Alison Lurie: The day I threw away fashion

Alison Lurie, Pulitzer-winning novelist, will be inaugurated as NYS Author on 9/20 at Page Hall. A scholar of fashion and avid clothes shopper, Lurie tells The Guardian about abandoning fashion at the age of 60 when fashion abandoned her.

The day I threw away fashion

When she hit 60 Alison Lurie realised that fashion no longer spoke to her. So she got rid of half her wardrobe, stopped colouring her hair, gave up wearing makeup - and felt euphoric

 

Soon after I reached 60 I was abandoned by Vogue magazine and all its clones. Like former lovers who drop you slowly and politely because they once cared for you, they gradually stopped speaking to me. Without intending it I had permanently alienated them, simply by becoming old. From their point of view, I was now a hopeless case. They were not going to show me any more pictures of clothes I might look good in, or give me useful advice about makeup or hair.   More.

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Playing Dress Up at Edith Wharton's "The Mount"

A number of writers and actors dressed up as members of Edith Wharton's inner circle at her Lenox estate, The Mount, for a fashion photo shoot by legendary photographer Annie Liebovitz. The pictures will appear in the September issue of Vogue.

Among the writers were Junot Diaz (who will visit us in October 2012) as Walter Berry; Jonathan Safran Foer as architect Ogden Codman, Jr.; and Jeffery Eugenides as Henry James. The issue also features an essay by past Institute visitor Colm Toibin about Edith Wharton and her complicated love triangle with Morton Fullerton and Henry James.

Photo: supermodel Natalia Vodianova as Edith Wharton.

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