Sources of My Ongoing Fashion Education

Documentaries, books, and articles—a living bibliography.

One thing I love about certain detective characters on Law & Order is that they’ll use seemingly random fashion knowledge to better understand a suspect: Helmut Lang slacks tell them the governor whose wife was just murdered is actually gay; a shopping bag from Bergdorf Goodman clues them into who has dipped into their payoff trust fund; a certain brand of bespoke Italian shoe cracks the case.

I’ve always admired fashion for its artistry, of course, but I’ve also always allowed it to clue me into a person, as I fancy myself an amateur detective of the inconsequential (a.k.a. a culture writer)—looking at people’s taste and tendencies beyond designers and into style reflects what’s inside.