I’ve never been religious, but wrangling my political convictions and a love for clothing taught me the vicissitudes of negotiating two value systems that are seemingly at odds while attempting to craft an image that reflects my beliefs and is aesthetically pleasing (to me, at least). It is this tension that drives Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith, which looks at Muslim women who cover in contemporary England through a series of ethnographic profiles highlighting the diversity of their practices and perspectives. Anthropologist Emma Tarlo attends at length to how individual women reconcile visibly displaying their faith with the desire to dress fashionably and self-expressively.

Tarlo describes in great detail how her subjects adapt and negotiate signifiers of both Islam and style in order to craft their own looks, and she repeatedly emphasizes the great creativity of Muslim dress in the West. Noting that some of her subjects have more than 500 hijabs, she argues that the headscarf serves as “a new form of Muslim personal art” that in many cases “provides the aesthetic focal point of a young girl’s appearance.”

Because her account is so grounded in individuals, she mostly addresses hijabi practices as strategies that enable the women to craft the appearances they desire. Thus, she dedicates a lot of time to what her interviewees’ clothing habits mean to them and how they came to decide whether and how to cover. This entails considerable detail into the minutiae of covering choices, for example how tight clothing should be or whether to hide or display one’s neck or wrists.

Which brings us to one of the more politically fraught themes of the book, how different hijabi styles communicate to other Muslims. Men are largely absent from her account, which is, after all, primarily a study of women who display their faith sartorially. But one chapter attends to a group called Hizb ut-Tahrir, describing the strict guidelines for covering the group recommends for its adherents and its critiques of the women who cover less stringently. Tarlo uses her discussion of the group to introduce one of the book’s more interesting tangents: the paradoxical tension inherent in thinking the hijab as a form of fashion at all. The point of hijab, of course, is to remain modest, following the Qu’ranic injunction for a women to hide her beauty. But how, then, do women draw the line between immodesty and fashion? Tarlo effectively points to the difficulties of reconciling the desire to conform to Muslim doctrine by not being too showy with the desire to appear fashionable where they meet, in the hijab that effectively signifies, in the West, the desire to visibly display one’s faith.

This book is primarily intended for an academic audience, and unless you’re really interested in the subject matter you might not take that much from it. I occasionally found the lengthy ethnographies in the first half of the book boring, although her case studies of political organizations and businesses were more gratifying, to this reader at least. Ultimately, Tarlo effectively addresses a weighty issue in a way that respects the autonomy and individuality of those it depicts.

Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith by Emma Tarlo, Berg, 2010
reviewed by Emily Raine
photography by Arden Wray

This nearly pocket-sized mini-book doesn’t hold the appeal of extensive text or impressive knowledge to share, but it sure offers up some amazing photographs and quirky advertising that’s almost guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

A member of the Taschen Icon series, the hot pink paperback is miniature version of the much pricier coffee-table edition. Not much writing sits between the front and back cover, only a short prologue by Laura Schooling of Style.com that outlines the era and delves into a short description of what it was like to live during the 60’s, handily including translations in English, German and French.

The majority of pages are bursting with bright photos that tell aged tales of Pink Shampoo “made just for girls” or Wrangler jeans that stress, “You have to look for the W because it’s silent!” Reading each small-print product description brings a strange feeling of nostalgia to me, even though I wasn’t actually alive in the 60’s.

My favorite page has to be the hair dye advertisement where the reader is told to cover the man’s half head of grey hair and see how much younger he looks with brown hair only, perhaps a first attempt at the interactive advertising that seems to be storming today’s market? To be fair, he really does look much younger with only the brown…

60’s Fashion, Vintage Fashion and Beauty ads by Jim Heimann,
Tashcen, 2007
review by Alyssa Garrison
photography by Erika Neilly

It all started when I was a kid. I would walk to the convenience store, get a blue raspberry lollipop filled with gum, and head to the thrift store a couple shops down in the strip mall, where I would peruse stacks of used books and feed my Archie comic addiction with their huge selection. I poked around other parts of the shop—at furniture, wicker baskets, old wedding dresses—but I wasn’t interested in that stuff yet. As I grew older, moved around, and found new thrift stores, the sections I checked changed: black clothes to cut up and safety-pin back together when I had just started high school; boots, belts, and shoes; dresses to alter once I started sewing, cassette tapes for when I got my car, and vinyl to play when my roommates had record players. Over time, I learned that the key was to check every section and leave your trip open to the thrill of discovery.

