Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Small changes



This blog is just over two weeks old. It was born after some period of thought and with more than a little help from my friends Normblog, Manolo the Shoeblogger and the Bag Snobs. It was my intention from the start to have a blog focussed on intelligent thinking about fashion and style with some of my other interests added, chiefly literature and very occasionally politics. Anyone who knows my writing should have an idea of where I stand politically, but everyone is welcome here. We all have to wear something.

My great webman Camelmeister, who designed my original website back in 2002, set this blog up for me. I have made a small change today, from now on there will be five days worth of posts available on the front page, and the rest searchable.

As you'll have seen there will always be a thought for the day, which I hope will build up to be an archive of ideas about fashion. I should have said before now that these are mainly taken from Tobi Tobias' Obsessed with Dress, published by Beacon Press and dedicated to the memory of her mother, Esther Meshel Bernstein. It's my bible.

There will be a poll each Tuesday, and reports from the shows as they happen - I am going to three tomorrow. And there will be competitions with actual prizes. My latest novel, The Clothes On Their Backs, will be published in February, and I will be on a book tour in Australia (at the Adelaide Festival) and New Zealand, with a possible stop-over in Singapore from late February. More news closer to the time. It remains my intention to restrict the blog roll at the side only to those I read every day and which inform my own thinking.

There have been nearly 8000 visits to the site since launch day and I'm delighted to see that some you you are regulars. I hope you'll enjoy what is come.

7 comments:

Thomas said...

When I was thinking about starting my own blog on fashion/style I started hunting around the internet for fashion blogs to get a feel for the "craft." While I had been visiting many blogs on street style, they were mainly photography based with the odd blurb now and then. While I had been reading for some time bloggers writing about women's fashion, I could not then and still have not found very many blogs on men's style. What I did find tended to read more like a catalogue than an editorial.

I found your blog through manolo, and it has been both edifying and inspiring to read your thoughts on style every day. It may seem odd that a 31 year-old man would find your writing so relevant, considering the subject matter, but I can only say what an old professor of mine once told me: "It doesn't matter what it is about - good writing is good writing."

I suppose it says something about the impression people have of men's fashion that I find the best writing about it being done by women. I look forward to everything that will happen here in the future.

Anonymous said...

Came to your blog from somewhere I forget - but have always admired your writing in the Guardian.Though not always in agreement...

Am a bit of a unfashionable frump - but with an interest in fashion - strangely - so loving your thoughts.
One of the few sites I have RSS'd ( is that a usage!)

Anonymous said...

Just got your book from Amazon--- Remind me who I am, again. Can't wait to read the new one in FEB!!!
xo

alice said...

Just found your blog and am very pleased- there are lots of fashion blogs but few are as thoughtful as yours, which is wonderful and of course- fitting.

Anonymous said...

Linda, normally I don't do blogs, esp fashion blogs....there may be like 6 that I think are worth looking at everyday or often. Yours is among those ranks.

You have a bona fide hit on your hands dear. This is a niche that hasn't been filled yet, esp. from a UK PoV.

My 1st fashion blog was The Manolo....you can't do better than to have a rec by him, IMHO.

Since your are UK based, I think you should exchange links w/ Suzie Bubble at Style Bubble....she's very young, but she's incredible.

Anonymous said...

Thomas...I feel you. I'm a woman and I am also interested in men's wear. You're right, few blogs focus on it and/or do a good job w/ the writing. The Sartorialist used to focus on men's wear, but has drastically shifted to women.

A blog that does an excellent job w/ both is On The Runway from the NyTimes. The comments are of the level you'd never expect....and male commenters are as man if not more than female ones.

Anonymous said...

bagsnob referred us to you, what a treat!
I am touched by what I find on The Thoughtful Dresser, like talking to a good friend at the end of the day. Please keep publishing.
Joan