While Nocturnes, a collection of poetry and images, is not a tribute to the pianist, it is, in part, inspired by the same sensibilities.

The overture of Wim Wenders’s 1989 documentary Notebook on Cities and Clothes is accompanied by the director’s voiceover on the concept of identity: The word itself gives me shivers. It rings of calm, comfort, contentedness. What is it, identity? To know where you belong? To know your self worth? To know who you are? How do you recognize identity?

FashionEast, opens with a self-evident, though provocative, question: “Can fashion—a phenomenon deeply rooted in its own past and the past of Western civilization—start from zero?” The answer is implicit in the question: no, it cannot.

Stéphane Mallarmé’s fashion magazine La Dernière mode, Gazette du monde et de la Famille has long presented something of a conundrum for those lucky enough to come upon it.

The release of Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu’s latest study on fashion and culture, The Beautiful Generation, coincided with the recent Chinese New Year, an event that exemplified issues addressed in her book.