A Year in Reading: Ken Layne
What Artists Wear by Charlie Porter (2021)
How artists choose their daily uniforms is Charlie Porter’s subject in this delightful book that flows like a good conversation.
From Warhol’s uniform of Levi jeans and turtlenecks and Georgia O’Keefe’s simple tailored suits of perfectly draped black wool to Joshua Tree artist Andrea Zittel’s decades-long project of seasonal/daily uniforms and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paint-splattered Armani suits, Porter shows how artists—especially queer artists—subvert class, racial, and gender roles in their matter-of-fact approach to life.
By taking on a uniform, you simultaneously quit thinking about clothes and force the world to deal with you on your own terms. The book itself
