Dress Code: Understanding the Hidden Meanings of Women's Clothes

by Toby Fischer-Mirkin

An insightful exploration of the signals that clothing can send to the world, with advice on how women can use their wardrobe to project the image they intend. 20 line drawings.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

konecne sem done with this...now i need to tap in back into my book nerd era

[Damecatoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got Dress Code as research for my piece on shoes. The author has to be Freudian, cause it seems that everything about shoes is sexual. She talks about how erotic the foot is, going so far as to say this: "Exposing the foot is almost as personal as exposing the breast."

Um, no. Posessing both feet and breasts, I gotta say - toe cleavage is far less personal. And, aside from shoe/foot fetishists, does anyone else find the pairing of the foot and shoe "deeply sexual"? I mean, besides the author of this book?

She posits that the reason women wear heels is to convey a sexual message, and that women in heels have a more sexual walk. Lady, the only reason I buy shoes with heels is cause all the cool shoes have them. Platform heels allow me a more graceful walk, but anything with a pointy heel causes me to totter about in a manner quite non-sexual.

Needless to say, I doubt I'll be quoting her book.

[Katrinka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting info, but the heavy Freudian overtones that would have us believe so much of our clothing is a phallic symbol or somehow sexually charged otherwise is too downright laughable to me to take much away from this book.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this book was interesting, but some parts were downright stupid.

[Ann]

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