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Octopus imprint Cassell has bagged a book from former British Vogue editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman about the meaning of clothes and how we wear them.
Alison Starling, publisher at Octopus, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Eugenie Furniss at 42 MP. Clothes & Other Things That Matter will be published on 23rd April 2020.
The book sees Shulman examine the impact of a range of clothes from the little black dress to the white shirt, from the Chanel jacket to the bikini. The synopsis reads: “Taking pieces of clothing and examining their role in both her own life and women's lives in general, she explores issues such as climbing the career ladder, motherhood, romance, fame, celebrity, nostalgia, sexual identity, ambition, power and body image. Funny, opinionated and moving, Clothes & Other Things That Matter will encourage the reader to consider the way they wear their own clothes – the life they live in them and the stories they tell.”
Starling said: “We’re hugely proud that Alexandra has decided that Cassell is the right home for her important new book. Her writing on clothes and what they say about the lives we lead is insightful, funny, refreshingly self-deprecating and often very moving. Clothes & Other Things That Matter is a book that will strike a chord with women of all ages.”
Shulman was the British magazine’s longest serving editor, staying from 1992 to 2017. She has written two novels, Can We Still Be Friends? (Penguin) and The Parrots (Penguin), while Inside Vogue: The Diary of My 100th Year (Fig Tree) was published in October 2016.
She said: “Clothes & Other Things that Matter is a book not only about clothes but about the way we live our lives. From childhood onwards, the way we dress is a result of our personal history. In a mix of memoir, fashion history and social observation I am writing about the person our clothes allows us to be and sometimes the person they turn us into.”