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Liked It “it was a very interesting read, expose us to all the casualness, rushness and craziness at the back stage of the oh-so-glamorous runway and the personal life of a fashion designer. The whole scene seems to have floated with fags, booze and coke. It spells Chic in a capital C” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“it was a very interesting read, expose us to all the casualness, rushness and craziness at the back stage of the oh-so-glamorous runway and the personal life of a fashion designer. The whole scene seems to have floated with fags, booze and coke. It spells Chic in a capital C”
Jean wrote this review Wednesday, November 25 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“As good as the other Babylon books, great for a light read”
Nina C wrote this review Wednesday, October 28 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“It just shows that the fashion industry is not all about glamour and sophistication. More like a savage jungle . . . wherein the latest fads and brands are the reigning predator!”
Melissa Noelle B wrote this review Saturday, October 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Its a frenzied look at people who live, eat and breathe fashion from the point of view of an anonymous designer and six months of planning for a fashion collection, where name recognition and a side line of perfume is a way to keep your head above water. Only sabotage is around the corner if your design gets copied or your dress somehow doesn't make it on the back of an oscar contender. It's bitchy and catty and exhausting book.But you have to admire those with dedication to succeed against all odds in a highly competitive industry.”
Selina C wrote this review Thursday, August 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“A frank and often hilarious look up at fashion industry’s underpants, “Fashion Babylon” is an intriguing non-fictional account in a six-month period that marks a designer’s life in between creating collections. Imogen Edwards-Jones and Anonymous ( the insider who spills the juicy tidbits about our revered designers and celebs), recounts the world of glamour through a fictitious designer.
Johanna wrote this review Saturday, June 20 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
What makes the novel so intriguing is that the gossipy anecdotes are all true! This is a work of non-fiction and only a few names are changed to protect the identities. But, there are a lot of real names in there, names we do know as fashion icons— Anna Wintour, Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, to name a few. Oh, and the book gives us a pretty good idea of how things really work in the world of high fashion and the mind-boggling lifestyle endemic to it. It is a wonder how many survive the almost daily booze and drugs needed to keep up with all the stresses of deadlines, backstabbing, career and financial precariousness over a single mediocre collection, etc.
Anything and everything — clothes, accessories, pets, food, hobbies, people– fall into two categories: “cool” or very last season. “Coolness” is a very unpredictable status which can turn into “last season” in a blink of an eye if the wrong sort of people get their hands on the trend:
“…Stella McCartney’s over-the-knee non-leather boots are a case in point. They were worn by Madonna on Monday, Posh on Wednesday, and a footballer’s wife on the Friday. In fashion terms they were dead and buried within a week.
Half of the reason why companies like Balenciaga are always churning out new versions of the same bag is because they are constatnly being killed off by the wrong sort of celebrity. You can imagine how much Roland must have wanted to slash his wrists when he saw Countdown’s Carol Vorderman wearing his dress. It went from Scarlet Johansson via Cameron Diaz and Rachel Weisz to Carol in three months. As a result, Scarlett is now running miles from the Galaxy dress. In the end, I suppose that is the price of having a hit collection.” —- pp. 202 -203
In fashion, image is everything. That is why…
“…Thousands of pounds of expensive, beautiful clothes are destroyed every year by their own designers rather than being sold somewhere that might tarnish the brand. Fashion may be about beauty and aesthetic and aspiration, but it is also about the brand. Brand is everything. Tarnish the brand and what are you left with? Why pay a thousand pounds for a dress that you know costs less than a hundred pounds to make? Why buy a Chanel bag when there is one at Accessorize that is just as charming? So, rather than helping out those less fortunate than ourselves, we guard our image and burn the lot.” … p.105
“…You might be starving, drunk and high , with dried-up kidneys and the liver of a fifty-five-year-old alcoholic, but just as long as you can make it down the catwalk looking fabulous, who cares?”…p. 81
And the pervasive exhaustion of it all is partly because…
“Drugs are endemic in this insudstry because it is all about make-believe…You can’t really talk seriously about fashion–there is nothing to talk about. You can’t just say I have done this great skirt this season. It’s all about dressing this bitch because she’s cool and she’s going to help my brand. If she goes out in this dress she is going to give me some kudos, so I have to get up her arse, and then I have to be nice and suck cok with some journalist, and then I have to be nice to this buyer to help my brand. It is all so soul-destroying….You don’t make friends in this industry. There is no camaraderie. There is no one trying to make real connections. People are parasites. They do the fashion rubbish talk. That’s why people are high all the time, to help them escape it all. They’d rather not confront the reality. We all live on fresh air, so it has to be high-octane and fun otherwise we would all sit here and say, “I’m not making any money. What the fuck am I doing?”….p. 181
If you want the insider tidbits on fashion’s characters, this book is chock-full of it. If you’re a hard-core fashionista, perhaps a lot would be old hat to you by now. But to the less glamorous of us, some will be just downright funny and shocking at the same time. Did you know that…
“Thiery Mugler has an atelier where there is a glass shower by the gym so anyone who is in the gym can work out while watching someone hosing themselves down.”
“…Sienna Miller gets seeded by nearly everyone. In fact, the girl gets something like twenty-six handbags a month, and they are worth between £2,000 and £30,000 each. An estate car comes to her house every week loaded down with dresses, bags, coats, hats, make-up, body products and, more weirdly, candles.” — p. 134
“Gwyneth Paltrow can’t cope with all the stuff she gets sent out. She often has parties at her house where she invites all her mates over to go through the piles of freebies on the instruction that they can take what they want.” — p. 134
There’s never a dull moment with this book in hand. Lightly written with lots of contemporary droll English wit, Fashion Babylon will delight every gossipy heart that loves fashion and celebrities. Plus the astonishing revelations behind the backroom of couture is guaranteed to keep you marvelously glued in between covers.
My Mark : Fabulous!”
“loved the anonymity of the charachters...”
Shalu wrote this review Sunday, February 17 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Love Imogen Edwards-Jones and her anonymous contributors. The first in her "Babylon" series became my favorite TV show, Hotel Babylon, and this meringue of a book turns it jaundiced eye to high fashion....instead of a 24-hour format like the others, this follows a designer through a seasonal collection and demonstrated how thin the margins are but somehow not only explains but induces the absolute thrall of couture. ”
wsstephens wrote this review Friday, February 15 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I've always been really interesting in fashion and its good to see how the industry really works. It was even better than I expected it to be. Yeah, the people are bitchy, cruel and they gossip like hell but there's nothing better than hearing about other people's lives. I was engrossed in this book, I read it all in a day, and the other two by Imogen Edward Jones are just as good.”
imadirtyrobot wrote this review Friday, September 28 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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