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What Artists Wear
Fully illustrated, with over 300 images and a 50/50 split between words and image, with fun and unexpected photos of artists ranging from Barbara Hepworth, Yayoi Kusama and David Hockney to contemporary icons like Sarah Lucas, Charlotte Prodger and Martine Syms
369 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2021
231 people are currently reading
6298 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews
August 2, 2021
this shit slaps
July 28, 2021
THIS WAS SO GOOD, really clever art criticism but so readable
March 13, 2022
As well as being a compelling and inspiring read, What Artists Wear is a brilliantly designed book. The Penguin edition I read is small and satisfyingly dense, with copious colours illustrations printed on lovely thick paper (rarely to be found in a paperback). I do love an art book that fits neatly into my hands, in contrast to coffee table books that assume you own a coffee table. In it, Porter discusses the personal style of many artists across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the context of their art. The discussion is structured by a series of broad themes, including tailoring, denim, and paint on clothing. I found the project fascinating and very well executed. It's striking how artists have heightened awareness of both the visual significance and practical constraints of clothing choices. The profiled painters and sculptors require their clothing to allow freedom of movement and some protection. The conceptual and video artists, by contrast, treat clothing as part of performance and art itself. Lynn Hershman Leeson's performance as Roberta Breitmore is a particularly notable example.
I enjoyed being introduced to many artists I'd never come across via their outfits, as well as learning more about those I'd heard of. Porter's prose is chatty and enthusiastic, including many quotes from his conversations with the artists being discussed. The frequent illustrations support his points and enliven the book considerably. After starting to read, I found it very hard to put down. As well as provoking reflections on art, it invites you to contemplate your own clothing choices. Over the past two years, I have spent the majority of the time in my flat wearing pyjamas and have lost a lot of my familiarity with putting together an outfit. Nonetheless, I remain very interested in clothing. The practical, comfortable, improvised, inexpensive, often second-hand garb worn by most artists in this book is inspiring and aesthetically pleasing to me. I think the pandemic has stripped back my sense of style to bare essentials and made clothing feel somewhat defensive, like armour. When I go outside it's in practical boots with black and grey layers, for protection from weather and covid. The idea of a functional personal uniform has a lot more appeal for me than it used to, while dressing up now seems strange and archaic. I really enjoyed reflecting on how and why artists wear particular clothes. What Artists Wear is both a pleasure to read and an encouragement to think more creatively about clothing. It's a book I want both to reread and to recommend widely.
I enjoyed being introduced to many artists I'd never come across via their outfits, as well as learning more about those I'd heard of. Porter's prose is chatty and enthusiastic, including many quotes from his conversations with the artists being discussed. The frequent illustrations support his points and enliven the book considerably. After starting to read, I found it very hard to put down. As well as provoking reflections on art, it invites you to contemplate your own clothing choices. Over the past two years, I have spent the majority of the time in my flat wearing pyjamas and have lost a lot of my familiarity with putting together an outfit. Nonetheless, I remain very interested in clothing. The practical, comfortable, improvised, inexpensive, often second-hand garb worn by most artists in this book is inspiring and aesthetically pleasing to me. I think the pandemic has stripped back my sense of style to bare essentials and made clothing feel somewhat defensive, like armour. When I go outside it's in practical boots with black and grey layers, for protection from weather and covid. The idea of a functional personal uniform has a lot more appeal for me than it used to, while dressing up now seems strange and archaic. I really enjoyed reflecting on how and why artists wear particular clothes. What Artists Wear is both a pleasure to read and an encouragement to think more creatively about clothing. It's a book I want both to reread and to recommend widely.
