As when selecting a fine wine, a book is best picked on the basis of its label. In the Darwinian world that is book publishing, it is our job as readers to ensure survival of the most fashionable. But unlike wine, a book lasts for a very long time. Like, years. So the question becomes: once I’ve collected all my super-stylish books, how do I plan my outfits to match?
Through our new series, Reading A Book By Its Cover, Full Stop hopes to help you, the savviest of readers, in your effort to resolve this most burning of modern questions.
First up: Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides. Particularly if you’re a wealthy, lonely teenage girl living in the suburbs, consider this inspiration for that easy-to-pull-off, maddeningly indecipherable everyday look (and if you own that Alexander McQueen skull ring, I hope you pull it off on the daily):
- The Virgin Suicides by formercontender featuring silk shorts
Next up, Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion. Reading The Passion is a great way to re-use your outfit from last year’s Costume Institute Gala. And for all you time-travelers from the Napoleonic wars, with this novel by your side, no one will give you any more gruff about your awesome hat. (Reading A Book By Its Cover: Ending Discrimination Everywhere.)
- The Passion by formercontender featuring black boots
And finally, Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments. I don’t want to encourage smoking, but I do want to say that if you reek of cigarette smoke (or if you are currently swimming in a cloud of it), you may want to see how this book-look works for you. And if you’re an Irish soul singer: tell me, why am I not seeing more turquoise sequins?
- The Commitments by formercontender featuring black sandals
All mood boards courtesy of the inimitable Kelly Schmader.
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