Fashion books and fashion education

Fashion in the usual sense is something fickle, unstable and changing every day. There are timeless notions of style, elegance, luxury, taste, and fashion is so fickle and frivolous that you shouldn't take it seriously.

Nevertheless, fashion is a long-standing and rather stable social phenomenon, and it is unfair to consider it the lot of superficial and narrow-minded young ladies.

The main goal of all fashionistas and fashionistas - to create a powerful attractive image - cannot be achieved simply by copying magazine samples or buying the latest season novelties. To do this, you need to have certain knowledge. And here we are talking not only about the rules for combining colors, textures, lengths and accents, although they are extremely important. We are talking about a certain intellectual baggage of fashionable and near-fashionable knowledge.

First of all, these are, of course, books. And not only those that entirely consist of colorful images, although without them and nowhere - after all, fashion is dependent on visual images, and photographs in this area have long become art - but also filled with deep content.

Fashion history books, biographies of iconic figures in the fashion world, as well as books on art - painting, music, poetry, inspiring and accompanying fashion trends - are just a basic list for a person who wants to be intellectually, not superficially fashionable.

It is enough to start with one good book, and it will entail a desire to learn more and develop further.

These books include, without a doubt, the work of Edmond Charles Roux "Incomprehensible Chanel", which became known to a wide circle after its adaptation (at the box office, the film was called "Coco to Chanel", and Audrey Tautou played the main role in it).

Without disputing the merits of the film, it should be noted that without reading the original source, it is impossible to get a complete impression of the work. The very fact that its author has worked for the newly launched ELLE magazine, and was also the editor of the French VOGUE, speaks volumes.

Gabrielle Chanel was a bright personality, and also a very intelligent woman. She deftly confused biographers and everyone who was interested in her past and present: she came up with contradictory legends, told confusing stories, cited some and hushed up other controversial facts of her busy life. It was not easy to figure out what was true and what was a cunning invention. Without pretending to know the ultimate truth, Charles-Roux already in the title of the book - "Incomprehensible Chanel" - laid the quintessence of the character and the entire life story of her heroine.

Here are just a few excerpts:

"Seen, open, invented by men, she worked for women all her life."

"Success paints women: Gabrielle looks even prettier"

"She believed that life should be whipped, it should be treated like a top, it should be beaten well, like dough, otherwise it beats out of hands and tightens."

"Each star had his own tastes and his own character, and even bad temper and bad taste."

“We owe our character not only to ourselves. To myself and everyone else "

"France is primarily a country of dangerous forty-year-old women"

“And then loneliness ... What lasts longer and is told faster? Be alone…"

In her work, Edmond Charles-Roux used excerpts from the works of other significant characters - both in the life of Chanel (for example, the poet Pierre Reverdi, with whom Gabrielle had an affair), and in the field of fashion (in particular, Roland Barthes, author of "Fashion Systems "). And this is exactly the case when a book (however, it can be not only a book, but also a film, article, broadcast, theatrical performance or exhibition) stimulates further interest in the topic.

After reading the following passages, you will certainly want to learn a little more about the work of people whose statements about fashion, life and love were given in the pages of this wonderful book.

"Any new fashion is a refusal to inherit, the overthrow of the dictate of the old fashion, fashion realizes itself as a right, as a natural right of the present over the past" (Roland Barthes, "The Fashion System")

“Clothing, by virtue of its importance, is part of the basic human fantasies - the sky and the cave, the sublime life and consumption, flight and sleep: due to its importance, clothing becomes wings or shroud, seduction or power” (Roland Barthes, “The Fashion System”)

"The combination of the overly serious and overly insignificant, underlying the rhetoric of fashion, only reproduces at the level of clothing the mythical position of women in Western civilization: both high and childish" (Roland Barthes, "The Fashion System")

“What has Chanel invented? The squalor of luxury "(Paul Poiret)

"Women, women ... One dash, one line, one movement or a grain of inaccuracy in their eyes is enough for them to become captivating" (Pierre Reverdi)

"What would become of dreams if people were happy in reality?" (Pierre Reverdy)

"Elegant, that is, indifferent" (Pierre Reverdy)

"Such is a peaceful France, and she will destroy anyone who comes to disturb the peace of her dressmakers, her philosophers and her kitchens" (Jean Girodoux)

Summing up, we can state with confidence: the already classic fashion "from Chanel" is a whole philosophy, and its true fans will certainly be interested in penetrating it not only on the external, but also on a deep cultural and educational level. Happy and informative reading!