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Overview
Tracy Peacock Tynan grew up in London in the 1950’s and 60s, privy to her parents’ glamorous parties and famous friends—Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Orson Welles. Cecil Beaton and Katharine Hepburn were her godparents. These stylish showbiz people were role models for Tracy, who became a clotheshorse at a young age.
Tracy’s father, Kenneth Tynan, was a powerful theater critic and writer for the Evening Standard, The Observer, and The New Yorker. Her mother was Elaine Dundy, a successful novelist and biographer, whose works have recently been revived by The New York Review of Books. Both of Tracy’s parents, particularly her father, were known as much for what they wore as what they wrote.
In her “moving, candid, and often hilarious” memoir (Wall Street Journal), Tracy recalls her father’s dandy attire and her mother’s Pucci dresses, as well as her parents’ rancorous marriage and divorce, her father’s prodigious talents and celebrity lifestyle, and her mother’s lifelong struggle with addiction. She tackles issues big and small—relationships, marriage, children, stepchildren, blended families, her parent’s decline and deaths, and her work as a costume designer—with humor, insight, and with the special joy that can only come from finding the perfect outfit. “A powerful concoction of famous names, famous fashions, and famous psychiatric disorders…Wear and Tear is just the thing for a weekend in the Hamptons” (New York Post).
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781501123696 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Scribner |
| Publication date: | 07/11/2017 |
| Pages: | 320 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Clothing? 1
Chapter 1 The Lemon-Yellow Underpants 7
Chapter 2 My Mother's Fur Coat 11
Chapter 3 The Pearl Necklace 17
Chapter 4 The Pale Blue Chemise 25
Chapter 5 School Uniforms: Purple, Blue, and None 35
Chapter 6 The Brown Wellington Boots 45
Chapter 7 Bikinis and Water Skis 53
Chapter 8 The Apple-Green Shoes 61
Chapter 9 The White Cotton Circle-Stitched Torpedo Bra 69
Chapter 10 White Jeans and White Denim Jacket 75
Chapter 11 My Mothers Pucci Dress 85
Chapter 12 The Gold Flapper Dress 91
Chapter 13 The Silver Chain and the Poncho 97
Chapter 14 Sexeapades and the Plaid Pinafores 107
Chapter 15 Twenty-One in Ossie Clark 117
Chapter 16 The One-Size-Fits-All Clothing That Fits in a Bag 129
Chapter 17 Pierrot 137
Chapter 18 The Brown Fedora and the Gold Lamé Jeans 143
Chapter 19 The Leisure Suit and Guayabera Years 155
Chapter 20 Black Is Black: Memorials 1, 2, and 3 165
Chapter 21 The Diaries and the Gold Watch 179
Chapter 22 The Chitenge 187
Chapter 23 The T-shirt Wedding Dress 193
Chapter 24 Breathless Beginnings: The Shirt-jac 203
Chapter 25 Freebies, '50s Glamour, and Funky Smells 213
Chapter 26 The Maroon Plaid Dress 217
Chapter 27 It Helps to Be Married to the Costume Designer: The Crepe de Chine Wedding Dress 229
Chapter 28 Great Balls of Fire! The Faux-Leopard-Trim Suit 233
Chapter 29 The Pink Knitted Cap 239
Chapter 30 The Striped Silk Socks 255
Chapter 31 The Pink Quartz Heart 261
Chapter 32 The Muji T-shirt 269
Chapter 33 The Ultimate Blended Family: More Wedding Attire 279
Chapter 34 The Black Trench Coat 283
Chapter 35 Glamour Togs 291
Chapter 36 Comfort with Style 297
Acknowledgments 303