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The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris by Alicia Drake
noticiasdelimperio's review
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
neither a hagiography nor an exposé on ysl and karl lagerfeld but a portrait of a time, a place and a social environment that created these two people and was profoundly transformed by them. it is medium paced and a bit of a brick, and at some point i had to space my reading of it because it's a bit dense, but it was an absolute pleasure to read throughout. alicia drake has a way of describing everything from the people and their surroundings to the actual literal fashion that gets across not only how it looked but how it felt and what it meant that blows the idea of fashion and fashion writing as something shallow entirely out of the water. there's a real poetry and weight to both the overarching narrative and the smaller arcs of people like pierre bergé, loulou de la falaise and of course jacques de bascher that leaves you with a sense of wonder and awe at the moment they lived in and even a sympathy for people who at the end of the day lived very privileged, rarefied lives.
it also has unbelievable quotes from everybody in karl and yves' milieu but karl and yves themselves, and i think the indirect portrayal of these two figures ends up being much more interesting and in a way multifaceted than if they had spoken on it themselves, particularly because of their awareness of the myths that their lives and personas had become. i think nowadays we are living in a world that these two people created, and the beautiful fall impresses upon you not only how human and fallible they both were, but how their environment and success enabled both the best and worst aspects of their personalities to an unbelievable degree and gave them a platform from which to shape the culture in their image. the structure of a dual biography confronts their two personalities but also their approaches to art, fashion, success and human relationships and eventually their popular image and legacy on culture.
"the end had been there among them for years, but fashion's ability to staunch reality, its endless dance across the mirrored surface of the idea, meant that it could hold off the fall and sustain the illusion for one more fashion season, one more fabulous party, one more magazine shoot, always one more fashion moment".
it also has unbelievable quotes from everybody in karl and yves' milieu but karl and yves themselves, and i think the indirect portrayal of these two figures ends up being much more interesting and in a way multifaceted than if they had spoken on it themselves, particularly because of their awareness of the myths that their lives and personas had become. i think nowadays we are living in a world that these two people created, and the beautiful fall impresses upon you not only how human and fallible they both were, but how their environment and success enabled both the best and worst aspects of their personalities to an unbelievable degree and gave them a platform from which to shape the culture in their image. the structure of a dual biography confronts their two personalities but also their approaches to art, fashion, success and human relationships and eventually their popular image and legacy on culture.
"the end had been there among them for years, but fashion's ability to staunch reality, its endless dance across the mirrored surface of the idea, meant that it could hold off the fall and sustain the illusion for one more fashion season, one more fabulous party, one more magazine shoot, always one more fashion moment".
squrrl_grrrl's review
3.0
All in all a pretty good read. i wanted more sensationalism, catfights and fashion. Less of an inclusive history. Took me forever to plow through and found myself skipping huge chunks, but happy I finished it.
batbones's review against another edition
5.0
Meticulously researched and matter-of-fact without being sterile, this is no flimsy fashion article, but it preserves the engagement of more excellent accounts of real-life events. The fashion world, which is anything but dull is perhaps susceptible to emotive rendering, but Drake is appreciative rather than bedazzled, nuanced rather than gasping, and the result reads like a marriage between the caution of a serious historian-biographer and the pen of a literary writer.
(Aside: This reader wishes to be enlightened on Victoria Beckham's curious endorsement of the book, printed at the back of this edition, as 'bedtime reading', when the experience of reading it has been so thrilling it would've been impossible to sleep afterwards.)
The writer repeatedly withholds personal judgment, and instead, the void created by impressive reserve is filled inch by inch with detailed accounts of wild lifestyles, jealousies, drug habits, car accidents. Her observations are incredibly unattached to praise or criticism, the sense of impersonality is commendable and hard to believe when what is mentioned is far from delicate. The facts, however, are sensational enough. The book succeeds in doing a precious thing: letting its subjects speak without impoverishing these interesting people of their mystique, and it does so by drawing heavily from published interviews but more interestingly, interviews personally conducted by the writer. These reflections (usually decades after the actual events) of Pierre Bergé, Betty Catroux, Helmut Newton, Pat Cleveland, and Corey Grant Tippin (to name a few on the long list), tinged with the haze of recollection (nostalgia/relief/insight), are a fascinating backward glance at a period of heady vibrancy and reckless transformation.
The impact of the aptly chosen quotation lingers along after the finished chapter:
'Fashion feeds you. You are there, it's your moment and fashion starts to feed you this extreme elation, adrenalin and this belief that is like divinity. Then suddenly just as quickly as you have gotten it, after you are used to believing it, you are chewed up and spat out and it's over. That is the hell of fashion. Then the hard reality of it is knowing it's all a lie. [...] I got out because I was forced out. I didn't want to go, but I just knew I couldn't show up any more. I couldn't do it, I was dying. ... This thing had such a hold on me. This glamour, this fashion thing, I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have another world. I was lost, I was twenty-four and I kept saying again and again: "My life is over."' - Corey Tippin
'People think decadence is debauched. Decadence is simply something very beautiful that is dying.' - Yves Saint Laurent
'I am the man who is the most important in his life; is that because he loves me or because he needs me? I don't know.' - Pierre Bergé
The author's personal encounters with her subjects, however briefly mentioned, are tantalising. There is no sense of the eager self-insert in these accounts, but one may feel a sense of awe at, metaphorically-speaking, being close to divinity. That emotion however is perhaps just the reader's own. (Documented at the epilogue, Drake's court case with Karl Lagerfeld, who wrongly accused her of inaccuracy and wanted this book banned in France, suggests for all the precision, knowledge and admiration for the artist, the author had no personal illusions about the stuff of life.)
