead of throwing away last year’s skirt, find another way to wear it.
WORN uses its own staff as models and the models wear their own clothes so you get real people, people of all sizes and shapes, wearing things that mean something to them and this comes across in the photographs. The photographs are not of manufactured products, primped and plucked and captured for your envy, but actual people who are more than simply hangers for the clothes. The articles, too, are amazing and I loved how there is such a variety of them. I was especially fascinated by the piece on buttons. The idea that history could be deciphered through the study of buttons is an interesting one and historians could speculate on what things the societies of the past placed importance on by studying buttons and the materials they are made of is interesting. I also appreciated the piece they had on the different kinds of hijabs worn by women around the world; it was well researched and did not have a judgmental tone. Also wonderful were the pieces that discussed fashion during the wars and other turbulent periods and frankly admitted that fashion has been considered superficial and empty of substance but then went on to discuss why that perspective is problematic.
Bottom line? I quite enjoyed this collection and will definitely be seeking out more recent issues of WORN. I recommend to everyone who feels alienated by Vogue and other fashion magazines. This is beautifully bound (Drawn and Quarterly does it again!) and beautifully designed. The content does the outside justice. Pick it up and let you inner fashionista take the reins without leaving your brains behind. Fashion can be intellectual, this collection proves it.
However, The WORN Archive, from McMahon’s introduction sets itself apart from other fashion magazines and allows, in fact, demands that the reader redefine fashion – fashion is not something determined for a person by other sources but something that is individually defined by the person themselves. Each person defines their own style, according to their desires and expressions of self. According to the collective articles, fashion is more than the collection of designer apparel and accessories you own. In fact, material objects go only so far where fashion is concerned; it is how you interact with these objects that determines your fashion. Instead of throwing away last year’s skirt, find another way to wear it.
WORN uses its own staff as models and the models wear their own clothes so you get real people, people of all sizes and shapes, wearing things that mean something to them and this comes across in the photographs. The photographs are not of manufactured products, primped and plucked and captured for your envy, but actual people who are more than simply hangers for the clothes. The articles, too, are amazing and I loved how there is such a variety of them. I was especially fascinated by the piece on buttons. The idea that history could be deciphered through the study of buttons is an interesting one and historians could speculate on what things the societies of the past placed importance on by studying buttons and the materials they are made of is interesting. I also appreciated the piece they had on the different kinds of hijabs worn by women around the world; it was well researched and did not have a judgmental tone. Also wonderful were the pieces that discussed fashion during the wars and other turbulent periods and frankly admitted that fashion has been considered superficial and empty of substance but then went on to discuss why that perspective is problematic.
Bottom line? I quite enjoyed this collection and will definitely be seeking out more recent issues of WORN. I recommend to everyone who feels alienated by Vogue and other fashion magazines. This is beautifully bound (Drawn and Quarterly does it again!) and beautifully designed. The content does the outside justice. Pick it up and let you inner fashionista take the reins without leaving your brains behind. Fashion can be intellectual, this collection proves it.
June 12, 2015
So many wonderful articles in this book! especially the one on flight attendant uniforms, and the one on Elvis's jumpsuits, and the one on hijab...and the completely rad photo shoots, like the one where people dress like photos of their mothers, or the one where men wear the hairstyles of famous women throughout history...or the one where people wear outfits inspired by books...or THE ONE WITH THE ZEBRA!!
Loved. It.
Loved. It.
September 7, 2014
Charming collection of articles from an offbeat Canadian fashion magazine. A few articles were boring, a few were pretentious, but most were interesting, some even fascinating. Beautiful book for anyone who loves clothes. I especially enjoyed the history section.
November 17, 2020
Fun and entertaining light reading. My favorite section was probably the very first one in the book "Fashion is Personal", which features interviews detailing the personal relationship people have with fashion in their lives. One article in particular, titled "Everything I know About Fashion (I Learned From my Mother), details the struggle of a lower income family trying to clothe their children at an age where wearing the latest brands was tantamount to one's popularity, leading to the touching segment:
Just a really cute family memory that I wish I could have, despite it's implications of economic difficulty. Another article I found interesting was "Fossilized & Rarefied" which tries to define the meaning of vintage in modern times. I really enjoyed the cynicism in the interviewee's replies as to the state of the vintage clothing industry. One quote that stood out for me:
Though if there's one thing I think this work has going against it, it would be the quality of the paper. The book has tons of color but I think the choice in paper of the pages ends up making the images all feel dull and muted, and I would have preferred the bright glossy paper you'd normally find in magazines, just to make everything pop out more. I also find that for certain articles that reference things that physically exist, there's not enough reference images to help the reader understand what's being described, with the book opting instead for abstract illustrations of what's being talking about. Overall, still a good read with the added bonus of being made in Canada.
She didn't like my obsession with trend, though I don't know if it was because she thought it was superficial or futile. Even so, she tried to ease my aesthetic embarrassment, carefully picking tags off castaway clothes and stitching them onto the things she made for me. (Just this past year, as I dug through her old sewing box for a bit of elastic, I found a little bag stuffed with Calvin Kleins and alligators waiting for reassignment.) She would painstakingly mimic popular styles, right down to the piping and buttons. Her creations were beautiful but always a little off, and they never fooled anyone.
