The Concise Dictionary of Dress

BRASH

Confident; mistakable.

CREASED

The line designed by use.

PRETENTIOUS

Something pretending to be something that it is.

REVEALING

The performance of the unsustainable moment.

SHARP

Addressed.

Years ago, I was given a residency in the kind of place that knows how to throw a party. They gave one for me, and invited, among others, people from places interested in doing the same. Someone from an organisation  about to announce their own poet’s residency took one look at my chic little French suit and said, “Well at least we’re not going to make our poet dress up.” What did she expect me to wear – hessian?

I like a poem that knows how to dress. I like this dictionary  (by the psycho-analyst Adam Phillips and the costume curator Judith Clark)  and what it has to say about dress, which could be said about poetry too.