April 11, 2024
I enjoyed the book, it was a fun and easy read. It seemed "off" in some ways as far as editing goes. It had an almost self published vibe to it. (not in a good way unfortunately.) I wish that the author would have explored some artists a little deeper than they did others. For example, when discussing Louise Bourgeois, a mention that her mother was a weaver may have been an interesting note. This played a role in her work and I don't see why it wouldn't be mentioned in the context of a book about cloth(ing). Georgia O'Keeffe seemed like an artist who we would spend some time with in a book like this. She has a clear style evolution that was unique for her time. She was mentioned too briefly in my opinion. She made many of her own clothes, including hand smocking! This wasn't really discussed or pictured which felt odd to me. My favorite images in the book were the shoes of Lee Krasner and her husband Jackson Pollock. Although I wish there was more text about it. If you don't have at least some basic knowledge of the discussed artists you won't get much out of the book. When it came to the artists that I had an awareness of, the information was mildly interesting but I didn't learn anything I wouldn't have known already from reading about them and viewing their work previously. And for the few artists I did not know much about, again, interesting but without the prior knowledge of their work... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I don't know, it disappointed me a little bit. Maybe I was too excited because this book is about my two loves. Art and personal style! I love art, art history, and I am an artist. I collect vintage clothing and love the expression and joy of getting dressed. I love to read! What more could I want out of a book that combines all the things that bring me joy?! But it left me feeling like more could have been shared about many of the artists. The reason for this feeling was because I kept remembering clothing-related facts about several of the artists that were not shared here.
I don't know, it disappointed me a little bit. Maybe I was too excited because this book is about my two loves. Art and personal style! I love art, art history, and I am an artist. I collect vintage clothing and love the expression and joy of getting dressed. I love to read! What more could I want out of a book that combines all the things that bring me joy?! But it left me feeling like more could have been shared about many of the artists. The reason for this feeling was because I kept remembering clothing-related facts about several of the artists that were not shared here.
February 4, 2023
Lots of fun photos but the writing made me wish it was a picture book.
March 14, 2023
This book is beautiful to own and to experience while reading, because it is beautifully edited. It also offers some very interesting info and details about the private life of artists and their style. Said this, the level of analysis is not then so deep - these frequently mentioned relationships between art and style as a mechanism to disrupt unfair power structures are always just stated without any deeper analysis or evidence. I also must amit that I didn't like some of the remarks of the author - for instance he continously make a point about how fashion often appropriates unjustly lower class and queer style (true), and then comments Walmart as the store where an artist buys their clothes as "the place where Trump supporters shop". All artists mentioned want to subvert the unjust order of power, and then they all exhibit at Tate (maybe ina tshirt, okay, but still at Tate). To sum up, I definitely do not regret my purchase, because it adds to your own culture, and i'll definitely go back to its nice illustrations and photos; at the same time, it kind of let me down on the expectations i had.
July 10, 2021
I read this because Olivia Laing writes about it in her book: Funny Weather: Art In An Emergency. I loved it so much I wanted to read everything she mentions. This is an interesting set of essays about art and clothing and how the two are entwined. Each chapter has a slightly different focus. Sometimes it's about how the clothing is integral to understanding the artwork, as in the performance art of Gilbert and George. Other times it's the practicalities of how artist's survive in miserable conditions while they make their art. Other times it's the fertile friendships between artists and fashion designers and what that brings to both, as in the relationship with Louise Bourgeois and Helmut Lang. It was a captivating and interesting read.
December 3, 2021
I thought this was very interesting, but I think I was more interested in the history of the clothing and why certain artists wore it rather than a political analysis after the fact. This is not to say some artists don't wear clothing as a political statement, but I think this book had too much of the author's own views in it.
February 20, 2022
My brain changed, and so did the way I negotiate getting dressed.
September 15, 2023
very woke.
February 20, 2025
a rlly enjoyable and easy entrypoint for me into reading nonfiction abt fashion after only consuming instagram and youtube content abt it online!! charlie porter has a very pleasant writing voice that reads almost conversationally, and i feel like u can sense his enthusiasm for the subjects thru the page which is lovely. my irrational worry with these kind of books is that their titles/design promises more than they deliver and that they will be completely impersonally written substanceless mumbo jumbo -- like if lorum ipsum dolor was in english. but thankfully that is not the case with this!!
that being said, i think if u are more knowledgeable abt art/fashion history and philosophy this will not be as rewarding a book. even i wished at times that porter would delve more deeply and analytically into the ideas he brings up, or stay with a certain topic or artist for longer. he flits quite a lot between ppl and items and times. i think it helped me to think of this more as a collection of jumping off points from which to do more personal research abt what piqued my interest.
