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Top of the pile
84
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
80/100Critics
88/100Scholars
Author:
Victoria Finlay
Publisher:
Pegasus Books
Date:
June 7, 2022
Victoria Finlay spins us round the globe, weaving stories of our relationship with cloth and asking how and why people through the ages have made it, worn it, invented it, and made symbols out of it. And sometimes why they have fought for it.
What The Reviewers Say
The textiles in our lives tend to operate with inappreciable fanfare — often serving as artistic intermediary. In her latest book, Victoria Finlay gives them their due.
Each chapter focuses on a different fabric, which inevitably creates a patchwork effect. (And patchy: the chapters on Pacific barkcloth and sackcloth feel long.) But the travelogue element is richly justified, because this is a highly personal and tactile book.
... as much a memoir about family and the deaths of Finlay’s parents as it is a travelogue and exploration into the origins of fabric, as the author movingly entwines stories of grief and the history of textiles.
... bundles history, travelogue, and memoir, flowing easily between exposition, narrative, and intimate accounts of Finlay’s travels and her grief. The writing is authoritative and engaging, packed with memorable vignettes and trivia: for example, seamstresses from a lingerie factory constructed the first NASA spacesuits. In Scotland, Finlay discovers hidden colors and patterns woven into tweed; in Fabric, she reveals dimensions and textures from the material world woven into human history..
