Fashion Babylon [Kindle Edition]

Anonymous (Author), Imogen Edwards-Jones (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A shocking, hilarious and uncensored look at what really goes on behind the scenes in the fashion industry. I could not put it down."

-- Candace Bushnell

Product Description

What is fashion? What is fashionable? Who decides what's in and what's out? Why is it green one year and blue the next? Why is one little black dress worth five thousand dollars and another worth fifty? Is the catwalk really that catty? What makes a supermodel so super?

And a designer too hot to touch? Who is making money? Who owns whom? Who hates whom? And who's in each other's pockets? The answers are all to be found in Fashion Babylon.

Taking the reader through six months in a designer's life, it explains how a collection is put together -- from the objects of inspiration to the catwalk, into the shops and, hopefully, onto the cover of a magazine. It examines who goes to the shows and where they sit...and whose backside they have to kiss to get there. Narrated from the point of view of an anonymous A-list British fashion designer looking to break out across the pond and structured around three of the annual "must" industry events in London, Paris and New York, this irresistible work of reportage goes inside the well-cut seams of the fashion world, where women are paid tens of thousands of dollars for simply getting dressed and where a wrong skirt length can cost you your career.

Fashion Babylon decodes the markups and the comedowns, the fabulous extremes and the shoddy shortcuts behind one of the most lucrative and secretive businesses in the world. Witty, naughty and packed with celebrity gossip, this book will forever change the way you peruse the racks at Bergdorf's or flip through the pages of Vogue.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 453 KB
• Publisher: Atria Books (February 6, 2007)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000NY124Q
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,870 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Arts & Entertainment > Graphic Design > Commercial > Fashion Design
  • #73 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Lifestyle & Home > Home & Garden > Crafts & Hobbies > Fashion

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun, very dishy, February 6, 2007

By 

New York Foodie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fashion Babylon (Hardcover)

I tore through this book (as part of my celebration of Fashion Week in New York.) It is liberally peppered with "blind items" and some not-so-blind gossip -- I loved Tom Ford complaining to the Gucci PR firm that they had to find a way to stop Posh Beckham from buying and wearing his clothes! Is this great literature? Of course not. But is it an interesting look behind the curtain at the fashion industry, written in a novel form? Absolutely!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Getting a bit repetitive, August 4, 2007

By 

Meesha "I'm A Lonely Angel Stuck On The Slow ... (South Queensferry, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fashion Babylon (Hardcover)

I've been hooked on nearly all of Imogen Edwards-Jones & "Anonymous"'s books for a while now. First was Hotel & Air Babylon, but now she's starting to show that yes, she hit the nail on the head with a good thing, but she's lost it. After reading this and her most recent book, Beach Babylon, in quick succession, I found myself very disenchanted with the whole series. Beach Babylon I thought would have been ideal after coming back from a beach holiday, but she aimed too high, by setting it on an expensive island resort, which really, the book is not aimed at the kind of person who would go there.

Fashion Babylon - where do I start? It's everything you already know about the fashion industry. The drugs, the stick thin models, the clothes that are "in" one month, and which you won't be seen dead in the next month. Skinny jeans seem to be sticking around for the moment, but for how long? Normally when I get into a fashion, they go out of fashion. And everything's "vintage". And then there's the celebrity name dropping. There's not a page that goes by without Kate Moss or someone else being dropped in there.

Unlike Air & Hotel, which were set over 24 hours, and Beach, which was set over a week, Fashion Babylon was set over six months, and it's a very tedious six months. Imogen did well setting Air & Hotel over a period of 24 hours, as they're fast paced, and barely leave you any time to think. Fashion Babylon is set over six months because it's that amount of time that you need to get ideas for your next 'collection', to getting it onto the catwalk. Interlaced with everything you can possibly imagine, from frills to pink satin, it's confusing, and certainly not aimed at someone like me, but made out to look like it is.

I have to say, as much as I like Imogen Edwards-Jones, I'm going to give her Babylon books a rest for now, and try some of her other books - which seem to be all about her fertility and babies. Funny that.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Based on a True Rumor....., July 13, 2008

By 

Jody (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fashion Babylon (Hardcover)

Chances are you are reading this book because you are into fashion. The chances are, also, that you already heard or read most of the rumors in this book, this book just puts a story around them. A hodgepodge of random fashion and model facts. The interesting part of the novel, just seeing a designer's life and cycle of building a collection to runway.