How can dress impact a journey through disabling illness and recovery from South Africa to London?

Navigating the development of her complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from her home in South Africa, to university in Oxford, and recovery in London, author Nica Cornell uses the garments she travelled with to reflect on her experience. Cornell explores the effect of garments such as her Ankara sheath dress, Sub fusc, and second-hand clothing, and how they influenced her experience of alienation, exclusion, and realisation.

Sickness in Style explores the challenges of dressing and how it can become an obstacle to accessing the external world, as well as how beauty can be rediscovered through second-hand outfits. This book is ideal reading for students of Fashion Studies, Disability Studies, Psychology, and Migration Studies.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• Content warning
• Introduction
• Learning objectives
• Part I
  • 1 International student orientation: Oxford, England
  • 2 Sub fusc: Oxford, England
  • 3 Dinner with the Provost: Oxford, England
  • 4 Legally disabled: Oxford, England
  • 5 Going home: Alice, South Africa
  • 6 Taxing travel: Ealing, London
  • 7 Moving in: Ealing, London
  • 8 A porcelain pillbox: Ealing, London
  • 9 Exotic Ealing: Ealing, London
  • 10 Five roses: Ealing, London
  • 11 Walking in Walpole: Ealing, London
  • 12 Alone and unsafe: Ealing, London
  • 13 Mary’s Living & Giving: Ealing, London
  • 14 Calleycat the alleycat: Ealing, London
  • 15 Medication: Ealing, London
  • 16 Medical illness: Ealing, London
  • 17 Don’t lock the door: Ealing, London
• Part II
  • 18 Elegance in Ealing: Ealing, London
  • 19 Foreign fiancée: Ealing, London
  • 20 Engaged: Ealing, London
  • 21 Stuttering shame: Ealing, London
  • 22 Paperwork purgatory: Ealing, London
  • 23 Elegance in Ealing continued: Ealing, London
  • 24 Breaking up on the bus: Bristol, London
  • 25 Elegance in Ealing continued: Ealing, London
  • 26 Pregnancy scare: Ealing, London
  • 27 Trousseau: Ealing, London
  • 28 Morning of marriage: Ealing, London
  • 29 Civil ceremony: Haringey, London
  • 30 Reception: Richmond, London
  • 31 Wife: Ealing, London
  • 32 Immigrant: Croydon, London
  • 33 New job: Ealing, London
  • 34 Newlywed: Ealing, London
  • 35 Elegance in Ealing continued: Ealing, London
  • 36 Calamity: Ealing, London
  • 37 Pandemic: Ealing, London
  • 38 Elegance in Ealing continued: Ealing, London
  • 39 A visa: Ealing, London
  • 40 Conclusion: London, England
• Notes
• Suggested discussion topics
• References
• Index

Nica Cornell is a South African writer and scholar.