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Interview

Interview: Charlie Porter on Bring No Clothes

published on 29 September 2023

Why do we wear what we wear?

Fashion critic and author Charlie Porter sits down with SHOWstudio's contributing exhibitions review editor, Amy de la Haye to discuss his latest book, Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion, which coincides with Charleston's current exhibition of the same name.

Porter chronicles Bloomsbury's fashion story through seven key protagonists, including Virginia Woolf, E.M Forster, Lady Ottoline Morrell, Duncan Grant, John Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry and Vanessa Bell, all of which have contributed towards our own understanding of modern dress. Whether it be through rigid tailoring or - Porter's preferred - anti-tailoring stance, the celebrated journalist breathes new life into these historical figures by upending everything we thought we knew about them.

More than providing a philosophy of Bloomsbury fashion, Bring No Clothes is a book about sexuality, grief and stitching through grief, offering up the idea of making as a way of mending more than just fabric.

Why do we wear what we wear?

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