If you spent a childhood wishing each birthday for a daemon of your own and still, to this day, associate the aurora borealis and the I Ching with Dust, this month’s guide to readerly fashion is for you. (So is this “What would your daemon be?” quiz. Our results: “Swan, Elephant, Koala, Panda, Chameleon, Wolf.” We’re slippery souls.)

While it’s a tragedy that His Dark Materials was only a trilogy, and — let’s be real for a minute — the Golden Compass movie was a total joke, let us never forget that all of us Lyra-ites can forever relive the magic through fashion.

“Symbols and emblems were everywhere. Buildings and pictures were designed to be read like books. Everything stood for something else; if you had the right dictionary, you could read Nature itself. It was hardly surprising to find philosophers using the symbolism of their time to interpret knowledge that came from a mysterious source.” — The Golden Compass

The Golden CompassThe Golden Compass

“There are two great powers and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.” — The Subtle Knife

The Subtle KnifeThe Subtle Knife

“But it gradually seemed to me that I’d made myself believe something that wasn’t true. I’d made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I’d spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn’t matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit . . . And I thought: am I really going to spend the rest of my life without feeling that again? I thought: I want to go to China. It’s full of treasures and strangeness and mysteries and joy.” — The Amber Spyglass

The Amber SpyglassThe Amber Spyglass

Special thanks to the forever mysterious Kelly Schmader.


 
 
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