The dressed and styled human body is irresistible to analyse. Framed by the idea that people’s dress and engagement with Fashion is a fundamental component of how we all conceive, create and convey personal and shared histories, the following ‘mini-essays’ are my attempt to unpick the cultural threads that hold our wardrobes together. Aide-mémoires, tongue-in-cheek, discursive, works-in-progress, I began writing them in 2013 in the spirit of Roland Barthes’ Mythologies and Umberto Eco’s Travels in Hyper Reality, although rarely with the same perspicacity, precision and pace.
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1. The Beard (1)
The Beard. A meandering history. In 17 days’ time it will be Movember. Over the thirty days that follow, male ‘celebrities’, want-to-be-rebels and barely pubescent teenaged boys will give their facial follicles free rein to raise awareness of, and funds to support, prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.[i] This is a serious business. Last year, Movember…
Dr Benjamin Wild 