The information was plentiful and engaging and the underlying thesis of the development of couture from luxury to commercial was intersting but the author was boring and the writing felt dead- like a book report.

Brillante. Las dos biografías se van entrelazando de forma perfecta y te explica todos y cada uno de los detalles de los desfiles y de su vida personal. Muchas fuentes, y el punto de vista de la autora es el punto fuerte. Acaba con un gran claim y resumen de lo que se está convirtiendo la industria de la moda y da que pensar. Definitivamente me compraré el otro libro de la autora. Si os gusta la moda y ambos autores no os va a defraudar.

What an interesting read. I took my damn time!

I am a huge believer in McQueen's work. Always have been. His ability to deconstruct garments and tailor anything to a T boggles my mind. In the same way I'd marvel at Lee's creativity, I'd be wondering how people even understood the jumbled mess that Galliano spewed out continually. But this book gave such great insight into how they each became the creatives they were. How they manipulated fabric, what materials they used - the boundaries they stretched. Just knowing more about their personal lives and their upbringings was really good. The author has done a tremendous job with her research. I definitely have a new found respect for Galliano as a designer that was not there beforehand.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that let me down.

Firstly, the business talk. There's a lot of it, and I understand that fashion and business can no longer be mutually exclusive (this book is an entire example of that), but there was a large chunk of it 3/4 though where I was bored; especially when Thomas started going on about Bernard's business with Gucci and Tom Ford - I was nearly ready to skip pages.

Secondly, while the paragraphs and paragraphs of the development of each collection and the individual outfits descriptions were great, I felt the need for more photographs to be included - even still, just a better selection of images. If you aren't a fashion obsessive, you would definitely need more than what's given. I guess there's always Google, but only if you can be bothered. The images also, like most of the content, should've have been in a tighter chronological order.

Lastly, even though I'm personally not a huge admirer of Galliano's past work (or himself, really), there is a huge air of bias towards McQueen which is really evident in the last quarter of this book. I think if you're writing a dual biography you need to be more mindful of that.

I don't believe you need to be a 'fashion-forward' person to enjoy this is. It is very business orientated and the way the industry is changing again, right now, it is a necessary read from that perspective as well as a creative one.

It is a terrible shame that we no longer have McQueen, but I will now view Galliano's work at Maison Martin Margiela with a different perspective. I continue to hope that the fashion industry as we know it, will see such wonderfully wild designers again who have a genuine passion for the craft and not just the business.

We're going to have a damn good discussion at Book Club about this one!

Oh, this was SO enjoyable. It also made me want to read every fashion book ever, so....next week will be a crazy ILL week for me.

Seriously, though, I loved this. It really worked.

not sure the juxtaposition of the 2 designers really works. it's a good story tho -- a little tabloid-y, but a good story.