Of course there was a reason why, when I pulled on yesterday's jeans to come to Charlotte Square today, I added a blue scarf from a Delhi market and my favourite blue-and-gold vintage Italian shoes from Mr Ben in Glasgow. But I didn't give much thought to this subconscious calculation until Linda Grant began to speak in the Scottish Power Studio Theatre.

Grant's new book The Thoughtful Dresser explores fashion; a word synonymous in many minds with frivolity. But why? Grant asserts that this dismissal of the importance of fashion is rooted in a Catch 22 misogyny; women are judged for our appearance, and judged for being interested in our appearance.

Grant tells the story of several generations of her family, and the way their journey was shaped by clothes; or the way clothes shaped their journey. After immigrating to England, the author's grandfather bought the shoes of the dead door-to-door and refurbished them; they were then sold on a stall in Bootle market by her grandmother. Outside of the class system from the beginning, Grant's parents developed a keen knowledge of the intricate relationship between clothing and society. Her mother regarded shopping for clothes as an activity which must be taken seriously, and certainly not to be lumped in with the less glamorous domestic tasks. Her father observed that the choice of a homburg rather than a cap could dramatically alter his social journey.

In the darkest times, Grant points out, women seem not to lose interest in clothes. She tells us about the single red shoe amongst the display of shoes in Auschwitz. Her journey to establish the authenticity of the red shoe led her to Catherine Hill, a holocaust survivor who became a pioneering retailer of couture in Toronto. Hill spoke of arriving in the camp, having her head shaved and being issued with standard clothing. She coped with this loss of identity by tearing a strip of cloth from her tunic and tying it in a bow around her head.

Grant suggests that the Puritanism surrounding fashion is fading, largely due to young men, who became aware of fashion on a large scale in the 1980's. For the book, Grant has focused on her own family history, along with the stories of Viet Cong soldiers, holocaust survivors and the family of the first recorded shopaholic in Liverpool. She points out that Puritanical regimes always seem to attack fashion; evident in the 17th century western Puritans and in Mao's China.

The audience is a lively, fashionable one; an unusually diverse crown in terms of age. As Grant speaks, wearing a purple dress and a pair of car-to-bar Dolce and Gabbana shoes featured in the book, I begin to consider the hundreds of calculations which went into choosing the array of costume jewellery, hats, scarves, boots and dresses on display here.