Out of Style is a love letter to (and written in) street fashion

Required Reading is DoomRocket’s love chest, opened once a month to champion a book that we adore and you should read. The latest: Out of Style, by Dewi Putri Megawati and Zainab Akhtar, from ShortBox.

by Arpad Okay. Behold, says the book, the lives of three ordinary women. Sometimes they are presenting themselves; sometimes they are presented being themselves. Some pages are fully realized illustrated scenes, imaginary photographs, the veritable slices o’ life. Some pages are just the girl, maybe a few variations in the same outfit standing together, or a series of looks with their color palettes keyed out beside them.

Then, a few pages of comics, something related to food or friends or both, a little example of “that time when.” Out of Style could be an inventory, an infographic, step-by-step instructions, and then another string of drawings. Dewi Putri Megawati evokes the sketchbook, though Style is far too clean and curated to actually be the experimental doodle zone of a sketchbook. It’s more like a portfolio or a monograph (aliagraph?). The greatest hits of a tremendous catalog of work.

Megawati’s charm as an illustrator is inseparable from how fresh a take Out of Style is on what comics can be. There are traditional stories told as comics within, but all those life slices without panels — or words, so elegantly and subtly arranged — tell a story, too. The art pops, which excites the form into freshness, making for an enchanting experience. It’s still real: Megawati’s young Muslim women aren’t forced to trade their clouded days for the exuberance that propels the book as a whole. Yet even when it’s serious, Out of Style is fun.

The women are three different ages, from the end of being a kid to not being sure about adulthood yet. Stages where a more mature identity is being formed. Their lives and priorities are in conversation with each other. And at the same time, their similarities harmonize. Cultural traditions, what it feels like in this world for a girl, their hobbies, favorite foods and favorite people, their ambitions. Documenting what appears to be an inexhaustibly extensive well of character ore from the mines of Megawati’s imagination via her professional presentation of mixed mediums makes it so Out of Style reminds me of a role-playing game sourcebook as much as a comic.

The art or fashion book aspect of Out of Style is married to the domestic reality of its subjects’ lives. The result is a love letter to (and written in) street fashion, like FRUiTS magazine or the photography of Tibor Kalman. Outfits put together by people for themselves. A wide variety of looks, casual to elegant styles that all pop with the personality of their wearer. Posing in the music video playing out in their heads. Captured in a faux photograph.

The backgrounds in these fauxtographed scenes are given as much character as the characters, as many dimensions as details given to the infographics. Megawati turns her finely-toned personality-generation muscles as a visual artist and illustrator to the task of creating the vibe of the room. A storefront where your eyes can feel the crisp, chilled-glass touch of the drink cooler door. How she depicts light as a colorist (very painterly) is as mindful of character as any other aspect of the book. Her color choices aren’t just intentional; they’re delineated.

I think we spend the most time with the youngest of the three because hers is the age you really want to see someone spread their wings. Out of Style is a chance to do so. The kid is an ocean of details. Outfits and belongings and acquaintances and preferences and particulars. Comics to show you what’s up in the real world as well as in her head. Both the youngest and the middle, you start with many comics mixed in. The girl in the middle is less about things and more what’s happening. She’s out, doing stuff, creating those moments Megawati captures for us, ones worth remembrance.

The two younger women have more comics peppered through their chapters than the eldest. Her comics come after you get to know her through illustration. Not scenes. No inventory checklist. Mostly portraits. All that came before in Out of Style has been a conversation about identity, who these ladies wish to become, and how they’re doing it. And now here she is.

ShortBox / £17.00
Written by Dewi Putri Megawati and Zainab Akhtar.
Illustrated by Dewi Putri Megawati.
Print production by Naniiebim.
Edited by Zainab Akhtar.

Check out this 7-page preview of Out of Style, courtesy of ShortBox: