Talking Fashion: From Nick Knight to Raf Simons in Their Own Words
If good things come in small packages then Talking Fashion is one of the great gifts of the season. With the plethora of coffee table books, this less than statuesque volume may be lacking in physical presence but more than makes up for that with its wonderfully engaging content.
Make no mistake; this is a book for everyone who ever had ever had any curiosity about the fashion business. Mr. Kedves exposes fashion from a variety of sources. We hear from designers, hair designers, photographers, journalists, music designers—and just about every facet of fashion is represented in this gem of a book.
The expansive point of view is offered in a series of candid interviews with each person of interest and within each there is information and insight that is intelligent and very personal. Not all of the subjects are of the celebrity variety; in fact some of them don’t really “belong” to the fashion industry per se. Nonetheless, this makes them all the more fascinating to read about. The cast of players includes Rick Owens, Jurgen Teller, Veruschka, Michel Gaubert, Zaldy, Pierre Cardin, Jean-Paul Goude, Diane Pernet, and Charlie Le Mindu to name just a few—and to tease you with what awaits you.
As any writer will tell you, it is very difficult to develop so many riveting characters in one book; yet Mr. Kedves successfully does so within a very limited amount of space and with carefully engineered questions. You will find yourself wanting to know more about some of these personalities and then, on the flip side, you will be repelled enough by what little you have read to move on. What a great luxury as a reader to be able to skip and not lose any of the impact of the overall storyline.
Let’s just say that Talking Fashion answers the call for a book that gives its reader a much broader and expansive view of what constitutes the business of fashion. This is a book that is really “spoken” in the words of each of its subjects and with very little, if any, editorial comment to detract from what comes straight out of the proverbial fashionistas’ mouths.