Articles of Interest

By Avery Trufelman

Arts Fashion & Beauty

What's Articles of Interest about?

Articles of Interest is a show about what we wear.

Produced and Hosted by Avery Trufelman

4.9

21512,151 ratings

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Articles of Interest episodes:

03.20.2024
Nudity
Sometimes it’s liberating to be naked. Sometimes it’s really really not. Notes, links, and images at articlesofinterest.substack.com
11.08.2023
Chromophobia
Color. Why we need it. Why we fear it. And where its future might lie. Images and links at articlesofinterest.substack.com Radiotopia’s fall fundraiser is here! Donate today to support Articles of Interest. Thank you! https://on.prx.org/3sbvvOR
10.25.2023
A Few Shoes [LIVE]
On stage in Toronto, with the help of shoe designer Aurora James and shoe historian Elizabeth Semmelhack, we go over a few shoes- and what they say about ourselves and the world. Images of all the shoes discussed are at...
10.11.2023
Wearing Hair
You and I both know this. The supply chain is super messed up. The way humans make clothing is deeply messed up. So should we just make garments made of human hair? A very real question, with very real answers....
09.27.2023
More Pockets
This is a special re visit of one of my favorite stories: Pockets. Followed up by a special live interview with Hannah Carlson, author of the book Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close, to see what’s...
09.13.2023
Plus Sizes
Plus-sized fashion seems to live in a separate trend cycle. There are different patterns, different cuts. And most notably, women’s shirts often have holes in their shoulders. And this separate plus-sized fashion universe reveals a lot about the way clothes...
08.30.2023
The Corduroy Appreciation Club
A secret society. A secret tradition. And a cloth that somehow lends itself to ritual. articlesofinterest.substack.com (I can’t believe that, fatefully, this is the 11th episode of the year.)
08.16.2023
Paisley
Himanshu kept seeing paisley everywhere: from his home temple to his couch cushions to his mom’s pants. Some of these products were Indian but a lot weren’t. How did this pattern get embraced by the world? See articlesofinterest.substack.com for images, links...
08.02.2023
Paper and Rubber
This is about two examples of cloth-alternatives. One that went extinct. And one that’s very much alive. This story deals with sex and sexuality. But in a fun way! Images, links, and more details at articlesofinterest.substack.com
07.05.2023
Fashion Without Capitalism
In the 1980s, Budapest was not quite socialist and not quite capitalist, and there was one fashion designer who thrived in this moment. This is the story of Tamás Király, an unusual artist from an unusual period of Hungarian history,...
06.21.2023
The Black Fashion Museum
The tricky thing about fashion is that, in order to preserve its history, you need to preserve physical garments. And, alas, closet space is finite, cloth gets sun-bleached and eaten by moths, and Americans notoriously do not care about their...
06.07.2023
Prison Uniforms (with Ear Hustle)
Prison uniforms are not, in fact, uniform. There are so many types of clothes that are worn across different facilities… including … some prisons that don’t have uniforms at all. This episode is a special collaboration between Articles Of Interest and...
05.24.2023
How To Dress
Think of this mini episode as a tiny makeover in your ears. Amy Smilovic, the founder of Tibi, has some of the best advice when it comes to gathering a wardrobe and putting outfits together. These are some of my favorite...
05.10.2023
Our Mannequins, Ourselves
Behind the scenes at the Costume Institute, we see how long it really takes to dress a mannequin. And learn about a few famous mannequins from the past. For images, links, and more, go to articlesofinterest.substack.com
04.26.2023
Inside The Factory
On the ten year anniversary of a horrible manufacturing disaster- a look at what has changed, what hasn’t, and the massive secret industry behind it all. If you’d like to sign the petition from Clean Clothes Campaign, click here or head...
04.12.2023
On Pointe
The pointe shoe is a design that balances at the very tip of both tradition and innovation. What can make it change?
03.29.2023
The Clueless Closet
Ever since 1995, a generation has been dreaming of Cher’s digital closet from the movie Clueless. So why don’t we have it yet? It’s not the technology. It’s a psychological problem with the way fashion works.
12.07.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 7
I have a confession to make. To see images, notes and full transcripts, go to articlesofinterest.substack.com Articles of Interest is made by Avery Trufelman Edited by Kelly Prime Mixed and Mastered by Ian Coss Album art by Helen Shewolfe Tseng and photography by Matty Lynn...
11.30.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 6
