'I do not believe that, even where it is strongest, irony has convinced us that nothing is real, true, or ours. We believe, when we let ourselves, that there are things we can trust, people we can love, words we can say in earnest,' writes Jedediah Purdy in his just published, much discussed polemic, 'For Common Things.' But trudging from one desultory runway show to another last week, absent of the least shred of joy or excitement, it was easy to forget that there was once a time when the fashion flock looked at clothes with anything except irony. (Surely no one started out in this business strictly for the purpose of feeding the bloated egos and pockets of people like Tommy Hilfiger or... More >>>