Comments on: Fashion Babylon

By: John Matlock

John Matlock — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:26:50 +0000

Written in novel form this is a insider look at the high fashion industry. And an industry it is. There's something very subtle that makes one simple little black dress cost $5,000 and one almost identical at WalMart that might be $50. And there's something that makes one girl get paid a small fortune for wearing that $5,000 dress down a runway while dozens of very similar looking girls are walking around outside in the WalMart dress merely walking to work. And strangely enough, that WalMart dress just may have been a $5,000 dress a very short time ago, walking down a runway in front of cameras that were waiting to send pictures to China, Korea or elsewhere.

The story here is partly credited to Anonymous, supposedly a top of the line designer in England, but one who has never quite made it across the Atlantic.

It's a fascinating look at an indistry, a lifestyle that most of us will never touch. Rating: 5 / 5

By: Au Hiu Wan Emily

Au Hiu Wan Emily — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:55:08 +0000

this is a quite interesting book that have lost of gossip, and some time inoformation in side~ let u to know more about the market.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Jody

Jody — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:40:56 +0000

Chances are you are reading this book because you are into fashion. The chances are, also, that you already heard or read most of the rumors in this book, this book just puts a story around them. A hodgepodge of random fashion and model facts. The interesting part of the novel, just seeing a designer’s life and cycle of building a collection to runway.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: Dumb Blonde Reviewing

Dumb Blonde Reviewing — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:48:22 +0000

I’ve been hooked on nearly all of Imogen Edwards-Jones & “Anonymous”‘s books for a while now. First was Hotel & Air Babylon, but now she’s starting to show that yes, she hit the nail on the head with a good thing, but she’s lost it. After reading this and her most recent book, Beach Babylon, in quick succession, I found myself very disenchanted with the whole series. Beach Babylon I thought would have been ideal after coming back from a beach holiday, but she aimed too high, by setting it on an expensive island resort, which really, the book is not aimed at the kind of person who would go there.

Fashion Babylon – where do I start? It’s everything you already know about the fashion industry. The drugs, the stick thin models, the clothes that are “in” one month, and which you won’t be seen dead in the next month. Skinny jeans seem to be sticking around for the moment, but for how long? Normally when I get into a fashion, they go out of fashion. And everything’s “vintage”. And then there’s the celebrity name dropping. There’s not a page that goes by without Kate Moss or someone else being dropped in there.

Unlike Air & Hotel, which were set over 24 hours, and Beach, which was set over a week, Fashion Babylon was set over six months, and it’s a very tedious six months. Imogen did well setting Air & Hotel over a period of 24 hours, as they’re fast paced, and barely leave you any time to think. Fashion Babylon is set over six months because it’s that amount of time that you need to get ideas for your next ‘collection’, to getting it onto the catwalk. Interlaced with everything you can possibly imagine, from frills to pink satin, it’s confusing, and certainly not aimed at someone like me, but made out to look like it is.

I have to say, as much as I like Imogen Edwards-Jones, I’m going to give her Babylon books a rest for now, and try some of her other books – which seem to be all about her fertility and babies. Funny that.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: New York Foodie

New York Foodie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 03:14:35 +0000

I tore through this book (as part of my celebration of Fashion Week in New York.) It is liberally peppered with “blind items” and some not-so-blind gossip — I loved Tom Ford complaining to the Gucci PR firm that they had to find a way to stop Posh Beckham from buying and wearing his clothes! Is this great literature? Of course not. But is it an interesting look behind the curtain at the fashion industry, written in a novel form? Absolutely!
Rating: 4 / 5