Fashion is Spinach

New York: Grosset & Dunlap. Good. (c.1938, 1940). Reprint. Hardcover. (no dust jacket) [bumping/fraying to cloth at corners and spine ends, light soiling/browning to page edges, one-time owner's signature on front endpaper, front hinge a little weak but not split or separated; a perfectly good reading/reference copy]. The brilliant Miss Hawes's first book, in which she "tells what is wrong with the fashion racket -- and what women can do about it," has become an enduring classic. Her approach and attitude are pretty much summed up by the titles (and one-line summaries) of the book's two sections: Part I, "The French Legend" ("All beautiful clothes are made in the houses of the French Couturières and all women want them."); and Part II, "Buy American" ("All American women can have beautiful clothes."). Hawes was an early and outspoken champion of economical, ready-to-wear fashions for both women and men; her book is in part dedicated "to the future designers of mass-produced clothes the world over." This Grosset & Dunlap reprint -- much scarcer, for some reason, than the original Random House edition (which went through multiple printings) -- contains a new 4-page Preface by the author, in which she discusses her life since the book's first publication in March 1938, including her activities in the fashion industry and her then-new gig as Women's Editor of the about-to-launch newspaper PM. I believe this material, which is quite interesting, was unique to this edition (i.e. has not been included in more modern reprints), although I can't absolutely swear to it. .