Weegee, Vampira in Chanel No. 5 perfume bottle, c. 1953. Courtesy ICP.

In comes the occasional man, too. But usually, there are just all these girls who all buy a bottle of vetiver for the guy they are in love with — guys who she never hears about again, guys who never return to the perfume store for another bottle. Yet imagine all the exes that exist inside that bottle, the Perfume...

Keywords: 150 Cigarettes, Fake lashes, French manicure, Musk, Proustian madeleines

Opinion

Clothes for the Millions: A case for workwear in collections and exhibitions

April 22, 2024

By Sonya Abrego

Untitled (Strike), Dox Thrash, c.1940. Courtesy PAFA.

More work would do a lot to recalibrate fashion’s history; making it more inclusive and representative, but also to help...

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Interview

Becoming A Lady In the World

On Three Generations of Quinceañera Dresses

April 10, 2024

By Clarissa M. Esguerra

The "damas" (maids of honor) go from the church to the reception in a Ford Explorer limousine at Ruby's "quinceañera," Huntington Park, California, 2001, Lauren Greenfield, Courtesy of Milwaukee Art Museum

The young quinceañera is seemingly always in a ball gown. She is in pink, green, blue or other pastel colour,...

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Prose

Expecting

April 3, 2024

By Mary Wang

Scott Hyde, Fruit, 1967. Courtesy MoMA.

It’s been a year since my first miscarriage, and the summer sales have returned. I buy a loose kaftan, I...

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Prose

Blue Polyester Hug

March 8, 2024

By Monica Jae Yeon Moon

Image courtesy Ohlman Consorti, Vestoj On Everyday Life

Giving my grandfather a hug, even as an adult, was something I did almost every time we visited him for...

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Prose

Beggars And Choosers

On Dressing While Homeless

February 14, 2024

By Johannes Lenhard

Photographs by Camilo José Vergara

Carlo is concerned about his looks; it’s important to him how his ‘outer shell’ – his coat – appears. Decent...

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Prose

What Fashion Is Not (Only)

February 1, 2024

By Renate Stauss

Fashion is often characterised as a representation of society, its ‘most precise reflection.’ Yet, specular reflections are optical illusions based...

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