As the 80s turns into the 90s, preppy is everywhere. All over the planet. In the United States AND Japan. And sure, preppy sort of morphs into business casual. But it also turns into something else. Something way more fashionable. To...
11.23.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 5
Ralph Lauren ascends. And so does a slender little joke book that no one expected to be a colossal, massive bestseller. Just in time for the secret fashion revolution of the 1980s that no one ever talks about. To see images,...
11.16.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 4
Ivy starts to go out of style, thanks to the counterculture (with a lot of help from corporate America). But Ivy finds an unlikely savior in a Jewish college dropout from the Bronx. To see images, notes, and full transcripts, go...
11.09.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 3
The look of the elite somehow becomes the look for everyone. And as more and more people are taking on Ivy, it only becomes cooler and cooler. Which goes against everything I thought I knew about trends. To see images, notes,...
11.02.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 2
So where does Ivy begin? The short answer: Princeton University. The long answer is a spiral that takes us from a 1940s Chinese prison camp, to the raucous party culture of 1920s London, to the docks of downtown New York...
10.26.2022
American Ivy: Chapter 1
A trend forecaster follows up on a trend report from 2016. A prominent fashion buyer tells me his trends for fall 2022. And I wonder why one particular trend, against all odds, seems to come back over and over again To...
10.12.2022
American Ivy: Prologue
Articles of Interest is a show about what we wear. And for a long time, one particular look has come back in style again and again and again. Or maybe it never went away. Season 3 will get to the...
06.27.2020
12. Wedding Dresses
A wedding was once seen as a start of young adulthood. Now, a wedding has come to represent a crowning achievement -- a symbol that your whole life is together and you have accrued the time and space and resources...
06.26.2020
11. Diamonds
Diamonds represent value, in all its multiple meanings: values, as in ethics, and value as in actual price. But what are these rocks actually worth? The ethics and costs of diamond rings have shifted with society, from their artificial scarcity...
06.25.2020
10. Suits
Menswear can seem boring. If you look at any award show, most of the men are dressed in black pants and black jackets. This uniform design can be traced back to American Revolution, classical statuary, and one particular bloke bopping...
06.24.2020
9. Perfume
The world of high end perfume is surprisingly lucrative, considering that scent is often the most ignored of our senses. But one can't judge a scent solely by the brand and shape of the bottle. With the right amount of...
06.23.2020
8. Knockoffs
Brands hold immense sway over both consumers and the American legal system. Few know this as well as Dapper Dan, who went from street hustler to fashion impresario and has spent time on both sides of American trademark law. Articles of...
06.22.2020
7. A Fantasy of Fashion
In the wake of World War II, the government of France commissioned its most prominent designers to create a collection of miniature fashion dolls. It might seem like an odd thing to fund, but the fantasy of high fashion inspired...
03.18.2019
Theme Music by Sasami
"Articles of Interest" theme song by Sasami Ashworth Sasami’s new album is out now. Get it!
12.11.2018
6. Punk Style
There is this myth that it’s frivolous or unproductive to care about how you look. Clothing and fashion get trivialized a lot. But think about who get associated with clothing and fashion: young people, women, queers and people of color...
12.10.2018
5. Blue Jeans
For the most part, we tend to keep our clothes relatively clean and avoid spills and rips and tears. But denim is so hard-wearing and hard-working that it just kind of amasses more and more signs of wear. So you...
12.09.2018
4. Hawaiian Shirts
There are a few ways to tell if you’re looking at an authentic, high-quality aloha shirt. If the pockets match the pattern, that’s a good sign, but it’s not everything. Much of understanding an aloha shirt is about paying attention...
12.08.2018
3. Pockets
Womenswear is littered with fake pockets that don’t open, or shallow pockets that can hardly hold more than a paperclip. If women’s clothes have pockets at all, they are often smaller and just fit less than men’s pockets do. And...
12.07.2018
2. Plaid
Lumberjacks wore plaid. Punks wore plaid mini skirts. The Beach Boys used to be called the Pendletones, and they wore plaid with their surfboards. Lots of different groups have adopted the pattern over the course of the 20th century, but...
12.06.2018
1. Kids' Clothes
Clothes are records of the bodies we’ve lived in. Think of the old sweater that you used to have that’s just not your style anymore, or the jeans that just aren’t your size anymore. We are like snakes who shed...