Unfolding the Past

"Fascinating." Perspective
"A fascinating, often funny, and eminently stylish personal memoir ... I loved it." - Chris Breward, author of The Suit
"Wide-ranging, thought-provoking and important." - Claire Wilcox, author of Patch Work Elizabeth Wilson is a pioneer of fashion studies, yet she never intended to become an academic. Starting her literary career as a feminist activist writing for the underground press, she went on to explore tennis, 'bohemians' and of course fashion - her obsession - along with forays into fiction. Throughout, she has never seen her work as abstract or disengaged from 'real life'. In her memoir, she traces this relationship between personal experience and her writing, revisiting pivotal moments from childhood, adolescence and adult life to explore her belief that research, by its nature, is always a form of autobiography. She unfolds the garment of her life in a wide-ranging exploration of scenes from her past: her difficult relationship with her mother, fashion in the 60s and gay liberation. In this journey through time she shows how experiences are inseparable from the way we seek to explain and understand them, offering a unique and deeply personal account of her - and our - cultural world.

Elizabeth Wilson is a pioneer in the development of fashion studies, and has been a university professor, feminist campaigner and activist. Her writing career began in the 'underground' magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She's written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include Adorned in Dreams (1985, 2003), The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long listed for the Golden Dagger Award).

List of Illustrations
1. Outside Looking In
2. First Came Reading
3. Researching My Life
4. Bodies in the Library
5. Dressing the Postwar Young Woman
6. Living the Bohemian Sixties
7. What Does a Lesbian Look Like?
8. Writing Feminism
9. Bad Decade
10. The Vulgar
11. Fashion as Fetish
12. Haunted Houses
13. Nostalgia Mode
14. Cracks in the Pavement
15. In Search of Lost Streets
16. A Visit to Rimini
17. Returning to Queens Club
18. Hedonism
19. Down There on a Visit
References
Index