"The Body Is Plot"
Style Questionnaire with Emma Copley Eisenberg
Please Welcome to Big Undies!!
Emma is a 38-year-old writer of books living in Philadelphia. Her most recent book is a novel called Housemates, which, if you haven’t read it yet WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Her next book Fat Swim will be out next spring and I CANNOT wait to read it. She also writes the wonderful
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What are you wearing right now?
I am wearing a more or less matching set of dark grey drawstring linen shorts and a dark grey tank top both from Eileen Fisher (similar & similar, XXS-3X). I thought Eileen Fisher was only for women of my mom’s generation and tax bracket, but I bought this set on sale a few years ago and wear it like three days a week in summer. Also a red baseball cap that is the Philadelphia Phillies logo but uses that P to say “Free Palestine.”
What is the mood for you currently?
The mood is taking myself on a 4pm happy hour date and eating a peach and heirloom tomato salad just to feel alive.
What was the last item of clothing you bought?
Flabelus Mary Janes. They’re machine washable! And velvet! And have no buckle, just a strap so I can pull them on.
Where did you get clothes as a kid? Describe a favorite childhood outfit.
We were doing a lot of Filene’s basement, we were doing a lot of T.J. Maxx and Loehman’s (RIP). We were hoping to do the American Girl Doll catalogue for a velvet cloak in my size to match Samantha. Delia’s was ubiquitous. I loved pinafores and overalls and dresses that communicated “little house on the prairie.” I don’t think much has changed.
Tell me about an item of clothing that you wear only to do a specific activity.
It didn’t start out this way but I bought a very bright and flowy neon green dress from Wray and now it’s kind of my professional uniform. Book event? The dress. Meeting someone fancy who intimidates me? The dress.
What did you wear to the last party or event you attended?
The Dress.
How do you think about clothes in your own fiction writing and character/world building?
Ok thank you for asking because I just went on a rant about this and I don’t think it made sense but it did help me clarify my feelings on this topic. Essentially I went to a very traditional MFA program for fiction writing (not Iowa, but similar vibes) and my professor there kept pointing out places in my stories where I was describing what someone was wearing and telling me to cut them. “It’s unnecessary,” she said, “we don’t need to know what a character wears.” But I disagree! Now I have a better sense of why I was doing that and I do it on purpose: 1. because fashion and clothes are how queer people communicated with each other for decades and signaled to each other, and 2. because clothes are a part of our bodies and how our bodies are read and acted upon in the world. Race, body size, ability and disability—the world treats people differently based on all these things, and they determine who characters are and what they want. I write the body and clothes very intentionally into fiction now. The body is plot, and our clothes are part of our bodies so our clothes are part of the plot.
You wrote the frump manifesto in 2017 and wrote about frump going mainstream last year. I’m just curious how you’re feeling about frump these days, if it has shifted or morphed at all, or if you have any new sources of frump inspiration.
Am I less frump now than I was before it went mainstream? Maybe a little. I have been exploring maximalism and what the girlies call “dopamine dressing” (bright colors! Patterns!) which I think is a certain kind of frump, but also a little antithetical to frump in that it often attracts attention. When I walk down the street in The Dress, people holler at me — usually other fat women! — being like “I love” and “she is gorgeous.” I’m trying to be more comfortable with being perceived. I’m also cautiously trying out showing my boobs more. I think as a kid who got breasts super early I internalized a strong imperative to cover them up so I wouldn’t get inappropriately sexualized. But now I’m an adult woman and it’s, like, fine to show some boob if I feel like it. I want to dress like Megan Stalter on Hacks now! We stan her scrunchies!
Tell me about an accessory or piece of clothing that you lost or ruined but still think about.
Wow. I haven’t thought about it in years but it came immediately back to me. I had this black velvet (a theme?) Betsy Johnson babydoll dress in college when I was actively in my eating disorder. It was incredible! And showed just the right amount of boob. I lost it biking home one night — it flew out of my bike basket never to be seen again!
Who do you think has good style?
My partner, my friends. My mom honestly—she knew about Eileen Fisher way before everyone else and has amazing jewelry.
Atsuko Okatsuka.
Janelle Monáe.
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Shannon Keatings.
Rama Duwaji, Zohran Mamdani’s hot bisexual wife.
Belle from Beauty & the Beast.
Anything else you want to tell us about getting dressed?
Thank you for asking all of these! I am now sitting in the sushi takeout place looking at everyone else’s outfits
Emma, Thank you so much for doing the style questionnaire! Please subscribe to , and buy a copy of Housemates.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on frump and the body as plot in the comments!
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I ALWAYS want to know what characters in novels are wearing.
I love The Dress and that yellow jumpsuit with pink clogs. Thanks, Emma!