Blogging Woolf

“Proust knew the importance of fashion; his books are littered with references to clothing and the sartorial zeitgeist. So did Virginia Woolf, in whose prose clothes take on a life of their own.”

So writes Harriet Walker in “It doesn’t take a genius to admire a Balenciaga coat” on the Belfast Telegraph website. In the piece, she makes the case that having an interest in fashion doesn’t make one a dunce.

Woolf, of course, was anything but. And as many scholars have documented, she had a definite interest in fashion, as well as massive insecurities about it. Catherine Gregg covers the topic in Virginia Woolf and ‘Dress Mania’: ‘the eternal and insoluble question of clothes’, published this year by Cecil Woolf Publishers.

And fashion designers, as well as others, have not been slow to make a connection between their own designs and Woolf. One New York style newcomer even tied a silk scarf around a worn copy of Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and sent it as a stylish invitation to her fall 2008 fashion show.

For examples of other designers who used Woolf as inspiration, take a look at the following posts on Blogging Woolf:

• Five fashionable views of Virginia
• Did Woolf carry a handbag when street-haunting?
• Would Virginia have a penchant for pendants?
• Would Woolf wear a modern-day Burberry trench?
• Would Woolf wear Nicole Farhi? Take the poll
• Woolf shoes hold porcelain stones and meaning
• Every girl needs a Virginia Woolf dress
• Jewelry offers new take on the Woolf whistle
• The Virginia Woolf Collection: Jewelry in honor of the 20th