PUBLISHER: Faber & Faber
EDITION: HardbackWHAT I THOUGHT
PAGES: 164
SOURCE: Owned
In Out of Fashion Carol Ann Duffy selects the best and freshest contemporary poets and asks them in turn to select their favourite poem, from another time or culture, which looks at how we dress, or undress, how we cover up or reveal. In these vibrant poems, we are shown how clothes, fashion and jewellery are both a necessity and a luxury. The result is a vital and entertaining dialogue between the two arts of poetry and fashion and between poets from the past and the present.
EXTRACT
From Warming Her Pearls by Carol Ann Duffy
Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress
Bids me to wear them, warm them, until evening
When I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them
Round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her...
Out of Fashion is a diverse collection. The collection features some of my favourite poets including Carol Ann Duffy, Moniza Alvi, Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, Gillian Clark and Jackie Kay. A collection of poems about fashion may seem odd but this collection is more than the sum of its parts. The poems are thematically linked and deal with appearances - how we make ourselves look to the world, how we hide ourselves and reveal our vulnerability at unexpected moments. The collection is packed with poems about loss, grief, love, both lost and found and an array of other subjects. I really enjoyed the structure of the collection, a poem by a contemporary poet next to a poem of their choice. Some of my favourite poems included Warming Her Pearls by Carol Ann Duffy, The Sari by Moniza Alvi, My Hat by Stevie Smith, My Father Had Two Coats by Linda Chase, The Large Cool Store by Philip Larkin and The Gift by Vicki Feaver. Out of Fashion is a must for fans of contemporary poetry.