Abstract
THREE mottoes face the table of contents of this book, two from “Sartor Resartus” and one from Michael Angelo. The analogies they draw between life and clothes, the body, and architecture and its products, are worked out in detail. The author takes the line that psychology having resolved to treat nothing in its province as insignificant, clothing, now regarded as unimportant, may be assumed to be of racial significance, as a phase of the evolution which started on new lines when man emerged. Mr. Heard regards both clothes and architecture as parallel manifestations of an evolutionary force, tracing them from the beginning of weaving and the use of woven wattle for walls in the neolithic age, through Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete, the classical period and historical times, down to the ferroconcrete building of to-day and modern costume, where development apparently has ceased. Fanciful though the analogy may seem, it is perhaps not extravagant to assume that racial character manifesting itself in two media so entirely different may still exhibit a certain convergence in style so far as conditions allow. After a certain stage, however, the standardising, more or less, of all modern communities is unlikely to offer much play for racial individuality, however either clothing or architecture may develop.
Narcissus: an Anatomy of Clothes.
Gerald
Heard
By. (To-day and To-morrow Series.) Pp. 156. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: E. P. Button and Co., 1924.) 2s. 6d. net.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Narcissus: an Anatomy of Clothes . Nature 116, 94 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116094b0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116094b0