Golbin Pamela - Couture confessions: fashion legends in their own words

The author gratefully acknowledges all primary sources researched during the preparation of this book and wishes to thank those writers, journalists, and historians whose interviews were used in support of this project.

Couture Confessions:
Fashion Legends in Their Own Words

First published in hardcover in the United States of America in 2016 by Ex Libris, an imprint of
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
300 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10010
www.rizzoliusa.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior consent of the publishers.

Publication 2016 Pamela Golbin
Illustrations 2016 Yann Legendre

This ebook edition 2016 Pamela Golbin
The ebook illustrations 2016 Yann Legendre

Hardcover book design by Modern Activity
Translations from the French by Philippe Aronson
ISBN: 978-0-8478-4905-5

Despite thorough research, all attempts to trace the copyright holder of Pierre Balmains My Years and Seasons, last published by the Orion Publishing Group, were unsuccessful. The publisher welcomes any information on this title with regard to its copyright holder.

Grateful acknowledgment to the Victoria & Albert Museum for their permission to excerpt text from Shocking Life by Elsa Schiaparelli, first published by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1954. This edition first published by the V&A Publications, 2007. V&A Publishing. Victoria & Albert Museum, South Kensington, SW7 2RL. www.vandapublishing.com

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PRAISE FOR PAMELA GOLBINS COUTURE CONFESSIONS:

A brilliant idea. Almost filmic. Finally we hear the designers in their own words and discover the individuals behind the famous names. These are the legendary designers of fashion; the originals who created the codes of the industry.

Dries Van Noten

An inspiredand inspiringbook. We have Pamela Golbin to thank for giving us this singular window into the lives of the great couturiers. Not only are these conversations filled with wonderful details and flashes of wit, but they also seem strangely alive, as if they took place yesterday over a cocktail or two. Enjoy!

Cathy Horyn

By elegantly stitching together choice morsels of archival material, Pamela Golbin restores to life eleven of the twentieth centurys greatest couturiersresurrected through their own, surprisingly contemporary, words. Couture Confessions is both an indispensable reference book and a thinking persons guide to work, passion, and, of course, style.

Amy Fine Collins

How great to have all of these fashion heroes distilled for us by Pamela Golbins sensitive and expert eye.

Sofia Coppola

Mad Ellen and ChaCha Nelly have often invited me to tea, but Ive always been stood up. The toiles and garments have spoken to me in hushed tones. Their messages whispered to me through ropes of pearls and mercurial cutting.
Now with clarity, illuminated, they speak.

John Galliano

Pamela, how did you first become excited by clothingand ultimately, by fashion?

Like most people, I have an emotional connection to fashion. I first visited a costume exhibition when I was about five or six, in Paris. It was an eighteenth-century exhibition of dress and I was fascinated by the large pannier dresses and how women could move about in them. It all began with asking questions about the how, what, where, and why, which blossomed into a career.

What intrigued you about the idea of a Q&A with legendary designers from the past?

For the Madeleine Vionnet retrospective I curated in 2009, I assembled a great deal of firsthand material. Her voice was so compelling that for the exhibition catalogue, instead of interpreting what she had said, I let her speak directly to the reader. Very quickly it metamorphosed into a made-to-measure, exclusive, posthumous interview.

The response was so positive. Readers felt a real connection with her. I received letters addressed to Vionnet from people who, after reading the interview, thought she was still alive. I guess they missed the fact that she passed away in 1975! I realized this format not only gave the couturiers historical context but also allowed readers to better understand the person behind the designer.

What do you think a designers words tell us that their work doesnt?

Its a very different type of information. Hearing them speak creates a dialogue, a conversation. What I wanted to share was not only the designers successes but also their challenges and, specifically, their individual points of view, which remain incredibly relevant today.

What determined your choice of designers?

The first thing is that they had to be dead! And then that their influence on fashion had to be iconic. Paul Poiret, being the first fashion superstar, was a great start. Hes one of the very few Parisian-born designers, and so the perfect voice to begin the narrative of this book.

From there, I continued through to the present day with Alexander McQueen. Not only does each interview tell a compelling personal story, it also describes the couturiers individual creative process, showing how each one of these icons has a very different perspective and a distinct way of expressing it. With this collection of interviews, you have an oral history of twentieth-century fashion told through the words of the legends who created it.

This book, for me, was inspired by Cecil Beatons The Glass of Fashion. I wanted to give readers a better understanding of the heroes and heroines of fashion.

Which is something that you feel Cecil Beaton did with The Glass of Fashion for his contemporaries?

Yes, it wasnt about a strictly academic point of view but a personal record of fashion, an anthology of the designers that triumphed the ephemeral, as Beaton put it.

Are there any other twentieth-century fashion or style memoirs that you feel have conveyed the same suggestion of intimacy and very personal insight into designers processes and personalities?

Diana Vreelands D.V. You feel as if you are sitting beside her and she is giving you a fashion master class.

Today fashion is brand oriented. I wanted to give the reader access into the private studio of each of these designers, to learn more about them and what makes them tick.

Whom have you found to be the most eloquent of the designers?

Literally, the most eloquent is Christian Dior because he wrote many books. Chanel was the most incisive. Paul Poiret was captivating. McQueen was the most accessible and forthright. Lanvin was of an older generation, but she was a landmark in her own right. Vionnet was a true purist in her approach and precise in her answers; Balenciagas silence was remarkable, yet he clearly left an indelible mark.

Balmain was particularly refined in his interviews and in the many conferences on architecture he gave over the years. Whether in French or in English, he spoke persuasively about fashion. Madame Grs was more reserved in the way she expressed herself. Yves Saint Laurents melancholy is palpable and so are his piercing and perceptive comments on haute couture, ready-to-wear, and being a couturier.