My Life in Clothes

“Despite my mother’s efforts to tame me, I resisted, holding onto my creature nature until the day she informed me I would no longer be running naked in the yard or showering with my dad. It took a few scoldings before I was transformed from colt to show-pony: a proper reflection of whichever laundered, starched, pressed, brushed, straightened, zippered, tied, and buttoned garment was placed upon me.” From the foreword of Summer Brenner's new collection of short stories, My Life in Clothes. These stories explore the charm, tyranny, and preoccupation of clothes, on and off, bought, made, or found, fashion or function, projection or expression, body and soul turned inside out.