In 1959, Ann Fogarty’s book “Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife”, was released for the first time in New York. Now, nearly 50 years later, it has been re-released the use and entertainment of us younger wives. The age of this book becomes extra clear with the “provocative notes for the patient husband who pays the bills“.

Since I got married this summer, I have sometimes found it amusing to play my role to the full. Get dressed up in some 50’s housewife dress and apron and bake cookies for our guests. In this case the book is an excellent source for how to stay stylish and fashion conscious in a 50’s kind of way. But it is also so much more than that…

Even though the initial release of this book was so long ago, much of it’s content is just as useful today. Like the chapter on how to care for your wardrobe. “Uniformity of hangers gives your wardrobe cohesion. It’s good for your morale to open your closet door and see everything looking nice.” It couldn’t be more true.

Or the chapter on taste and money. “A clothes budget is like Einstein’s theory. It’s based on relativity. The relative value of perhaps one very expensive coat against two less costly; of one good fur against a couple of fake furs; of an extreme high-fashion item against a classic.” And she also brings to the attention how good taste and money don’t necessarily depend on each other. A good starting point on the subject.

And lets not forget about the husband in all of this, after all he pays the bills. He’s for example mentioned when it comes to personal grooming: “When your husband’s eyes light up as he comes at in at night, you’re in sad shape if it’s only because he smells dinner cooking.”

The fun thing is that when you expect the book to be all about silly fashion rules or just to be very conservative in general, it’s actually quite open to experimenting with clothes (although within certain limits) and quite funny, something that becomes clear on the chapter on breaking the rules as well as the fashion IQ test at the end of the book. And I guess that these days, with all kinds of synthetic materials and bad tailoring, that it is a useful source for how to care for (and wear) tweeds and furs like they used in the old days. But while it does contain useful advice and helpful ideas, I would rather recommend it as a sweet gift to a newly married (or engaged) girlfriend, or perhaps just a little something to amuse yourself with. You can find it at Amazon.

These…

…will be my version of the gladiator sandals. I can´t quite put the stripper heels on the shelf, everything under 6″ just seems so low after I dared embark upon those heights. Ok, so they are from those shops we won’t speak loudly of, but sometimes they seem to be the only ones that go this extreme. These are leather though and not some questionable PVC material or whatever. Yesterday I was looking for shoulder kissing earrings, and I discovered that if I put the word “drag” in with my search, I just got so much more to choose from. And remember when I was looking for a sequin dress before they were in every high street store? The only ones carrying them were drag queen shops, so that’s where I had to go. These are indeed women’s shoes, and does not run in big sizes as far as I know, I just think it’s funny the places I end up to get these things.

And to the inspiration, way more walkable shoes, and completely different, but I do love mine!

D&G, Balenciaga and Givenchy.