Hosted By: Olga Campofreda What I learned from Simone de Beauvoir’s wardrobe (yes, more on fashion and literature)

Lately, I find myself more and more often being called upon to defend the relationship between fashion and literature, despite the fact that even today many people still seem to consider it an anomaly. Why does fashion need literature? people ask me (and it makes me laugh that the opposite is never asked, perhaps because the answer would be too obvious). And what do books and clothes possibly have in common? As curator of the Miu Miu Literary Club, founded and directed by Miuccia Prada since 2024, these are all questions I have had ample opportunity to reflect on.

At first, I enthusiastically tried to articulate points of connection. For example, I would say, there is this relentless search for the great classic, the universal novel capable of enduring beyond time, just like that iconic handbag that survives the rapid succession of trends; and then there is style, which (I discovered through studying) is a concept shared by both worlds and derives from the Latin word stylus, the pointed object used in antiquity to write on wax or clay tablets. Today, both in literature and in fashion, style is that thing which leaves a mark, which is not easily forgotten after reading a story or after meeting someone who is not only well dressed, but who stands out in a uniquely personal way.

Finally, there is the question of the plot: the plot of a book, the weave of a fabric. This point has often given me the perfect opening to say that, after all, both fashion and literature are ecosystems driven by the desire to tell stories. They do so by intertwining elements that signify themselves but also something beyond themselves, and in part, even without directly intending to, they always have something to say about the society and context that produced them.

And yet, although these observations are received with interest by my interlocutors, they are not enough to answer their questions, because on their own they fail to dismantle the prejudice, alive on both sides, that fashion belongs to the realm of frivolity while literature belongs to that of knowledge, often perceived as difficult and dusty.

Recently, during an afternoon of doomscrolling, I came across a post commenting on what the author considered the paradoxical choice of using Simone de Beauvoir’s image for an event related to the fashion industry. There is even an interview, the social media user pointed out, in which the French philosopher supposedly said that fashion was literally the last thing on her mind.

That made me smile.