“Bring No Clothes: Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion” by Charlie Porter now available at Dover Street Market and on the DSML E-SHOP. Click here to shop on the DSML E-SHOP

Charlie Porter speaks to Dover Street Market ahead of the launch:

“My new book started with a simple question: why do so many designers find inspiration in the Bloomsbury group? They were a loose collective of writers, artists and thinkers in London at the beginning of the 20th century, including writers Virginia Woolf and E.M. Foster, and artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.”

“Their work has inspired collections by Comme des Garçons, Fendi, Dior Men and S.S. Daley among many others. I was asked to curate an exhibition on Bloomsbury and Fashion at Charleston in Lewes, from which evolved my book. I quickly realised that the Bloomsbury group engaged in refusal with their clothing, a powerful energy that, since the punk era, we now understand as a cultural force. They were anti-fashion.”

“I believe that clothing is a way in: ask someone about what they’re wearing, and they tell you about their life. By looking at the clothes worn by the Bloomsbury group, we can gain new insight into the lives of these radical queer humans and their allies, as the modern world was forming. New stories are revealed, and, in the process of writing the book, I experienced my own change. We can take the lessons of what Bloomsbury wore to gain our own agency with clothing, and to evolve a lived philosophy of fashion.”