ofc have to address the rearing head of personal style discourse cycle which i think this book addresses nicely in talking abt how practicality, self-expression and purpose meet each other in clothing. also as someone who is guilty of thinking that the main pursuit of all art is for it to last, this was a welcome reminder that for so many artists that is not a priority at all and that thinking like that can be such a blockade.
another thing i rlly liked abt this is how much porter includes of his conversations and exchanges with the artists themselves, but especially with the loved ones of artists who have passed - family, partners, close friends and collaborators. there is something rlly sweet abt reading the way that ppl talk abt a person they love, abt their ideas and their work and their everyday life, just thru what they wore each day. it made me think abt how i might speak abt my family and friends purely thru that lens, and how it encourages us to observe and notice the ppl close to us by how they present themselves consciously and unconsciously each day <33
that being said, i think if u are more knowledgeable abt art/fashion history and philosophy this will not be as rewarding a book. even i wished at times that porter would delve more deeply and analytically into the ideas he brings up, or stay with a certain topic or artist for longer. he flits quite a lot between ppl and items and times. i think it helped me to think of this more as a collection of jumping off points from which to do more personal research abt what piqued my interest.
ofc have to address the rearing head of personal style discourse cycle which i think this book addresses nicely in talking abt how practicality, self-expression and purpose meet each other in clothing. also as someone who is guilty of thinking that the main pursuit of all art is for it to last, this was a welcome reminder that for so many artists that is not a priority at all and that thinking like that can be such a blockade.
another thing i rlly liked abt this is how much porter includes of his conversations and exchanges with the artists themselves, but especially with the loved ones of artists who have passed - family, partners, close friends and collaborators. there is something rlly sweet abt reading the way that ppl talk abt a person they love, abt their ideas and their work and their everyday life, just thru what they wore each day. it made me think abt how i might speak abt my family and friends purely thru that lens, and how it encourages us to observe and notice the ppl close to us by how they present themselves consciously and unconsciously each day <33
December 3, 2024
3.5 stars
This is a fine – though not pointillistic – exploration of the myriad ways in which artists' work and clothing interact with and shape each other. Porter's mission here is not to deify artists or fetishise what they wear; rather his thematic essays emphasise the functionality of clothing by assessing the role it has played in the practice of several individual artists working in the Western world from the late 20th century onwards.
On the one hand, clothing has visual significance as part of a social semiotics: it is expressive not merely of aesthetic choices but crucially also of the structures of power, class, race and gender that these grow from. I first picked up this book after a deep entanglement with a 2022 retrospective of Louise Bourgeois' work with fabrics and textiles at the Southbank Centre, and Porter wields her example – alongside that of other well-known figures like Georgia O'Keefe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sarah Lucas and Derek Jarman – to illustrate this especially well. Further, garments not only reflect our place in the world but also help us create and assert it, as evident in the performance art of Lynn Hershman Leeson, and slightly differently in Francis Bacon's decision to be photographed in his studio with clean clothes on, clothes that he evidently didn't work in.
At the same time, this book affirms that art is work, and like all work involves considerations of utility. Artists need to get their hands dirty, need clothing that offers procetion and doesn't restrict their bodily movement, and in that sense what artists wear depends on the demands of their labour, often physical labour: think of the clothing adopted by Jane Hepworth, Agnes Martin, and Jack Whitten.
I also enjoyed Porter's discussion of the separation between clothing and fashion, and how the latter appropriates utility ('workwear') and trends ('streetwear') rooted in material circumstances and radical subcultures. Artists often commandeer fashion to their own ends (I'm thinking here of Porter's sections on Yves Klein and David Hemmons), and quite evidently play a part in inspiring fashion cycles, but they are at least in the act of creating often separate from it. There is also a brilliant section on clothing and youth culture in the late twentieth century, not necessarily related to big-name artists, which I think really contrasts with the top-down relationship between fashion and youth culture today, and with how young artists – and, honestly, everyone else – are now pushed to identify themselves through fashion (aspirational, performative: what they need clothing to do for them) rather than what they need to do in clothing (creative).
