A solid, hard-hitting, and uncompromising journalistic look at the
fashion industry.
The time when "fashion" was defined by French designers whose clothes
could be afforded only by elite has ended. Now designers take their cues
from mainstream consumers and creativity is channeled more into
mass-marketing clothes than into designing them. Indeed, one need look
no further than the Gap to see proof of this. In The End of Fashion,
Wall Street Journal, reporter Teri Agins astutely explores this seminal
change, laying bare all aspects of the fashion industry from
manufacturing, retailing, anmd licensing to image making and financing.
Here as well are fascinating insider vignettes that show Donna Karan
fighting with financiers, the rivalry between Ralph Lauren and Tommy
Hilfiger, and the commitment to haute conture that sent Isaac Mizrahi's
business spiraling.