Now imagine someone who has dedicated most of his or her life to learning these tricks of the trade, someone who can perfectly describe the thrill of the hunt, the ever-growing mental list of things you want to find, the triumphs and tribulations of searching for that perfect item amongst the discarded. Al Hoff is that person, and reading Thrift Score feels like sitting down and listening to a real thrift expert funneling years of that knowledge straight into your brain. In her introduction, Hoff mentions that the content of Thrift Score is as varied as what you might find in a thrift store, and this observation is apt. Chock full of facts, tips, and trivia, it’s hard to believe so much information can be crammed into one book.

The first section of Thrift Score talks about thrifting as a concept, describes its history, and includes some basic strategies for when you hit the store. The rest of the chapters are divided into “rooms” for convenience (kitchen, bedroom, patio/pool, entertainment, etc). The tone of the book retains the intimate feeling of a zine, full of personal stories, thrifting anecdotes, trivia about all manner of things you might find in a second-hand store, and the typical ponderings that all thrifters contemplate (why are there so many macramé owls in this world?).

You can definitely feel that the book is based on a zine – it’s full of side panels, lists, facts in the margin, and pictures with funny captions. Although the whole thing is well organized into multiple chapters, headings and subheadings, at first glance the sheer quantity of information can feel somewhat overwhelming. But, happily, the book’s format lends itself to dipping in and out whenever you feel like it (today I’ll learn about dead fads! Or choosing a cookbook! Or throwing a theme party! Or decorating a living room using only orange items!).

I am an inveterate thrifter, as are many of my friends. If you’re in this crazy boat with us, you’ll probably enjoy a flip through Thrift Score. It’s a great reference if you’re ever looking to purchase something specific (since it includes tips on how to buy quality items in each category) or planning a theme party (there are tons of ideas on to do it on the cheap), or just looking to impress your friends with your knowledge about the collectible lunch box craze. Trying to describe what lies within Thrift Score is like trying to list every item in a thrift store at any given moment. You’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s worth it to take a look, even if thrifting isn’t your thing. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty—you never know what kind of treasure you might uncover buried amongst everything else.

Thrift Score by Al Hoff, Harper Collins, 1997
Review by Ave Smith
Photography by Anna Fitzpatrick
Modeling by Ted Kulczycky

50 Fashion Designers You Should Know is just what the title tells you: this is not a collection of obscure or niche designers, but rather a book profiling the biggest movers and shakers in the fashion industry. More specifically, it is a guide to those who have had the biggest influences, primarily on contemporary western women’s fashion. Spanning from Jeanne Lanvin opening her first hat shop in 1899 to Stella McCartney’s most recent collection, the book features short profiles of the biggest designers who show at the four main fashion weeks (London, Paris, Milan and New York City). While it’s far from being a comprehensive encyclopedia of names, 50 Fashion Designers is excellent as an unintimidating crash course for fashion newbies.

The names included are the more obvious ones: Coco Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Marc Jacobs are all present. While the focus is on the famous, there is some variety. Both the more commercial designers (Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein) as well as the avant garde (Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan) are included. There are also a few designers who had an impact in their time but have since gone a bit under the radar, like Madeleine Vionnet and Main Boucher.

The profiles themselves are well researched, and though quite brief they hold a fair bit of information. Author Simone Werle includes only the most essential of biographical facts (date of birth, country of origin, etc.), focusing instead on the designers’ technical and professional accomplishments. There are several instances where Werle editorializes, highlighting each designer’s strength in order to emphasize where he or she made an impact, although all the profiles remain heavily steeped in fact. Most of the personal sentiments in this book come from quotes pulled from the designers themselves, stating their own fashion philosophies. It’s intriguing to see the way so many designers differ in their ideals, even those who at first appear to be of similar calibers. Several designers, including Miuccia Prada and Franco Moschino, explicitly state that they hate fashion. Hearing these declarations from people who have devoted their entire professional lives to the creation of clothes made me wonder about the various ways fashion is considered by different people, and how commercialism can affect one’s creative output. Naturally, these were contrasted with profiles of designers who focus more on the business aspects of building a brand, with quotes about how buying one of their designs is akin to buying into a lifestyle.

My first thought upon finishing the book was, “where does one go from here?” The brevity of the profiles prevents any real analyses of the designers’ careers. While the book still works as a useful introduction to runway designers, it would have been helpful had the edition included sources, notes for further reading, or even an introduction or conclusion for those looking to dig deeper. Instead, 50 Fashion Designers dives right into its subject matter with little additional content explaining the processes behind its selections. However, even without this, I would definitely recommend the book to anybody looking for a place to start in understanding today’s fashion. Aspiring Wornettes take note.

50 Fashion Designers You Should Know by Simone Werle, Prestel, 2010
reviewed by Anna Fitzpatrick
photography by Deua Medeiros