Customer Reviews

Fashionistas

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Fashionista" is little more and little less than your average fluffy chick-lit book: A single smart gal in a job-from-hell, some quirky coworkers and plenty of witty little observations about whatever business Single Smart Gal is in. It's a guilty pleasure with a literate twist and a likably wry main character.

Glossy magazine Fashionista is like "Seinfeld" -- it's about nothing. All they do is retread celebrity fashion of the moment, check out celebrity fashion of the past, and just about anything vapid involving celebrities. (Seeing a trend here?) Vig Morgan got involved in this magazine for the glamour, but finds that it's sadly lacking. Iron-rod editor-in-chief Jane McNeill is intent on keeping it vapid and celebrity-driven, even though her staff yearns to give the mag a little substance.

Then a rebellion starts brewing in the ranks. Vig finds herself turned into the linchpin of a conspiracy to get controversial fashion artist Gavin Marshall and his Gilding the Lily (or, to be blunter, "Jesus in Drag" -- Jesus statues in designer women's garb) exhibit into the magazine. But will the uproar be enough to overturn Jane?

Ever since the publication of "The Nanny Diaries," there have been a slew of my-job-is-hell-and-my-boss-is-a-demon books. "Fashionistas" manages to avoid the pitfalls of most books like that. The biggest pit that it DOES fall into is the not-a-relationship that Vig has with the mysterious Alex Keller -- it really adds nothing to the book, and just seems to take up pages that could be devoted to catty power struggles.

Those catty power struggles are what make "Fashionista" so delicious at times. Vig's deadpan recounting of the quirky workplace characters is fun to read. While their oddities sometimes strain believability, they always manage to seem like people who could actually exist. And Messina does a decent job of lampooning the art world (Jesus statues with women's designer clothes), the fashion world, and magazines in general. Since she herself writes for magazines, it somehow doesn't seem surprising.

Vig actually seems like a smart, interesting female lead. She doesn't whine constantly about her weight, her boyfriend, and grimly takes it in stride when she has to cover Cate Blanchett's "curly" phase. Sort-of-boyfriend Alex is a nonentity, and so are quite a few of Vig's coworkers. Maya is a good sidekick for Vig: She's an emotional mess with unpublished novels, a nasty ex, and many stages of grief.

Lynn Messina's take on the fashion world is a nice beach-read. Or if you don't have a beach handy, then "Fashionista" is merely a pleasant light read with plenty of cattiness, fashion and inter-magazine power struggles.

Super fun. The rapport and the cocktails of Sex in the City but wittier. That book that you wish someone would recommend to you when you're online or in a bookstore and not sure what to get. Excited it's going to be a movie - can't wait to see what they do with the battling chief editors Jane and Marguerite.

There were a whole bunch of reviews out comparing Fashionistas (about In Style) with that Prada book (about Vogue) and saying how great Fashionistas was and how bad the other one was - so I bought Fash. And they were absolutely right - Lynn Messina can actually write. And can actually make you laugh out loud.

Great book.

Smart, funny, memorable.
This book is just thoroughly enjoyable all the way through. It's got a bunch of twists and turns that one wouldn't expect in a standard piece of "Chick Lit", which just goes to prove that this particular book transcends the genre!

Fashionistas was a quick read, good for the subway. I never felt like I had to read on to the next page or chapter. The main character, Vig, follows suit with many other fictional heroines like Bridget Jones, or Becky from Confessions of a Shopoholic, she's a young urban woman working in a trendy professional setting, sadly she's just not as interesting as her literary contemporaries. The book is structured around the heroine and her colleagues attempting to get their boss fired. Unfortunately everything that happened, even the twist at the end, was fairly predictable. Her love interest is cute sub-plot, but could have been developed more. It's a good mindless read for the beach or the commute, but not the most memorable book.

This book is very light, humorous, and refreshingly different from a lot of books that I've read.
Although it doesn't have the heart pounding suspense of a 'good guy/bad guy' mystery, I stayed very interested throughout the entire book. I found the main character to be extremely funny (in a very understated way). My sense of humor may be different than yours, so I'll type out a quick excerpt of what I found to be one of the funnier parts early on. The setup is this...The main character, Vig, and her co-worker Christine, are having a conversation through their office cubicles about the incense someone in the office is burning:

