Fashion

Writer John Molloy shares his theories about how our manners and sartorial choices impact how others perceive us, which could affect our chances for professional advancement.

Helen Gurley Brown is the editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. She says that her newest book, "Having it All," is aimed at "mouse burgers" or, women of plain appearance. She defends beauty standards and claims that all women can develop themselves through fashion, makeup, exercise, and even plastic surgery.

Historian Paul Fussel has observed nine distinct class categories in the United States. He says that, while belief in social mobility is strong in American culture, few people are able to move out of the class into which they were born.

Village Voice style editor Mary Peacock considers the role women's magazines play in shaping women's fashion. She talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the latest trends.

New Yorker fashion reporter Kennedy Fraser has a new book of her work for the magazine, called Scenes from the Fashionable World.

After leaving art school, Malcolm McLaren started a clothing store called Sex, and later helped assemble the punk band the Sex Pistols. McLaren says the group's talent was secondary to its subversiveness.

The former teen model later pursued an acting career on stage and screen. Despite her efforts to distance herself from her early days in fashion, Twiggy says it would be untenable for her to give up her distinctive moniker. She costars in the new movie Madame Sousatzka, in which she plays an aspiring pop star.

Fashion writer Samuel Coleridge visited sweatshops in India and South Korea to learn more about the hidden side of fashion design and clothing sales. His new book explores exploitative labor, licensing, and gender dynamics within the industry.

Though the garment may be a century old, fashion columnist Patricia McLaughlin says bras still have a long way to go in terms of fit and comfort.

Fashion expert Richard Martin. Martin's the co-author (with Harold Koda) of "Jocks and Nerds," a new book that examines what the authors call '12 persistent fashion styles;' among them the Rebel, Cowboy, Dandy, and Joe College. Martin is a professor of Art History and Dean of Graduate Studies at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

John Fairchild, the publisher of "Women's Wear Daily," and "W." "Women's Wear Daily" is to the fashion industry what "The Wall Street Journal" is to the financial community. "W" is a glitzy fashion magazine. Fairchild has just written an insiders exposé of the fashion world, called "Chic Savages."

Knitwear designer Kaffe Fassett (the first name rhymes with "safe," the last name rhymes with "basset"). He's elevated needlework from a simple craft to an art form. Fassett started out as a painter, but while working in England he visited a Scottish wool mill, and was dazzled by the colors and textures he discovered there. He's since made tapestries, clothes, chairs, and other objects, and authored several books that have influenced textile designers.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin blasts Ralph Lauren's citified vision of the country life, and she reflects on the "magic thinking" and escapism of some city dwellers.

With winter still here, but spring hinting it's arrival, commentator Patricia McLaughlin considers the perils of winter on the mind, body, and spirit.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin (mic-LOFF-lin) tells us how to dress for Earth Day.

Commentator Patricia McLaughlin examines the travails of buying a something to wear to a wedding.

Critic Maureen Corrigan comments on the latest women's fashion trend--a reboot of styles she grew up wearing. Corrigan never thought they were exciting, and wonders why they're so popular now.

Why does cross-dressing stir up so much anxiety in our culture? Harvard professor Marjorie Garber talks about where cross dressing has turned up in popular culture, and what it means to wear the clothes of the opposite sex. Garber's new book on the subject is "Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety." (It's published by Routledge).

Film critic Stephen Schiff has a review of "Ready To Wear," Robert Altman's ensemble film about Paris fashion shows.

An inside account of the world of high-fashion. Nina Blanchard is founder of Nina Blanchard Agency which is considered one of nation’s most prestigious modeling agencies. Blanchard herself discovered supermodel Cheryl Tiegs. She’s been called The Beauty Broker. She has written a novel based on the fashion world The Look, (Dutton 1995) Blanchard talks about what it takes to be a model, the pressures they’re under and why she herself finally had enough.