Fashionvictim

"Darkly satisfying."—Martha Stewart Living "A diabolical page-turner . . . impossible to put down."—Forbes "Darkly funny."—Fashionista "As awesome as it sounds."—Book Riot A thrilling take on the fashion world, #FashionVictim is Dexter meets The Devil Wears Prada. Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. She’s worked hard to get where she is, but she doesn’t have everything. Not like Sarah Taft. Anya’s obsession sits one desk away. Beautiful, stylish, and rich, she was born to be a fashion world icon. From her beach-wave blonde hair to her on-trend nail art, she’s a walking editorial spread. And Anya wants to be her friend. Her best friend. Her only friend. But when Sarah becomes her top competition for a promotion, Anya’s plan to win her friendship goes into overdrive. In order to beat Sarah...she’ll have to become her. Friendly competition may turn fatal, but as they say in fashion: One day you’re in, and the next day you’re dead.

A riveting look inside the fashion world that exposes the truth about shopaholics, sweatshops, and celebrity closets. Fashion—from the $1500 Prada bag to the $30 Kate Spade knock-off sold on the sidewalk—has been transformed from a commodity reserved for the elite to a powerful presence in mass market culture. As a society, we are obsessed with fashion and style, racking up credit card debt to support compulsive shopping habits, scouring magazines for the latest trends to buy, and focusing more on who’s wearing what at the Oscars than on who’s winning. In Fashion Victim, award-winning journalist Michelle Lee blows the lid off the fashion industry, and spotlights the fascinating—and often disturbing--ways in which it is morphing our culture, our economy and our values. Dishing on the lords of the label, including designers like Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Kenneth Cole, Fashion Victim reveals a world that is sometimes grotesque, sometimes glitzy, but constantly intriguing. From bear hides to the Victorian bustle, Lee traces the role of fashion through the ages, taking us from the dawn of ready-to-wear in 1865 to the modern trend cycles that incite us to clamor after leg warmers, bumster trousers, and Manolo Blahniks. She details the birth of “Speed Chic”—the hamster wheel of style that keeps us stuck in an endless cycle of consumption and has become the crack-cocaine of fashion, providing us with a temporary high until we spot the next trend and reach for our wallets. She also explores the phenomenon of “McFashion,” the uncanny proliferation of retailers like the Gap and Old Navy that are creeping into every town in America and stripping us—and the designers they knock off--of individuality and innovation. And she ultimately probes the human cost of fashion’s decadence, including the distorted perceptions of beauty fueled by high-end designers, the dangers of dry cleaning, and the ugly financial disparity between those who make the clothes and those who buy them. An unprecedented look behind the runway at the forces and personalities driving this $200 billion dollar industry, Fashion Victim is a stylish, provocative and highly entertaining contribution to the analysis of American popular culture.

Hot isn't a hot enough word to describe corporate raider Fletcher Wolf, but since he's suing couturier Cara Fletcher for, oh, a gazillion dollars, she figures she shouldn't hit on him…at least not too hard. On top of that, she wonders if he's responsible for the harassment and vandalism that's plaguing her, irritants that escalate into crimes when her workshop is trashed to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars. The economic damage enables him to seize her company, bringing him into her life on a daily basis. When her Manhattan loft home is torched and her assistant murdered, Cara realizes that the man she wants is the only man who can keep her safe. This book has been previously published, but has been updated and re-edited for your enjoyment. What others thought about earlier editions: delightful romantic suspense --Publisher's Weekly, 12/6/10 an enjoyable inside view of the New York fashion world --Kirkus, 10/8/10 ...sex, danger, and fashion in this fun...romantic suspense novel that will appeal to readers of traditional romance as well as fans of sexy mysteries like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum capers. --Aleksandra Walker, Booklist, 12/1/10

