Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance

About the Book A CROSS-SECTIONAL VIEW OF INDIAN SOCIETY THROUGH THE LENS OF CLOTHING AND STYLE. Acclaimed journalist and cultural commentator Shefalee Vasudev has spent over twenty-five years observing and chronicling fashion and culture. Who is seen? How are we seen? How do we want to be seen? In Stories We Wear, Shefalee listens deeply to the language of appearance and examines how it becomes a medium of identity, belonging, even resistance. She journeys through villages, burns wards, cafés, cremation grounds, influencer feeds and more, to ask: What do we signal when we dress for power, humility, rebellion or grief? In the process, she reveals the contradictions stitched into the fabric of our lives and of modern India: from khadi’s contested legacy to the spectacle of airport terminals, from the anti-heroines of Hindi OTT dramas to the seductive mirage of ethical fashion. A meditation on myth and mirror, fabric and façade, skin and screen, this unusual book examines the ways in which we dress our identities, conceal (or reveal) our histories and curate our contradictions—thread by thread, story by story. About the Author Shefalee Vasudev is a journalist, cultural commentator and narrative psychotherapist. The editor-in-chief of The Voice of Fashion and the first editor of Marie Claire India, she has spent three decades writing and editing across news and lifestyle media. This is her second book. Read more