Unfolding the Past

It’s impossible not to warm instantly to Elizabeth Wilson … Unfolding the Past is so packed with Wilson’s literary allusions, as well as her observations about life, sex, film and fashion over the centuries, it’s like dipping into the anecdotes of a clever salonnière, peopled with Djuna Barnes, Proust and Marlene Dietrich. Wilson weaves a memoir in which the uniting thread is how clothing trends reflect changing mores as well as creating new cultural norms … Freed from the “invisible cloak” of her childhood, Wilson’s fascinating text shows how fashion can be the opposite of frivolity. Ultimately, she says, it’s the “search for personal identity through aesthetic experience". -- Belinda Bamber * Perspective *
Unfolding the Past is a deeply personal memoir that traces significant moments in the author’s life where she recognises that all research is autobiographical … [It] will appeal to many: the young may curiously plunder what occurred before their existence, while those who lived through the mentioned decades might poignantly recall their clothing choices. -- Sarah E. Braddock Clarke * Selvedge *
A fascinating, often funny, and eminently stylish personal memoir [and] a moving insider’s account of radical lives in challenging times … I loved it. * Chris Breward, Author of The Suit, and Director, National Museums Scotland, UK *
Wide-ranging, thought-provoking and important. * Claire Wilcox, Author of Patch Work and Senior Curator of Fashion, V&A *
Brilliant and important ... [Wilson] is an exceptionally gifted writer, lucid, direct, engaging, often witty, always stimulating ... [A] book at once sinewy and elegant, rigorous and accessible, tough minded and enjoyable. * Richard Dyer, Professor Emeritus, King's College, London, UK *
Elizabeth Wilson has always been an elegant thinker and an elegant dresser. Her memoir recalls a life lived believing both matter in a world that regarded them as mutually exclusive. A pleasure to read. * Alistair O'Neill, Author of London: After Fashion and Professor of Fashion History and Theory, Central Saint Martins, UK *
An outstanding chronicler of our times ... [and] a sophisticated and informed cultural commentator. * Helen Taylor, Author of Why Women Read Fiction, and Professor of English, University of Exeter, UK *
That such an important figure might now re-view, retrospectively, her own intellectual history, during a long and distinguished career, through the filter of her life and experiences, is incredibly exciting. * Caroline Evans, Professor Emerita, Central Saint Martins, UK *