The Luxe - A Brief Examination of the Communicative Element of Fashion

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Your jacket, yours shoes, your dress -- they all TALK. No, this is not me having a schizophrenic episode. This is me introducing the concept of the communicative element of fashion. 

As a writer, I find I'm good when it comes to dialogue. Not so good when it comes to the descriptive elements. Therefore, that's why I'm so impressed with a book like The Luxe. 

First, let me review it's weaknesses: yes, it's a Gossip Girl ripoff except set in the late 1800s. Yes, the anachronisms will make perfectionists want to shiv out their retina with a knife. And yes, most of the characters will have normal people wanting to construct a real-life facsimile of their character just so you can strangle them in effigy.  

But what Anna Godberson does better than any writer I've encountered is use a person's dress to communicate something about their character. In almost every scene in The Luxe,  a character is wearing something to express something whether it's dominance, femininity, pleasure or pain. 


Plot and the assholish nature of her characters be damned. The Luxe is a tour de force in communicating emotions through one's style of dress. 


HOMEWORK: I'm writing about con woman who suffers from a lack of confidence. In order to throw herself into whatever role she is playing, she has to perform extensive rituals to hype herself up -- this includes picking out the perfect type of clothes for the occasion. Clothes that embody the essence she is trying to exude. This gives me the perfect excuse to surf on Pinterest to "research" what outfit she will be wearing in each scene.

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