Why do I put what I put on my body? It was in search of an answer to this very question that spurred Sheila Heti to visit her local bookstore in early 2012. In a cool irony, the trip was actually inspired by a man. “I went to look for a book on dressing because my boyfriend, who I had just moved in with, is such a good dresser and I felt ashamed by it,” recalls the 37-year-old writer and editor, from her home in Toronto. “I didn’t realise how much pleasure there is to be found in thinking about clothes, and I wanted to read a book that would help me think about clothes in a better way. I went to the bookstore and there was just nothing that could help me think about clothes in the way I wanted to.”
Heti set out to find the answers herself, writing a series of questions about clothes and sending them to friends, colleagues and associates canvassing opinion about what they wore, and why. It was academic in its approach but, crucially, it demanded intensely personal responses: do you think you have taste or style? Do you notice women on the street? Do you have a dress code? When do you feel your most attractive? [Can you] tell us about something in your closet that you keep but never wear? Are there any dressing rules you’d convey to other women? What’s your process of getting dressed every morning? What are you trying to achieve when you dress? What’s the situation with your hair?
Although Heti hadn’t imagined a life for her research much beyond a possible magazine article, its potential for something bigger emerged when she showed the survey to Heidi Julavits (a co-founding editor of the Believer magazine, with Heti, and an associate professor at Columbia University).