What Artists Wear is not quite a philosophy of making, but it comes very close: compelling, accessible, and full of variegated insights, it's a worthy companion for those seeking a less monolithic, more vibrant understanding of art, fashion, and what exists between them.
This is a fine – though not pointillistic – exploration of the myriad ways in which artists' work and clothing interact with and shape each other. Porter's mission here is not to deify artists or fetishise what they wear; rather his thematic essays emphasise the functionality of clothing by assessing the role it has played in the practice of several individual artists working in the Western world from the late 20th century onwards.
On the one hand, clothing has visual significance as part of a social semiotics: it is expressive not merely of aesthetic choices but crucially also of the structures of power, class, race and gender that these grow from. I first picked up this book after a deep entanglement with a 2022 retrospective of Louise Bourgeois' work with fabrics and textiles at the Southbank Centre, and Porter wields her example – alongside that of other well-known figures like Georgia O'Keefe, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sarah Lucas and Derek Jarman – to illustrate this especially well. Further, garments not only reflect our place in the world but also help us create and assert it, as evident in the performance art of Lynn Hershman Leeson, and slightly differently in Francis Bacon's decision to be photographed in his studio with clean clothes on, clothes that he evidently didn't work in.
At the same time, this book affirms that art is work, and like all work involves considerations of utility. Artists need to get their hands dirty, need clothing that offers procetion and doesn't restrict their bodily movement, and in that sense what artists wear depends on the demands of their labour, often physical labour: think of the clothing adopted by Jane Hepworth, Agnes Martin, and Jack Whitten.
I also enjoyed Porter's discussion of the separation between clothing and fashion, and how the latter appropriates utility ('workwear') and trends ('streetwear') rooted in material circumstances and radical subcultures. Artists often commandeer fashion to their own ends (I'm thinking here of Porter's sections on Yves Klein and David Hemmons), and quite evidently play a part in inspiring fashion cycles, but they are at least in the act of creating often separate from it. There is also a brilliant section on clothing and youth culture in the late twentieth century, not necessarily related to big-name artists, which I think really contrasts with the top-down relationship between fashion and youth culture today, and with how young artists – and, honestly, everyone else – are now pushed to identify themselves through fashion (aspirational, performative: what they need clothing to do for them) rather than what they need to do in clothing (creative).
What Artists Wear is not quite a philosophy of making, but it comes very close: compelling, accessible, and full of variegated insights, it's a worthy companion for those seeking a less monolithic, more vibrant understanding of art, fashion, and what exists between them.
July 8, 2023
Fun book to read maybe if you’re on the bus or haven’t read a book in forever - it’s like Alexa Chung’s “it” for the art world. Book feels like it’s just made to be pleasing and easy and I think lacks a lot of critical discussion, you can tell the guy is speaking from “within” the art world, perhaps about friends. But he uses accessible language and lots of pictures, journalistic style easy to read (some cool clothes) *+
very non offensive for your conservative grandma to read *coffee book table? Christmas gift? Is it trying to be “A-political”??
Is the perfect book to sell in the Tate (*derogatory) and guardian readers (who feel neutral about the aids crisis)
Is actually also bad to read on the bus because you look like a pretentious fuck and is quite embarrassing *-
Takes ages to get to the point and is such a general overview - disappointingly un revolutionary (as seems to be the case with this kind of art book but what do you expect 🙄) makes me feel itchy and like I wanna shake the author upside down and scream at them
Fun and infuriating overall
very non offensive for your conservative grandma to read *coffee book table? Christmas gift? Is it trying to be “A-political”??
