You gotta keep your head straight about clothes

As a student at Central Saint Martins in the early aughts, spending money on fashion books was something I couldn’t—and didn’t think—to do. That was until 2010, when I spent an afternoon in Paris with the designer Christophe Lemaire who introduced me to Cheap Chic.

Part fan letter, part essay, You gotta keep your head straight about clothes is an appreciation of the first consumer guidebook to thrift store shopping, published in New York in 1975. This is my tribute to its authors Carol Troy and Caterine Milinaire.’

Dal Chodha is a writer and editor based in London who also teaches at Central Saint Martins. His first book SHOW NOTES—an original hybrid of journalism, poetry and provocation—was released in 2020.