A review by caseykoester39
The End of Fashion: The Mass Marketing Of The Clothing Business by Teri Agins

4.0

Truly impressed with the breadth of research that went into this work. The first third of the book is about classic designers like Dior and Chanel and their workrooms centered in Paris in the late 60s. The second third focuses on modern designers like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren - exploring how their causal style could possibly take over the reigns from the likes of Dior. The last third explores the inner workings of fashion in department stores and how so many large stores failed and why.

The combination of retail insight and fashion history was irresistible for me. Well researched with personal interviews conducted by the author, the writing is engaging but doesn't attempt to speak above the reader with insider lingo.

My favorite section was about Zoran Ladicorbic, the Serbian fashion designer who made his name making simple clothes in a very limited range of sizes in the very best fabrics imported from Europe. He avoided the pitfalls of over growth by being focused on maintaining his high standards for a limited client base.

I wish the book had a larger section of images. There are only 5 pages of glossy black and white photos. The ones selected don't make logical sense for what the author had described throughout the pages. I feel that if you spend a chunky paragraph describing a garment or a magazine advertisement, those should be the featured images. The images selected were random pictures of designers in their studios, which did not add to the comprehension of the ideas presented.