New York. Alfred K. Knopf. 1981. First edition. Hardcover. Book condition: Fine. Dust jacket: Near Fine, minor darkening & shelf wear, five instances of neat pen underlining. 270pp. (ill. in b/w).

“Many societies have been openly dominated by fashionable people, but our society is quietly permitting itself to be dominated and transformed by fashionable minds.” 

A collection of thirty essays, spanning the 70s through 80s, of fashion journalism published in the New Yorker's "Feminine Fashion" column from critic Kennedy Fraser. She examines the meaning of fashion and its connection with the wider culture. She writes of fashion in a new way, going beyond design but to the ideas behind them, their place in the fashion world and the fashion industry, and to their reverberations in our everyday lives. This collected volume investigates the place of dress in the lives, and feelings, of women as well as the distinctions between elegance, taste, and style.