The dual biography structure left this reader indecisive at the beginning whether to read this book, since my interest was in one and not the other, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that this demarcation was never meant to hold these two characters apart, but functions rather as a preliminary attempt to sketch out two different but frequently overlapping paths, and highlight their differences in personality, intimate circle, and artistic temperament. By placing two designers side by side, the book ends up with a fuller picture of their lives and the lives of the people around them. The bibliography is a sumptuous spread of texts, interviews, film and documentaries that will satisfy the appetites of the curious for a long time to come.
(Aside: This reader wishes to be enlightened on Victoria Beckham's curious endorsement of the book, printed at the back of this edition, as 'bedtime reading', when the experience of reading it has been so thrilling it would've been impossible to sleep afterwards.)
The writer repeatedly withholds personal judgment, and instead, the void created by impressive reserve is filled inch by inch with detailed accounts of wild lifestyles, jealousies, drug habits, car accidents. Her observations are incredibly unattached to praise or criticism, the sense of impersonality is commendable and hard to believe when what is mentioned is far from delicate. The facts, however, are sensational enough. The book succeeds in doing a precious thing: letting its subjects speak without impoverishing these interesting people of their mystique, and it does so by drawing heavily from published interviews but more interestingly, interviews personally conducted by the writer. These reflections (usually decades after the actual events) of Pierre Bergé, Betty Catroux, Helmut Newton, Pat Cleveland, and Corey Grant Tippin (to name a few on the long list), tinged with the haze of recollection (nostalgia/relief/insight), are a fascinating backward glance at a period of heady vibrancy and reckless transformation.
The impact of the aptly chosen quotation lingers along after the finished chapter:
'Fashion feeds you. You are there, it's your moment and fashion starts to feed you this extreme elation, adrenalin and this belief that is like divinity. Then suddenly just as quickly as you have gotten it, after you are used to believing it, you are chewed up and spat out and it's over. That is the hell of fashion. Then the hard reality of it is knowing it's all a lie. [...] I got out because I was forced out. I didn't want to go, but I just knew I couldn't show up any more. I couldn't do it, I was dying. ... This thing had such a hold on me. This glamour, this fashion thing, I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have another world. I was lost, I was twenty-four and I kept saying again and again: "My life is over."' - Corey Tippin
'People think decadence is debauched. Decadence is simply something very beautiful that is dying.' - Yves Saint Laurent
'I am the man who is the most important in his life; is that because he loves me or because he needs me? I don't know.' - Pierre Bergé
The author's personal encounters with her subjects, however briefly mentioned, are tantalising. There is no sense of the eager self-insert in these accounts, but one may feel a sense of awe at, metaphorically-speaking, being close to divinity. That emotion however is perhaps just the reader's own. (Documented at the epilogue, Drake's court case with Karl Lagerfeld, who wrongly accused her of inaccuracy and wanted this book banned in France, suggests for all the precision, knowledge and admiration for the artist, the author had no personal illusions about the stuff of life.)
The dual biography structure left this reader indecisive at the beginning whether to read this book, since my interest was in one and not the other, but as the book progresses it becomes clear that this demarcation was never meant to hold these two characters apart, but functions rather as a preliminary attempt to sketch out two different but frequently overlapping paths, and highlight their differences in personality, intimate circle, and artistic temperament. By placing two designers side by side, the book ends up with a fuller picture of their lives and the lives of the people around them. The bibliography is a sumptuous spread of texts, interviews, film and documentaries that will satisfy the appetites of the curious for a long time to come.
iwinatcookie's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Terminal illness, Grief, and Death
anniew415's review
5.0
Long and densely written, this is a great insight into the personal/professional rivalry of two great designers. It also gets into the different social cliques or entourages they hosted constantly, and the decadent life of the 1970s fashion scene. It’s also illustrates that though perhaps the lesser creatively, Karl Lagerfeld was a giant visionary in fashion business, setting a new standard for new designers at stories labels - which is actually the way forward.
readerreaderonthewall's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
seabreezes's review against another edition
5.0
Surprisingly funny, surprisingly poignant. Drake seamlessly transports the reader this time period. I kept having to pause the book to look up the names, locations, designers, specific collections (what DID Karl's first collection at Chanel, with the incorrect arm holes, LOOK like?!) and even some of the interviews she sourced (I'm a bit sad that I can't find YSL's 1991 interview with Le Figaro online). At one point I had Getty images permanently opened in my browser. It swept me away. So good.
stardustreader1's review
2.0
2.5 stars. i had to dnf this book bc it's the same topic over and over again. at this point im tired that yves is brooding and charming and demanding and karl is rich and snooty. we GET IT. there's 0 action in this book but gorgeous descriptions