Then there were the refugee fashion illustrators, window display designers, photographers, journalists: they had every aspect of fashion covered, and British fashion flourished. Many of the companies are still trading today, although few people know the story of their desperate flight to Britain where they found a home but gave us in return employment, new design and technology, new fabrics and display practices. And at the end, I remind myself of these learnings (about my style and shopping habits), so that next time I’m about to buy something, I can realize in time that it’s about to be a shopping mistake. If you try, if you have a profound willingness to let yourself go completely you can enter the mind of another person. It takes a certain habit of thought, honed by many years of reading in the way I read, that immersion in books, so that they are not so much inside your head; rather, as if they are a dream, you are inside them." Clothes were also more expensive relative to household income. Fast fashion was a concept that hadn’t hit the High Street. So it made sense that we saved clothes for best.

Not a smart man, but's that what you want--the last thing we need is for the intellectuals to gain power; I tell you, some ideas are so ridiculous only a professor could swallow them." (15) Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.Why do we do this? We do we insist on punishing ourselves and prolonging our self-effacing feelings? Do we think that by continuing to metaphorically flog ourselves, we’ll teach ourselves a lesson or be able to do penance for our wrong deeds? It may be one or both of those things or something else entirely, but I’m here to say that life is too short to settle for less and feel bad! I used to do the same thing. I always tried to make a garment works because it was a gift / expensive / a great deal / I wasn’t wearing it often enough / any other reason. Dis­cuss the role that chance encoun­ters play in shap­ing the lives of these char­ac­ters and set­ting the stage for far-reach­ing con­se­quences. How are we all shaped by chance in many ways? But wardrobe guilt serves no purpose other than to make us miserable. Even if we pretend to ignore it, when we open our wardrobe it’s there hanging right in front of us! Grant’s writing in this book has been described as “spectacularly humanizing.” She writes in “vivid and supple prose [creating] a powerful story of family, love, and the hold the past has on the present." [4]

Vivian Kovaks grows up in a central London flat, rented for a song by her parents who originally offered it as charity to a pair of refugees,not expecting them to stay for forty years. She, as narrator of the novel, describes her parents as mice seeking to bring her up as a mouse. A sheltered childhood, followed by study at York University, then marriage. What also becomes apparent from speaking to Gen Z is that many buy from sustainable or eco-friendly ranges within fast-fashion brands because they believe that these products are more ethical. Coates has started shopping more from H&M Conscious and New Look Kind, for this reason. “I want to play my part,” she says. If you are struggling with this kind of wardrobe guilt but are keeping clothes because ‘you only need to lose a few pounds’ be honest. Both in terms of if you do lose the weight will you wear them again. Or are you being realistic about the weight you will lose. I’m not being defeatist here but encouraging you to be realistic. It Was More Than You’d Normally Pay

We truly can’t let better in until we have the faith to believe that we deserve better. Clearing clutter, or getting rid of things that don’t serve us, isn’t just a physical removal of stuff, it is a mental one too. You know, my life turned out more banal than I ever expected, for as I found out, to live IS banal." The major difference between Sandor Kovaks and Peter Rachman (ignoring the fact that Kovaks is fictional while Rachman was real) is the existence of living, known family members. Rachman too came from Eastern Europe, and after the war was unable to trace his family, though he continued to try to do so until his death in 1962. (Grant also has Kovaks live a great deal longer.) Sandor's brother and his family are useful inventions to the author, as it makes it much easier to explore his character through the complexities of the relationships between him and them - relationships which still exist, even if they have disowned Sandor, even changing the spelling of their surname by deed poll so that strangers will not ask whether they are related. If you do then maybe it’s time to have a declutter and change of perspective on your wardrobe. Determined to bust the myth we will be happier by continually adding to our wardrobes. Carol passionately advocates a Minimal Wardrobe Maximum Style approach avoiding overwhelm associated with having too many clothes. Carol’s determined to change our approach to shopping: both for our own sanity and to reduce the negative impact of fashion on the planet. How can I help you? Built on a promising premise of showing us how clothes define our selves, this novel was also ambitious in its attempt to capture the history of a slum landlord in London through the eyes of his estranged niece.

The author explores self-definition through clothing, through this idea that clothing can define you or, maybe, reflect you. Although I think this is meant to be the overarching theme of the book, I found it to be the least interesting or compelling aspect of the novel, even as I relate to it. The main character, Vivian, is underdeveloped and unlikable. Her parents are unrealistic shadows of people. Her first husband dies from an accident that evokes no feelings of sympathy. Vivian then goes in search of her mysterious uncle who is banned from her parents flat and her life. A slum lord with a jail term behind him, he has the most potential to be a decent character.Did you like Vivien? Did you feel that you knew her bet­ter by the book’s end, or was she still some­what mys­te­ri­ous to you? Why might thisbe? We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.