Is the perfect book to sell in the Tate (*derogatory) and guardian readers (who feel neutral about the aids crisis)
Is actually also bad to read on the bus because you look like a pretentious fuck and is quite embarrassing *-
Takes ages to get to the point and is such a general overview - disappointingly un revolutionary (as seems to be the case with this kind of art book but what do you expect 🙄) makes me feel itchy and like I wanna shake the author upside down and scream at them
Fun and infuriating overall
April 29, 2025
Heel erg interessant onderwerp, waar ik zelf nog niets over had gelezen. Charlie Porter schrijft erg toegankelijk en gebruikt duidelijke voorbeelden, maar de layout van het boek vond ik wat chaotisch. Ik stond, voordat ik aan het boek begon, er niet bij stil hoe sterk machtsstructuren, klasse, gender,.. gekoppeld zijn aan de kledingkeuze van artiesten, en ook die van ons. Verder wil ik zijn conclusie even aanhalen: “What artists wear shows us how our lives can be broadened if we set out on our own intuitive paths. The invitation is open: for us to dismantle the structures of power, wealth, class, race and gender that controll what we all wear.”
November 3, 2024
a thoughtful, accessible, and incredibly caring study of artists and clothes and artists who wear clothes. loved it start to finish.
January 2, 2022
I am constantly indebted to the recommendations of my friend Hannah who put me onto this book. So great, fascinating and beautifully written - will be referencing it a lot I’m sure!
June 17, 2025
A pocket sized but dense critic on clothing focusing on what lies beyond the materiality.
Great references and observations that create a lot of stimulation for further research.
A truly wonderful and enjoyable book
Great references and observations that create a lot of stimulation for further research.
A truly wonderful and enjoyable book
October 27, 2023
The book is superficial under the cover of being about art, philosophy and psychology, it’s neither of those things
It tries too much and achieves too little
I thought it’s was going to be more of history of clothes and how artists use it as medium
But to sum up and give an example, this was chapter about Sarah Lucas- she lives in the countryside, so now she wears the same clothes longer, she wears and exhibits her Dr. Martins- that means she is a badass, loves oversize and male clothes, prefers shirts over T-shirts
Some interviewed people are saying themselves „it was not a statement, just what was available and comfortable for work“
The other time he just mentioned shoes that he thought were from Jackson Pollock, but they were actually from Lee Krasner. Does he delve more into it? No. Just “I thought it was his, they weren’t”
He likewise decided to include Marina Abramović in the text and wrote in total 63 words about her and only one sentence about her and Ulay’s clothes “Note too the language of the garments: skirt for her, trousers for him.” That’s the last sentence made out of those total 63 words. Why did he need to include this and where is an an analysis in stating something obvious? I have no answer
Feels more appropriate for a Youtube channel, idk
Charlie Porter wrote it alone, although he is not an art critic, nor a historian, he is a fashion journalist and i think he took too ambitious of a goal
For him “post-minimalism” is in his own words is inexistent category that he equates to “we don’t know how to talk about the artist”, although you look at the exampled work and just see that it was clearly influenced by minimalism (but was not produced in this specific historical period), which is exactly what post-minimalism means
or this absolute banger of obviousness that led to nothing “ nakedness has been there throughout art history: just look at the bodies on show in ancient Greek sculpture”. as if no one has ever know that or as if it will later play out in his text (no, it won’t)
And it’s not just those examples, but overall that felt basic and superficial, the writing has very abrupt and uneven style
It tries too much and achieves too little
I thought it’s was going to be more of history of clothes and how artists use it as medium
But to sum up and give an example, this was chapter about Sarah Lucas- she lives in the countryside, so now she wears the same clothes longer, she wears and exhibits her Dr. Martins- that means she is a badass, loves oversize and male clothes, prefers shirts over T-shirts
Some interviewed people are saying themselves „it was not a statement, just what was available and comfortable for work“
The other time he just mentioned shoes that he thought were from Jackson Pollock, but they were actually from Lee Krasner. Does he delve more into it? No. Just “I thought it was his, they weren’t”
He likewise decided to include Marina Abramović in the text and wrote in total 63 words about her and only one sentence about her and Ulay’s clothes “Note too the language of the garments: skirt for her, trousers for him.” That’s the last sentence made out of those total 63 words. Why did he need to include this and where is an an analysis in stating something obvious? I have no answer
Feels more appropriate for a Youtube channel, idk
Charlie Porter wrote it alone, although he is not an art critic, nor a historian, he is a fashion journalist and i think he took too ambitious of a goal
For him “post-minimalism” is in his own words is inexistent category that he equates to “we don’t know how to talk about the artist”, although you look at the exampled work and just see that it was clearly influenced by minimalism (but was not produced in this specific historical period), which is exactly what post-minimalism means
or this absolute banger of obviousness that led to nothing “ nakedness has been there throughout art history: just look at the bodies on show in ancient Greek sculpture”. as if no one has ever know that or as if it will later play out in his text (no, it won’t)
And it’s not just those examples, but overall that felt basic and superficial, the writing has very abrupt and uneven style
November 24, 2021
Charlie Porter walks masterfully on a very thin line. Never does he give in to his fashion critic instincts. Instead he celebrates the complexity that comes with wearing clothes as part of identity expression and utility.
