A world we hate or admire, a world we try to enter and can’t escape: fashion, fashion, fashion again. To do what? It doesn’t matter: invent, be seen, wear beautiful clothes, meet the people who make up the world. Exaggerate? You know why you’re wearing lightweight dresses with a seventies vibe? and how to explain that sudden craving for vinyl-effect thigh-high boots. Some people do…some people- when it comes to Yseult Williams’ latest book, “Empress of Fashion”.
They hold the reins of our desires, and are the puppeteers responsible for our compulsive shopping sprees… So much power: enough to frighten and intimidate. It’s enough to turn you into a devil…
Perfect characters for films and novels, editors like Anna Wintour have all the elements needed to become bestsellers: independent women who combine career and family life, who have made their mark in the world of journalism, and who can now terrorize interns. Because they’re women, because they’re successful and because they evolve in a world of glitter, dark glasses and famous artists, they arouse all kinds of fantasies.
Yseult Williams, whose CV is to die for (Editorial Director of Marie France, she notably relaunched Lui alongside Frédéric Beigbeider in 2013 or directed Grazia…), paints a portrait of six visionary women who have marked and influenced the history of fashion.
Available in bookshops from September 24, “Impératrice de la mode” sheds new light on the mystery surrounding women who will be remembered not only for the anecdotes surrounding their characters, but also for their contribution to the changes in the women’s press and the emancipation of women.
Different backgrounds and life stories: there’s no magic formula for making it to the top. Except perhaps the classic determinism that characterizes Edna Woolman Chase (Vogue 1914-1952), Carmel Snow (Harper’s Bazaar 1934-1958), Marcelle Auclair (Marie-Claire 1937-1977) , Hélène Lazareff (Elle 1945-1973) , Diana Vreeland (Vogue 1962-1971) and Anna Wintour (Vogue director since 1984), made famous to the general public in the guise of Meryl Streep.
The start of the new literary season, and the arrival of Fashion Week, are further arguments for immersing oneself in these unsettling tales, which belie preconceived notions of the futility and flatness of this milieu. In fact, it’s nothing of the sort. A subject as legitimate as any other, treated with the journalistic verve of Yseult Williams.
Cette publication est également disponible en :
