âTracy Tynan uses the universal medium of clothing to tell the highly specific story of her bohemian British upbringing, and she does so with wit, candor, and yesâstyleâ (Lena Dunham).
Tracy Peacock Tynan grew up in London in the 1950âs and 60s, privy to her parentsâ glamorous parties and famous friendsâLaurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Orson Welles. Cecil Beaton and Katharine Hepburn were her godparents. These stylish showbiz people were role models for Tracy, who became a clotheshorse at a young age.
Tracyâs father, Kenneth Tynan, was a powerful theater critic and writer for the Evening Standard, The Observer, and The New Yorker. Her mother was Elaine Dundy, a successful novelist and biographer, whose works have recently been revived by The New York Review of Books. Both of Tracyâs parents, particularly her father, were known as much for what they wore as what they wrote.
In her âmoving, candid, and often hilariousâ memoir (Wall Street Journal), Tracy recalls her fatherâs dandy attire and her motherâs Pucci dresses, as well as her parentsâ rancorous marriage and divorce, her fatherâs prodigious talents and celebrity lifestyle, and her motherâs lifelong struggle with addiction. She tackles issues big and smallârelationships, marriage, children, stepchildren, blended families, her parentâs decline and deaths, and her work as a costume designerâwith humor, insight, and with the special joy that can only come from finding the perfect outfit. âA powerful concoction of famous names, famous fashions, and famous psychiatric disordersâŚWear and Tear is just the thing for a weekend in the Hamptonsâ (New York Post).