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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'For all who know Brisbane, McWhirters, a once celebrated department store in Fortitude Valley, is an icon. For Melissa Fagan, it is also the starting point for this remarkable exploration of her mother and grandmother’s lives, and a poignant reminder of the ways in which retail stores and fashion have connected women’s lives across decades.
Behind the dusty shop counters of an Art Deco treasure, Fagan discovers both what has been lost and continues to shine. Ultimately this tender exploration of self and family, so exquisitely written, speaks of the ways in which life so often surprises us and of how the legacies of others can truly enrich our own relationships and lives.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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Memoir.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Melissa Fagan, What Will Be Worn: A McWhirters Story
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 26 no. 1 2019; (p. 188-190)
— Review of What Will Be Worn 2018 single work autobiography'When Melissa Fagan stands before the famed McWhirters building in Valley Corner, she tries ‘to decipher what this immutable object, this icon, means to the city and me’, but finds that ‘the building is in my way’ (2018: 8). In this book, she tries to move beyond the Art Deco department store to examine the lives and work of the women who were connected to it by blood and marriage. Weaving together research, reportage, imagined lives and personal memoir, she illuminates the impact of wealth, social expectations and loss across five generations of women.' (Introduction)
-
Melissa Fagan, What Will Be Worn: A McWhirters Story
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Queensland Review , June vol. 26 no. 1 2019; (p. 188-190)
— Review of What Will Be Worn 2018 single work autobiography'When Melissa Fagan stands before the famed McWhirters building in Valley Corner, she tries ‘to decipher what this immutable object, this icon, means to the city and me’, but finds that ‘the building is in my way’ (2018: 8). In this book, she tries to move beyond the Art Deco department store to examine the lives and work of the women who were connected to it by blood and marriage. Weaving together research, reportage, imagined lives and personal memoir, she illuminates the impact of wealth, social expectations and loss across five generations of women.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2019 longlisted Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature
