The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World - Brossura

Blume, Mary

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0374534381 ISBN 13: 9780374534387

Casa editrice: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2014

Riassunto

"A sparkling life of the monumental fashion designer Cristâobal Balenciaga When Cristâobal Balenciaga died in 1972, the news hit the front page of The New York Times. One of the most innovative and admired figures in the history of haute couture, Balenciaga said that he was the only designer who dared to do as he liked. He was, said Christian Dior, "the master of us all." But despite his extraordinary impact, he was a man hidden from view. Unlike today's celebrity designers, he saw to it that little was known about him, to the point that some French journalists wondered if he existed at all. Even his most notable and devoted clients never met him. But one woman knew Balenciaga better than anyone else. The first person he hired when he opened his Paris house, furnished with only a table and a chair, Florette Chelot became his top vendeuse--as much an adviser as a saleswoman. She witnessed the spectacular success of his first collection, and they worked closely for thirty years--until 1968, when Balenciaga abruptly closed his house without telling any of his staff. Youth-oriented fashion was taking over, Paris was in upheaval, and the elder statesman wanted no part of it. In The Master of Us All, Mary Blume tells the remarkable story of the man andhis house through the eyes of the woman who knew him best. Intimate and revealing, this is an unprecedented portrait of a designer whose vision transformed an industry, but whose story has never been told until now"--

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This thoughtful and stylishly written book is perhaps the most serious and intelligent biography of a fashion designer ever written. --Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic One of the best biographies written about any personality in fashion... Take my word for it: Buy it, read it, and love it! --Jeffrey Felner, New York Journal of Books. The wit and sharp eye of Mary Blume have made the French accessible . . . Rather like Nabokov with butterflies, she pins her specimens to the page in full color. --Gore Vidal [A] penetrating and entertaining new biography. --Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Intimate, enthusiastic, and lively first biography of the enigmatic designer. . . Blume, former culture columnist for the International Herald Tribune, writes with wit and aplomb; she was also a Balenciaga client, a fact that clearly informed the revealing and laudatory perspective shared with readers here. --Publishers Weekly [A] captivating new biography . . . [Blume] rounds out her recollections and Florette's with astute reporting, tracing Balenciaga's--and haute couture's--rise against a richly embroidered swath of social history. . . Despite her impossibly private subject, Blume goes a long way toward illuminating Balenciaga within his own context, finding his scope of influence on par with that of fashion's other revolutionaries, Chanel and Vionnet. --Megan O'Grady, Vogue.com Elegantly weaving interviews with Balenciaga's last living chums . . . with cultural history, Blume's account follows Balenciaga's top vendeuse Florette Chelot, who provides a keen . . . perspective on midcentury Luxe. Like a Balenciaga suit designed to skim the body rather than hug it, Blume's artful blend of history, reporting, and chat conjures the designer's world. . . Rhonda Lieberman, Bookforum Blume's extensive interviews with [Cristobal Balenciaga's top saleswoman, Florette] Chelot, who stayed with Balenciaga from hi --Various

L'autore:

Mary Blume, a native New Yorker who lives in Paris, was a longtime columnist for the International Herald Tribune. She is the author of Côte d'Azur: Inventing the French Riviera and of a collection of her Herald Tribune pieces, A French Affair.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0374534381
• ISBN 13: 9780374534387
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 228