Bring No Clothes

A triumph. I could read Charlie Porter's books all day long. He makes us see a subject we thought we knew so well from a completely different angle; in writing that is deeply researched, but inviting, warm, and full of personality -- Katy Hessel Excellent Porters generous, empathetic eye feels like a corrective for the more salacious historical depictions of the Bloomsbury Groups affairs Bring No Clothes doesnt just introduce a new frame of thinking, it adds a fresh layer of humanity to the collective * Independent * Charlie Porter is a magician, a radical historian who has pulled away all the threadbare myths about Bloomsbury, using clothes as a way of revealing the vulnerable bodies and wild new ideas of Woolf and her circle. In his hands, what people wear becomes an astoundingly rich way of thinking about love and grief, art-making and intimacy - and above all about old power structures and how to upend them. Bring No Clothes is at once an enriching account of the past and a primer for the future: a guide to how we too can clothe our bodies for freedom -- Olivia Laing A call to arms from the first page - it's thrilling and radical -- Chantal Joffe Charlie Porter applies a literary critics close reading to the clothes of the early twentieth century, unpicking philosophical texts from their textures. Bring No Clothes offers a way of recalibrating the world by understanding the tensions that underpin and overdetermine it through the ways we dress. With curiosity and contemporaneity, he finds in the Bloomsbury Groups experiments in intimacy a queer possibility for the way we live today -- Sam Buchan-Watts, author of Path Through Wood Spot-on ... the way the [Bloomsbury] circle thought about clothes was part of a wider revolt ... Thanks to his access to the contents of several Bloomsbury wardrobes, together with a trove of previously unseen photographs, Porter is able to provide a detailed illustration of how "Make it new" played out on the material level * Guardian * One of the best books about Bloomsbury! -- Maggie Humm, author and Vice Chair of the Virginia Woolf Society Fascinating -- Samira Ahmed * BBC Front Row * Unlocks the Bloomsbury Groups wardrobes to expose the intricate interplay between attire, liberation and control * Vogue * A deep dive into the wardrobes of the Bloomsbury Group. Behind colour choices and hemlines are fascinating insights into their bodies and minds * Monocle * Porter clearly enjoys [the Bloomsbury Groups] company exploring how Virginia Woolfs loose, long-line garments, John Maynard Keyness soft tailoring, Vanessa Bells wildly colourful home-made dresses, photographs of a naked Duncan Grant, and the loosening of EM Forsters buttoned-up suits all demonstrate the radicalism of a group of people determined to live differently * New Statesman * Spot-on ... the way the [Bloomsbury] circle thought about clothes was part of a wider revolt ... Thanks to his access to the contents of several Bloomsbury wardrobes, together with a trove of previously unseen photographs, Porter is able to provide a detailed illustration of how "Make it new" played out on the material level * Guardian * Fresh, empathetic personal as much as intellectual Bring No Clothes might be read as the manifesto of a queer human * Times Literary Supplement * - - Praise for What Artists Wear -- - Brilliant, loving, visually incisive -- Hilton Als Compelling * Apollo * Revelatory * Guardian * An insightful account ... whether offering visual analysis or social observation, Porter writes with clarity and wit * Frieze * A fascinating exploration of the clothing worn by the rebels, rule breakers and outliers of the artistic world, and what it means to live in it ... The book defies convention ... Porter's curiosity is infectious * Esquire * Eclectic, invigorating ... the chapters devoted to female artists make for the most fascinating reading, their c

Charlie Porter is a writer, fashion critic and curator. He has written for The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, GQ, Luncheon, i-D and Fantastic Man, and has been described as one of the most influential fashion journalists of his time. Porter co-runs the London queer rave Chapter 10, and is a trustee of the Friends of Arnold Circus, where he is also a volunteer gardener. He lives in London.