Fashionably Late (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Fashionably late, Karen Kahn and her husband, Jeffrey, walked past the flash of photographers' lights and into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Bill Wolper, Karen Kahn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prominent designer Karen Kahn has just won the fashion industry's top achievement award. As this witty, energetic and sometimes caustic novel quickly shows, however, it's all downhill from there. Karen's company, KK Inc., needs a huge infusion of cash to expand, and her handsome but evasive husband, Jeffrey, who handles the finances, pushes for a $50 million buyout by the megacorporation NormCo. But will Karen lose control of her designs? And how ethically does NormCo run its business? This new novel by the author of The First Wives Club works at every level. An engaging, behind-the-scenes look at the fashion industry, it lays bare the frenetic pace, cutthroat competition and chronic backbiting of the world of couture. Also an engrossing family saga, it shows 40-year-old Karen, who is infertile, desperately trying to adopt a baby and, as an adopted child herself, searching for her birth mother. The narrative also offers a hilariously dark portrait of Karen's immediate--and totally dysfunctional--family. A glittering New York social backdrop, plenty of namedropping, romance, some outstandingly creative characters and a mystic who applies a unique hex add up to a book that fairly hums with excitement. 150,000 first printing; $175,000 ad/promo; audio rights to HarperAudio; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Goldsmith established her fertile turf in The First Wives Club (1991) and hasn't let up since; here she presents another witty, venomous tale of female resourcefulness in the face of breathtaking male duplicity, set in Manhattan's sophisticated fashion industry. Self-absorbed, overworked, and fabulously successful, Karen Kahn is the spitting image of the harried New York executive in those 1980s Donna Karan clothing ads. The comparison is apt, because tall, somewhat hefty, 42-year-old Karen is the creative genius behind KKInc., a fashion design company poised for expansion into both high-end international couture and domestic mass market. To meet those goals Karen's handsome husband and business manager, Jeffrey, is soliciting a financing deal with multimillionaire Bill Wolper, whose discount clothes may be shoddy but who knows how to make a buck. But Karen can't concentrate on business now: She's just learned that she's unable to bear children, and, an adoptee herself, she soon becomes obsessed with finding her anonymous birth mother and adopting a child. Eventually she agrees to a ``real deal'' with her husband: She'll sign her company over to Wolper in exchange for the reluctant Jeffrey's cooperation as an adoptive dad. But the plan falls through when Karen learns that Wolper is cruelly exploiting the garment workers in his offshore factories, Jeffrey is carrying on two simultaneous extramarital affairs, and KKInc. is on the verge of a financial breakdown. ``There's nothing tougher than the garment industry...It's controlled by men and it feeds into a sickness in women,'' Goldsmith writes as Karen struggles to save her company, maintain her integrity, and cadge a baby. Hardly the usual stuff of commercial women's fiction, but Goldsmith's cheerful kick to the shins of the men who mess up the world and the women who let them can be profoundly satisfying. This novel works. (First printing of 150,000; $175,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (March 23, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061093890
• ISBN-13: 978-0061093890
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #490,980 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinated By Fashion Design World, February 9, 2001

By	carol irvin "c.k. irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Goldsmith held me rapt again with her insider view of the fashion design industry with protagonist Karen Krahn, who seems very like real world Donna Karan. KK has hit it big in the New York design scene but has problems to handle on every level of her life. She can't have a baby because she's just been told by her OB-GYN that she is permanently infertile. Her husband doesn't want to adopt but does want her to sell their company to a huge corporation which will have all of the work done offshore under dubious conditions. Her impossible mother won't reveal who her birth mother is plus her half sister has her eye on Karen's husband. This is a very juicy novel which I couldn't put down. It transports you to that design world and doesn't let go until the end.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner from Goldsmith, November 27, 2000

By	Simonetta (Perth, Western Australia) - See all my reviews

This was a great book that I found very hard to put down. This story revolves around an excellent fashion designer Karen Kahn, who after many years in the aggressive and competetive fashio world, has finally received golden honours. She has a loving husband, wonderful working environs and a dysfunctional but entertaining family, so why is she still unhappy? Karen would love to concieve a child but cannot, plus she was adopted when she was very young, so this really is a story about Karen finding out who she is and what she wants out of life. But, this is not a heavy finding-yourself book, it is a very entertaining and easy to read book that will have you laughing, crying or hurling the book across the room, depending on the bit you are reading!!

I really enjoyed 'Young Wives Club' and 'Bestseller' and this is up there with those two books. I cannot wait to get OS next book as they are all brilliant esp if you are looking for entertaining books to keep you happy over the weekend!

Highly recommended!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite of all Ms. Goldsmiths books, May 29, 1998

By	M "M" (California USA) - See all my reviews

I loved this book! The heroine was likeable and real and the plot engrossing. The parts that were somewhat unlikely were still great fun to read. Ms. Goldsmith combines stories that consist of the way life really is and the way that we'd like it to be (happy endings, sweet revenge etc.)

This book is perfect vacation reading and like all of Ms. Goldsmiths books the perfect gift to give to a woman friend. My only regret is that I don't own it in hard cover. I'm going to have to buy multiple copies because of all the wear and tear I've inflicted by re-reading it and lending it out.