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Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments by Ann Shen: book review

 


 

Nevertheless, She Wore It: 50 Iconic Fashion Moments (2020) is a historical illustrative catwalk of memorable clothes worn by memorable people. Often the clothes were noticed first.

 

Ann Shen writes about Marlene Dietrich’s 1930 masculine tuxedo and Madonna’s 1990 provocative cone bra. And Princess Diana’s 1994 little black ‘revenge’ dress and Bjork’s whimsical 2001 swan outfit. 

 

She writes about fashion: bloomers, flapper dresses, bikinis, jeans, hot pants, capes, and the mini. She writes about accessories: black beret, red lipstick, the durag, and the Olympic hijab. She writes about hairstyles: the bob and the pixie cut. Even the unibrow. And much, much more. 

 

My favourite in the book is Jennifer Lopez’s 2000 Gianni Versace plunge neck-line dress worn at the Grammy Music Awards – a long, flowing, tropical green ‘jungle dress’ that plunged to the navel. I photographed the exact dress on 19 November 2016 in Tbilisi, Georgia, when it was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art as part of the ‘60 Years of Made in Italy: Protagonists of the Italian Style’ exhibition from 15 November 2016 to 10 January 2017. Ann Shen adds that before Jennifer Lopez wore the dress, it had already been worn by Amber Valetta at the 1999 Versace adverts, Donatella Versace at the 1999 Met Gala, and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell at the 2000 NRJ Music Awards in France, a month before the Grammys.

 

From power symbols to radical rule-breaking clothing to freedom fashion, all are illustrated by the author in an informative and fun glance through fashion history. Due to the many examples, the narratives are brief, although some contain interesting, unknown facts. But I can think of a few more that weren’t mentioned.











 

 

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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