I inhaled this book and was left inspired to live a little bit more of life in my clothes.
I inhaled this book and was left inspired to live a little bit more of life in my clothes.
August 15, 2022
Very uneven.
August 19, 2021
“What Artists Wear” is a super fun, easy to read and eye opening manifesto for seeing the world, those around us, and ourselves anew!
Most of us live our lives in our clothes without realising the power or influence they can evoke/signify. But in the hands of artists, garments reveal themselves in a whole new fashion (pun well and truly intended). They are tools of expression, storytelling, acts of resistance and creativity. In some ways, reminding us how much clothes can be a canvas on which they/we show who we truly are.
3 stars
Most of us live our lives in our clothes without realising the power or influence they can evoke/signify. But in the hands of artists, garments reveal themselves in a whole new fashion (pun well and truly intended). They are tools of expression, storytelling, acts of resistance and creativity. In some ways, reminding us how much clothes can be a canvas on which they/we show who we truly are.
3 stars
September 21, 2021
- gelezen tijdens treinreis naar Brussel -
Was mooi! Wisselde wel erg per hoofdstuk/thema, vond het begin heel goed maar halverwege kakte het een beetje in, misschien ook omdat daar de kunstenaars besproken werden waar je al honderd keer over gelezen hebt. Toch erg mooi boekje, vermoed dat ik het aan veel mensen aan ga raden.
Was mooi! Wisselde wel erg per hoofdstuk/thema, vond het begin heel goed maar halverwege kakte het een beetje in, misschien ook omdat daar de kunstenaars besproken werden waar je al honderd keer over gelezen hebt. Toch erg mooi boekje, vermoed dat ik het aan veel mensen aan ga raden.
January 20, 2025
Great insights from the author and the artists interviewed on the history, utilization, individual, and commonality of clothing/style. Porter introduces artists that use all sorts of mediums and highlights a lot of queer experience in current society, connected to clothing and personal identity. Interesting imagery as well and not like any other art history book I’ve read.
November 24, 2022
Legitimately very good. Loved that this wasn’t a glorified shopping guide but an earnest, thoughtful, and tasteful examination into the historical, socioeconomic, and psychological implications of what we choose to wear and the endless means in which artists subvert those implications. Also doubles as a really good photography book too, phenomenal visuals.
January 23, 2024
- nathan called me last night and asked me why the only book I've this year is (essentially) a picture book so ARE YOU HAPPY NOW
- definitely some interesting fft inre personal style... wish the author dug into each artist's personal style more though! then again a lot of the interviewee's answers are so nebulous oof
- definitely some interesting fft inre personal style... wish the author dug into each artist's personal style more though! then again a lot of the interviewee's answers are so nebulous oof
May 10, 2025
really made me consider how what we wear impacts the work we do (in all ways - not just art) - also loved all the sections about artists that would just wear the same thing everyday - I could evolve into that one day with just jeans and a black tshirt
February 19, 2024
It turns out they wear a lot of different things
April 21, 2024
Informative and inspiring, a wonderful quick non-fiction read if you’re into art and history of clothing. More importantly it put a smile on my face every time I picked it up.
August 4, 2024
Really really really good
Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews