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THE END OF FASHION

Name: THE END OF FASHION
Author: Teri Agins
ISBN: 0-688-15160-4

THE MASS MARKETING OF THE CLOTHING BUSINESS

by Teri Agins ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1999

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The heady days of haute couture are passing, says Wall Street Journal reporter Agins, and are being followed by name-brand mass marketing. The great fashion houses, one gathers from her report, are fading in an excess of hauteur. In a text that is more knowing than it is dishy and more respectful than it need be, Agins shows that some emperors of the garment trade are not that well decked out. She gets down to business in the odd world of $10,000-a-day supermodels and wealthy fashionistas, garmentos and knock-off artistes, beginning with the fall of Paris, the capital of high fashion, where style, not substance, had been all. But baby boomer career women let go of fashion; most people eschewed fancy dress; fashion was valued less than before; and top designers abandoned originality. “Bridge” goods (less pricey apparel) took hold. Boutiques replaced the top ateliers. Widespread licensing of T-shirts, briefs, and fragrances and the sale of signatures was followed by street vendor forgeries. Now, to express individuality, everyone may wear the same garments, on which only the names are changed. And the names drop like confetti. The story is traced through various players, from Armani to Ungaro and Zoran. Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger) try to capture the flag for their own logos. As Donna Karan discovered when she went to Wall Street, fashion’s connection to the real world is frequently tenuous. It is chi-chi and edgy, frou-frou and funky and up-to-here with arrant snobbery. Businesslike and entertaining as the discussion of the upscale rag trade is, the real contribution of high style practitioners is simply assumed, not made evident. A reader may want to call for a pox on all the fashion houses (which is probably not the author’s plan). Here, backstage in a special industry, is a knowledgeable reporter’s tale of marketing Ö la mode. (8 pages photos, not seen).

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-688-15160-4

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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HOMAGE TO CATALONIA

by George Orwell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1952

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A history, published in Britain shortly after the author wrote it in 1937, of the few months surrounding the Barcelona Telephone Exchange riots and what the writer determines as the Communist betrayal of all of Spain's anti-fascist forces. The crux of Orwell's writing is to show the ridiculous misrepresentations of the actual happenings in Barcelona and on the front and their meaning for the rest of Spain. The Communists were joined with the Government. Another anti-fascist faction was the P.O.U.M. or anarchist militia. They were closely allied with socialist worker movements, ready to build up a workers' revolution. In the beginning when issues were but hazily defined, Orwell joined the P.O.U.M. and fought with them- at the front. The Communists, considering anarchist-socialist revolutionary policies as presumptive, sought successfully to purge the P.O.U.M. and rendered them through messy journalism, coercive police methods, withdrawal of arms, false reports- as Trotskyists, pro-Franco, anything but the potent patriotic force they were. Thus republican Spain lost a power that could have helped beat Franco. Orwell's report is as exciting as it is meditative. With his quiet exactitude the midnight skirmishes, the political issues, and the utter futility of war come clearly into focus. Perhaps not a book to create sensation in a day when much of what happened at Barcelona has been realized, but one enlightening in terms of showing the war way toward mutual understanding and fair play.

Pub Date: May 15, 1952

ISBN: 1849025975

Page Count: 182

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1952

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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GEORGE ORWELL
by George Orwell ; edited by Peter Davison

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by George Orwell & edited by Peter Davison

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ALL ART IS PROPAGANDA
by George Orwell

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MOMOFUKU MILK BAR

by Christina Tosi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2011

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With this detailed, versatile cookbook, readers can finally make Momofuku Milk Bar’s inventive, decadent desserts at home, or see what they’ve been missing.

In this successor to the Momofuku cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar’s pastry chef hands over the keys to the restaurant group’s snack-food–based treats, which have had people lining up outside the door of the Manhattan bakery since it opened. The James Beard Award–nominated Tosi spares no detail, providing origin stories for her popular cookies, pies and ice-cream flavors. The recipes are meticulously outlined, with added tips on how to experiment with their format. After “understanding how we laid out this cookbook…you will be one of us,” writes the author. Still, it’s a bit more sophisticated than the typical Betty Crocker fare. In addition to a healthy stock of pretzels, cornflakes and, of course, milk powder, some recipes require readers to have feuilletine and citric acid handy, to perfect the art of quenelling. Acolytes should invest in a scale, thanks to Tosi’s preference of grams (“freedom measurements,” as the friendlier cups and spoons are called, are provided, but heavily frowned upon)—though it’s hard to be too pretentious when one of your main ingredients is Fruity Pebbles. A refreshing, youthful cookbook that will have readers happily indulging in a rising pastry-chef star’s widely appealing treats.