"It's frankincense and myrrh," says Christine, popping her head over the cubicle wall.
"What?" I'm trying to write an article....but I can't concentrate. The smell is too distracting.
"The incense. It's frankincense and myrrh," she explains.
I'm surprised by her revelation and not quite sure I believe her. This is the 21st century, and we have all forgotten what frankincense and myrrh smell like.
"Myrrh has a bitter, pungent taste," says Cristine.
"It's not myrrh," I say, my eyes focused on the computer screen. "Myrrh doesn't exist anymore."
Christine leans against the cubicle wall...."Vig, you can't deny the existence of myrrh."
I look at her. "I can. I deny the existence of myrrh."
"That's ridiculous. The wise men brought it to baby Jesus as a birthday present."
"So?" I say with a shrug before making some comment about dodo birds. My point is only that dodo birds used to exist and now they don't, but somehow I've managed to suggest that dodo birds were another gift of the magi.
Christines eyes widen as she misunderstands me. "The wise men didn't bring dodo birds to Bethlehem. What a ridiculous thing to imply," she huffs.
"How do you know?" I ask, because the vehemence in her tone is too strong. ..."I mean, how do you know for a fact that they also didn't bring dodo birds?"

Okay, end of excerpt. It goes on to discuss the dodo birds, frankincense, and myrrh a little more, and I cracked up all the way through.
If this is your kind of humor, you will love this book. The plot moves quickly, and the ending is very satisfactory.
I for one, need a break from all the stressful mysteries & thrillers out now (I always have to read the last page to make sure everything is ok). And the romance based novels all seem the same anymore. Just different towns and different names. Maybe I'll go back to those after I read a few lighthearted books like this one. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to comment. I am always looking for my next good book to read.

The most interesting thing about this extremely well-written novel is how low the initial stakes are set. From the beginning, we know that the best possible thing that could happen to the heroine is that she lose her horrible job at the shallow, silly magazine where she works. The entire tangled, twisty plot that ensues grips us, not because we are terrified that the heroine will Lose Her Glamorous Job, but because the monsters with whom she is surrounded become increasingly terrifying, and we start becoming afraid that she will Lose Her Soul instead.

By the end of The Devil Wears Prada, we find in ourselves, if not sympathy for, at least some understanding of the Editor in Chief. By the end of Fashionistas, we are beginning to think our heroine's best possible move might be back to her suburban home. This makes the final ambiguous twist at the end a little disturbing as well as funny. Her relationship with her boyfriend also remains a little unresolved, and her final description of herself as Godzilla seems like it might be a telling glimpse of the future.

This could indeed make a fabulous movie, if only so we can get a visual of the culminating art exhibit! Miles above most chick lit. Hunt it down and read it!

Lynna Messina has to be one of the funniest authors I have ever read. I picked up this book not sure what to think as I had not read any of the authors work yet. Well that is going to change, and it's going to change soon. Fashionistas is a hilariously funny romp through the vapid world of glossy magazines.

Vig Morgan is a low totem pole employee at Fashionista who gets brought into a plan that in the beginning she wants not mart of. The plan is to get rid of the mean tyrannical boss Jane. And replace her with the seemingly nice people friendly Marguerite. You will join Vig as she travels through dealing with the plot and keeping the rest of her life on track.

If you are a chic lit fan you can not possibly miss this book. Vig is funny and witty and gets herself into some interesting scrapes. Her love life reminds me a little bit of Bridget Jones, she is always complaining that the only men she is attracted to are the emotionally unavailable kind. Enter Alex Keller the mean ogre from that office that no one sees who turns out to be devastatingly handsome.

I honestly had trouble putting this book down because it was so good. I was literally laughing out loud at several points thanks to the witty dry way that Vig sees everything. She seems to be a polar opposites of her best friend Maya who makes several appearances to the reader and is just as funny. If you're looking for a fun and fast read that will bring a smile to your face I recommend Fashionistas. I guarantee you will have a sore face from smiling so much when you read this book.

Reading Fashionistas was like eating cotton candy. It was light, fluffy, cute, but had no real substance to it. Throughout the book I found myself fighting between being entertained & being bored.

The plot surrounds a junior editor (Vig) of the fictional magazine Fashionista who was just trying to keep her head above water when a group of her co-workers propose the idea to get rid of their demanding & selfish boss Jane. Their idea? Get her to sign off on the plan to create an issue surrounding a controversial art exhibit that showcased statues of Jesus dressed in dresses & other couture outfits.

There were so many things that should have gone right in this book that my dissapointment is more from the waste of potential. Many of the best features were woefully underused & unfortunately the main character just didn't draw me in as she should have. It's not that the book wasn't entertaining, it's just that it had no substance. Fans of chick lit will enjoy the book but won't feel that surge of "OMG, I have to get her next book" that they may get from other writers such as Sophie Kinsella or Meg Cabot. The book's cover proclaims that it's "Soon to be a major motion picture", & I can see where it would do well as a film. The book just fails to deliver anything fresh & new in this genre. It's a pale imitation of better books already seen in the genre.

3/5

Not all that interesting. I found that it kinda jumped around a bit, too. The way the characters were introduced wasn't clear enough, and there was one particular character that she spent a chapter talking about that wasn't really critical to the plot.