The End of Fashion

by Agins, Teri

• ISBN13: 9780688151607
• ISBN10: 0688151604
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-07
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

"It ought to be required reading for people who think they might like to be clothing designers." -- New York Times "The End of Fashion rips into the seamy underbelly of a world where marketing is king, and often the emperor has no clothes." -- Vanity Fair Fashion is a multibillion-dollar international business; it permeates our lives and our economies. Yet there has never been a book of solid, hard-hitting, uncompromising business/cultural/social journalism on this subject--because the fashion press is subsidized by the very industry it covers. Teri Agins, however, covers the fashion beat for a publication that does not rely upon fashion advertising--and she is thereby uniquely unfettered and able to finally tell the whole truth about this gigantic, flamboyant, and endlessly fascinating business. Her book traces an arc from the origins of couture and its apotheosis in the early part of this century to the advent of pret-a-porter post-World War II and the sweeping changes that have taken place as the century ends. It is an arc from when "fashion" was defined by elite French designers whose clothes could be afforded only by the global socialites--but whose designs were copied and followed by everyone else--to the point where the rules are set by the consumers, and the designers must follow them. It is an arc from class to mass; from art to commodity. Above all, it is the story of the triumph of marketing. The narrative includes profiles of designers Emmanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, and Zoran, as well as retailers Marshall Field and the Gap. The End of Fashion is classy and stylish, filled with insider details; it is dishy and lively and fun--as well as astute and full of insights about how the changes in the fashion business have reflected changes in the culture over the last fifty years.

Author Biography

Teri Agins is a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal. She has covered the fashion business for the Journal for ten years. She lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

acknowledgments	ix
introduction What Happened to Fashion?	1	(16)
Paris: The Beginning and the end of Fashion	17	(37)
Fashioning a Makeover for Emanuel Ungaro	54	(26)
Bound for Old Glory: Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger	80	(47)
What Becomes a Legend Most? When Giorgio Armani Takes Hollywood	127	(35)
Giving the Lady What She Wants The New Marshall Field's	162	(38)
Gored in a Bull Market When Donna Karan Went to Wall Street	200	(47)
Outside of the Box: Zoran	247	(28)
epilogue	275	(10)
a note on research	285	(2)
notes	287	(24)
selected bibliography	311	(2)
index	313