Just a really cute family memory that I wish I could have, despite it's implications of economic difficulty. Another article I found interesting was "Fossilized & Rarefied" which tries to define the meaning of vintage in modern times. I really enjoyed the cynicism in the interviewee's replies as to the state of the vintage clothing industry. One quote that stood out for me:
Everything has the "vintage" appellation now. I saw "vintage cut" jeans from Old Navy and I looked at them and thought, "What does that mean?" I don't get it - what are they actually trying to say? Either I'm out of it or they're just trying to sell jeans with a desirable and fashionable word with these evocations that are completely confused and arbitrary. It means whatever you want it to, and it'll be completely different if you're talking to a 20-year old about vintage or if you're talking to a 60-year-old about vintage. Each will have an entirely different concept about vintage. The word is, in some ways, completely meaningless.
Though if there's one thing I think this work has going against it, it would be the quality of the paper. The book has tons of color but I think the choice in paper of the pages ends up making the images all feel dull and muted, and I would have preferred the bright glossy paper you'd normally find in magazines, just to make everything pop out more. I also find that for certain articles that reference things that physically exist, there's not enough reference images to help the reader understand what's being described, with the book opting instead for abstract illustrations of what's being talking about. Overall, still a good read with the added bonus of being made in Canada.
November 12, 2022
I just kind of stumbled across this book and loved it. I'm not into fashion but there are so many interesting articles in this volume about what we wear or have worn, and why. Some are heavier, some more light-hearted, and the variety means there's likely something for everyone. The book design is also visually appealing, and might be overwhelming if it wasn't broken up into distinct articles. I'm very sorry I didn't know about Worn Fashion Journal when it was being published!
December 11, 2019
So many interesting and empowering ideas about clothes! I loved reading it and was sad when it was over.
May 18, 2014
I liked this book a lot. My only quibble with it, and it's pedantic since i understand it's an anthology and not an exhaustive review of the magazine (which I also like a lot), having said that, I felt it could have address fashion, sex and gender a little better. In the included essays there are 6 under the banner of "Fashion is Identity". Of those, one was about the evolution of gay men's style in the 20th century; one was about expression of transmasculinities, and one was a tired piece basically arguing that feminists can enjoy fashion--no duh. The idea that feminists dislike fashion, if it was EVER relevant, is surely about 20+ years out of date. And why not include transfemininities in the discussion of gender expression? And what about lesbian fashion? I remember an issue of WORN in the past year actually had an article by a femme lesbian discussing the evolution of her look and how she battled to bring femininity to her queer aesthetic identity, so it's not like the magazine didn't have stuff on that. I feel like the publication (magazine and book) will probably find more readership among women, and it would be nice to see more feminist themes explored.
Did i say i like the book? I did!
Did i say i like the book? I did!
July 17, 2014
Really just fantastic. Full of great ideas and interesting articles, and the fashion layouts are wonderful. I particularly liked the one where the model's outfits were based on the books they were shown reading--I'm totally going to have to do that sometime. The Grace Jones and Ed Wood themes were also really nifty.
I felt inspired and motivated by WORN, which is something I can't really say about any other book or magazine devoted to "fashion." I would love to subscribe if only it didn't cost so darn much to get it sent across the border. Nevertheless, WORN, you are my new favorite thing.
I felt inspired and motivated by WORN, which is something I can't really say about any other book or magazine devoted to "fashion." I would love to subscribe if only it didn't cost so darn much to get it sent across the border. Nevertheless, WORN, you are my new favorite thing.
July 2, 2014
I love this collection and I'm thrilled I bought it for my personal library. I wrote a long review about how much I loved it and then my good reads app shut down and I lost it.
In a nutshell, the anthology is smart, cultural, historical, political, artistic, and fun. I learned about repurposing clothes and shoes, improved my laundry strategies, and, in the end, felt inspired toward fashion again. I highly recommend this book to the post-university grad who is tired of InStyle and the rest of the glossy mags. I'll probably subscribe to Worn. Quality reading folks!
In a nutshell, the anthology is smart, cultural, historical, political, artistic, and fun. I learned about repurposing clothes and shoes, improved my laundry strategies, and, in the end, felt inspired toward fashion again. I highly recommend this book to the post-university grad who is tired of InStyle and the rest of the glossy mags. I'll probably subscribe to Worn. Quality reading folks!
May 8, 2014
I really enjoyed this book; the idea that fashion should be taken seriously, celebrated and interrogated, fits right in with my interests. Because of my academic background, I would have liked to have seen these topics delved into in more depth, so it misses five-star status for me. But for what it's intended to be, it's perfect, and I certainly intend to subscribe to the magazine.
July 7, 2014
This book is so so cool. Simply a small selection of articles from WORN magazine, topics covered includes histories, personal stories, how to's and so much more. Really great writing, quirky stories, and such cool beliefs/values.... so in love with this one.
July 15, 2014
Fun! Will probably hop around rather than cover to cover!
May 13, 2015
I'm kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It's interesting, informative, and funny.
January 9, 2014
What a perfect book.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews