‘I raced through What Will Be Worn. It’s moving and alive, funny and tender. It is also a rigorous examination of the ways in which women shroud ourselves, figuratively and literally. A very fine book’. – Susan Johnson, author of The Landing
‘With delicacy, flair and an ever-questioning but never judgmental eye, Fagan performs beautifully the dance of writing history, slipping seamlessly back and forth between what is known and what must be imagined.’ – Peggy Frew, author of Hope Farm.
What Will 
Be Worn: a McWhirters story is about my mother’s family, the McWhirters, who once owned the Fortitude Valley department store of the same name.
At the close of World War Two, thanks to multiple inheritances, my grandfather Stirling was McWhirters’ largest individual shareholder. In February 1946, my grandmother Joan was named one of Brisbane’s Ten Best-Dressed Younger Marrieds by The Courier-Mail. A few months later the family moved into a nine-bedroom mansion, complete with ballroom and servants quarters, on a hill overlooking the Indooroopilly reach of the Brisbane River. Stirling bought a few racehorses, including one called Pendulum, by Spearfelt out of Tick Tock. Rationing finally lifted, my grandmother shopped and shopped: dresses, skirts, shirts, shoes, bags, furs, gloves, hats. The children were cared for by a nanny. He played to win and lost, doubling down on his own horses. By decade’s end his inheritance was gone.
In November 1955, a week after Rising Fast failed to finish fast enough to win a second Melbourne Cup, my grandparents divorced. The juicy details of the hearing – his debts and drinking, her alleged affair – were splashed across the pages of the Truth. That same week, in one of life’s strange synchronicities, McWhirters, the family business my grandfather was no longer a part of, was sold to Myer.
The McWhirter building still stands, its grand facade presiding over Brunswick Street Mall in the Valley. What Will Be Worn is, as much as anything, my attempt to peer in through the island windows of that grand facade, past the displays that once drew shoppers from all over Queensland, through the advertisements and social pages, beyond the Truth, and into the lives of my ancestors.
What Will Be Worn was published by Transit Lounge in September 2018, featured on ABC Conversations in October 2018, and longlisted for the Mark and Evette Moran nib Literary Award in 2019.
What Will Be Worn on ABC Conversations with Sarah Kanowski
On Friday 12 October I was interviewed by Sarah Kanowski for ABC Conversations, Australia’s most downloaded podcast 2015–2017. The interview was broadcast on ABC Local radio stations and ABC RN across Australia. The podcast, titled ‘How a department store family’s fortune was won and lost’ is available for download here.
Where to buy What Will Be Worn
Australia & New Zealand
Pick up a copy of What Will Be Worn from your local independent bookshop, or order online from Booktopia.
International
What Will Be Worn can be bought worldwide as an e-book.
Reviews of What Will Be Worn: a McWhirters story
Daniel Juckes reviews What Will Be Worn for Westerly
Cass Moriarty reviews What Will Be Worn
Jo from Booklover Book Reviews reviews What Will Be Worn
Theresa Smith from Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews What Will Be Worn
Janet Mawdesley of Blue Wolf Reviews reviews What Will Be Worn