It was a fashion battle of the bands. In November 1973, American and French designers went head to head in an ostentatious and outrageous fashion show in Paris. The competition, set up by American fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert with the assistance of French aristocrat Marie-Helene de Rothschild, was held in the Theatre Gabriel in the Chateau de Versailles. It was ostensibly a benefit for charity; the evening would be dinner and a fashion show between five French (Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, […]
Memoir. Fashion. Not for me.
This was the March pick of my book club and I went into it with much trepidation. I don’t read a lot of memoirs, and I don’t care about fashion sooo take what I say with those grains of salt. I did NOT like this book. Here is the paragraph that I have selected to illustrate the reasons I didn’t like it. “Despite all the drama, the photograph he took of Tina lounging on the sofa surrounded by parasols was not modern at all. He […]
“To Be a Godey’s Lady….”
In my continual search for quantitative research on Godey’s Lady’s Book, I came across “Mr. Godey’s Ladies: Being a Mosaic of Fashions and Fancies” by Robert Kunciov, which after the disappointment of the “Sarah Josepha Hale” book, I was leery. I was pleasantly surprised however, by the wonderful reproductions and a few color plates of the original etchings, as well as the author’s selections of excerpts from the original text. He begins with a chronology of the types of fashions, detailing the trends, colors, and […]
a very stylish Cannonball
I’m so thankful to have completed my (very first) Cannonball with a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I am in the fashion “industry” which is fancy talk for “I have a degree in fashion merchandising but really I sell high end dresses to the discerning women of Dallas.” I actually work at a store that sells Diane Von Furstenberg’s line and own a few of her pieces, I’m a fan of her jersey knits and bold prints. I knew she married a prince and came to […]
Does the author know how he feels about his subject matter?
(This post originally appeared on Persephone Magazine.) Though anything overly cliquish, with rules of operation and preconceived notions, makes me squirm, I realized that I had made assumptions of my own about the word “Twee,” and any movement that might be associated with it. So with mixed feelings did I pick up one mouthful of a title: Twee: The Gentle Revolution in Music, Books, Television, Fashion, and Film by Marc Spitz. Spitz begins by acknowledging that, for some, Twee is a pejorative term meant to […]
Style. Ish.
I was drawn to this book because I usually like Kate Spade’s designs. The color combinations aren’t always my thing, and I wouldn’t wear everything she makes, but she definitely has a point of view. I figured this book might help me out as I try to sort through exactly what my own style is, beyond dresses with pockets. Aren’t dresses with pockets are the best? I don’t understand why more shops don’t sell them. But back to the book. I’ve finished it and I’m […]
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