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The Polyester Book of (Bad) Taste
A deep dive into the joy and power of personal pleasures, quirks, obsessions and bad taste, from zine royalty, Ione Gamble.
Most of us consider taste to be a primal instinct. We like the things we like and everything we choose to consume, covet or loathe in our day-to-day lives is dictated by this unknowable force … But at some point, we learn to not fully trust our own taste. We accept that there are people who have better taste than us, so we stop following the flutter of our hearts and attempt to finetune our brain to fall in line with what others consider to be 'good'.
The Polyester Book of (Bad) Taste is an antidote to this ever-creeping homogeneity and bland tastefulness. Edited and introduced by Polyester editor-in-chief, Ione Gamble, this book gathers ten influential writers from the pages of Polyester to take on the monumental task of defining taste for a generation battling algorithmic content suggestions and ever shortening trend cycles. It is a bible on how to navigate our own likes, dislikes, apathies and adorations. Contributors include Tavi Gevinson, Cat Cohen and Yomi Adegoke.
In a world constantly vying for our attention, having faith in your own bad taste is more than a small subversion – it's a rallying cry to live our lives unapologetically.
Most of us consider taste to be a primal instinct. We like the things we like and everything we choose to consume, covet or loathe in our day-to-day lives is dictated by this unknowable force … But at some point, we learn to not fully trust our own taste. We accept that there are people who have better taste than us, so we stop following the flutter of our hearts and attempt to finetune our brain to fall in line with what others consider to be 'good'.
The Polyester Book of (Bad) Taste is an antidote to this ever-creeping homogeneity and bland tastefulness. Edited and introduced by Polyester editor-in-chief, Ione Gamble, this book gathers ten influential writers from the pages of Polyester to take on the monumental task of defining taste for a generation battling algorithmic content suggestions and ever shortening trend cycles. It is a bible on how to navigate our own likes, dislikes, apathies and adorations. Contributors include Tavi Gevinson, Cat Cohen and Yomi Adegoke.
In a world constantly vying for our attention, having faith in your own bad taste is more than a small subversion – it's a rallying cry to live our lives unapologetically.
- GenresNonfiction
244 pages, Hardcover
First published June 18, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2026
Loved this! Read it so fast then went back over loads again! Made sense of so much i've been thinking about style but couldn't quite get my head around. Looooved this book!!
Displaying 1 of 1 review