Dressing Like a Writer
What the hell does that mean?
I have this strange fascination with what writer’s wear. The photo above of Jack Kerouac shows a rather nattily dressed gentleman. He must have had something special to attend. Jack was more a khaki-pants kind of guy, a flannel shirt, and the ever present cigarette, a fashion prop in its own right.
What we wear says something about all of us. For writers, what clothes they put on might be part of their persona or image, or it might just be practicality. Maybe it has nothing to do with anything. They get up and put on what’s draped over the chair that morning.
Still, the clothes of the writer, whether calculated or not, says something about them, their art, writing, even their legacy. A few years ago, a new published book focused on this phenomenon — how what a writer wears says much about them. Legendary Authors and the Clothes They Wore by Terry Newman is a fascinating collection of photos and descriptions. It looks at the “signature sartorial and literary style” of fifty men and women — writers as diverse as Truman Capote to Patti Smith to Maya Angelou.
To illustrate the thought, I’ve put together a few photos of writers and their “signature” clothes.
What does what they wear say to you?