Who would leave a highly respected, hard-won position as an investigative journalist at one of London’s top newspapers for a job at a fashion rag? That’s the question on everyone’s mind when Annie Anderson announces she’s making the move. True, the last few months have been tough on Annie, who remains haunted by memories of an undercover sting gone wrong that left an innocent woman dead. But a glossy magazine? It just doesn’t seem very Annie. Her colleagues assume she’s lost it, but Annie has her secret reasons. After a few days at Handbag, Annie realizes that being a fashion editor is going to be much harder than she ever anticipated. Thrown into the heart of New York Fashion Week, she is unprepared for her new world’s bewildering hierarchy–though she’s becoming increasingly familiar with “that fashion feeling” she gets when facing constant comparisons to the über-thin, ultra-glam women around her. It would be easier working in a war zone than getting the right seat at the Marc Jacobs show. But if there’s one thing Annie knows, it’s interviewing. So when she scores an exclusive with the hot up-and-coming designer Mark Mailer, she’s back on familiar ground. The gossip du jour has Mark and his supermodel girlfriend Patty Lang on the outs after Patty’s disastrous and very public return to her first love: heroin. Annie senses there’s much more to the story, but before she can coax Mark to open up, he’s dead–shot before Annie’s eyes in what appears to be attempted robbery. Though shaken, Annie believes that Mark’s death was anything but random, and a grief-stricken Patty agrees. From New York to London to Milan, while taking on a tyrannical boss, slick-as-oil PR execs, and egomaniacal designers with the depth of a linen blouse, Annie searches for answers. But in the pursuit of a good story, Annie must not lose sight of her common sense–or the consequences could make her the next fashion victim. From the Hardcover edition.

Thrilled to be a teen model during Bellair's Fashion Week, Stacey becomes increasingly alarmed at a series of frightening accidents that casts a dark shadow on the event.

A Dallas O'Connor mystery.

From insidious murder weapons to blaze-igniting crinolines, clothing has been the cause of death, disease and madness throughout history, by accident and design. Clothing is designed to protect, shield and comfort us, yet lurking amongst seemingly innocuous garments we find hats laced with mercury, frocks laden with arsenic and literally 'drop-dead gorgeous' gowns. Fabulously gory and gruesome, Fashion Victims takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the lethal history of women's, men's and children's dress, in myth and reality. Drawing upon surviving fashion objects and numerous visual and textual sources, encompassing louse-ridden military uniforms, accounts of the fiery deaths of Oscar Wilde's half-sisters and dancer Isadora Duncan's accidental strangulation by entangled scarf; the book explores how garments have tormented those who made and wore them, and harmed animals and the environment in the process. Vividly chronicling evidence from Greek mythology to the present day, Matthews David puts everyday apparel under the microscope and unpicks the dark side of fashion. Fashion Victims is lavishly illustrated with over 125 images and is a remarkable resource for everyone from scholars and students to fashion enthusiasts.

This captivating book reproduces arguably the most extraordinary primary source documents in fashion history. Providing a revealing window onto the Renaissance, they chronicle how style-conscious accountant Matthäus Schwarz and his son Veit Konrad experienced life through clothes, and climbed the social ladder through fastidious management of self-image. These bourgeois dandies' agenda resonates as powerfully today as it did in the sixteenth century: one has to dress to impress, and dress to impress they did. The Schwarzes recorded their sartorial triumphs as well as failures in life in a series of portraits by illuminists over 60 years, which have been comprehensively reproduced in full color for the first time. These exquisite illustrations are accompanied by the Schwarzes' fashion-focussed yet at times deeply personal captions, which render the pair the world's first fashion bloggers and pioneers of everyday portraiture. The First Book of Fashion demonstrates how dress – seemingly both ephemeral and trivial – is a potent tool in the right hands. Beyond this, it colorfully recaptures the experience of Renaissance life and reveals the importance of clothing to the aesthetics and every day culture of the period. Historians Ulinka Rublack's and Maria Hayward's insightful commentaries create an unparalleled portrait of sixteenth-century dress that is both strikingly modern and thorough in its description of a true Renaissance fashionista's wardrobe. This first English translation also includes a bespoke pattern by TONY award-winning costume designer and dress historian Jenny Tiramani, from which readers can recreate one of Schwarz's most elaborate and politically significant outfits.