Fear and Clothing: Unbuckling American Style

Wilson (A Massive Swelling), a former New York Times columnist, takes readers on a tour of America’s wardrobes, showing that our nation’s sartorial decisions are more than the simple donning of clothing each morning before work. Instead, these choices are as much about the communities we live in as they are about personal identity. In the nation’s capital, for instance, the region’s inhabitants “tend to dress very defensively. Their overprotective office-wear essentially serves as both camouflage and psychological body armor.” Wilson describes the Southern woman’s arsenal of poise, from big pearls and imperturbable hair to their expectations that “if women... aren’t using our femininity strategically, we just aren’t being smart.” Though Wilson’s cultural insights are not always profound (when describing the scantily clad actresses attending a film festival in winter, she writes, “Their fashion statements were supreme sacrifices of comfort that whimpered: Cast me: I have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever”), her sharp tongue, sardonic wit, and philosophical detours keep the journey entertaining. Agent: Bill Clegg, the Clegg Agency. (Sept.)