Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano
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Author | Dana Thomas |
---|---|
Language | English |
Subject | Luxury goods, Fashion |
Genre | Non-fiction |
Published | 2015 (Penguin Press) |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print, e-book |
Pages | 432 pages |
ISBN | 1-594-204942 |
Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano is a 2015 book by Paris-based American journalist Dana Thomas.[1]
Overview
In February 2011, John Galliano, the lauded head of Christian Dior, imploded with a drunken, anti-Semitic tirade that lead to his firing. Exactly a year earlier, celebrated British designer Alexander McQueen took his own life three weeks before his women's wear show. Both were casualties of the war between art and commerce that has raged within fashion for the last two decades. In the mid-1990s, Galliano and McQueen arrived on the fashion scene when the business was in an artistic and economic rut. They shook the establishment out of its bourgeois, minimalist stupor with daring, sexy designs and theatrical fashion shows. They had similar backgrounds: sensitive, shy gay men raised in tough London neighborhoods, their love of fashion nurtured by their doting mothers. To combat the bullying they endured throughout their youth, both became insecure bigmouths with mean streaks. By 1997, each had landed a job as creative director for couture houses owned by French tycoon Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH.
During their two-decade reign, Galliano and McQueen’s work not only influenced fashion; their distinct styles were reflected across the media landscape. At the same time, and with their help, luxury fashion evolved from a clutch of small, family-owned businesses into a $280 billion-a-year global corporate industry. Executives pushed the designers to meet increasingly rapid deadlines and to top each collection. For both Galliano and McQueen, the pace was unsustainable.
To compound matters, in 2007 both designers lost their closest associates, and then succumbed to depression and substance abuse. When McQueen’s mother died in early February 2010, he could no longer cope; days later, he hanged himself. The same week that Galliano imploded, Forbes named Arnault the fourth richest man in the world. Two months later, Catherine Middleton wore a McQueen wedding gown, instantly making it the world’s most famous fashion brand, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened a wildly successful McQueen retrospective, co-sponsored by the corporate owners of the McQueen brand. It was clear to see who had won and who had lost.
In her groundbreaking work, Gods and Kings, acclaimed journalist Dana Thomas tells the true story of McQueen and Galliano. In doing so, she reveals the relentless world of couture and the price it demanded of the very ones who saved it.
Reviews
The Mail on Sunday called it "A riveting double biography...Thomas had a ringside seat while all this divine madness unfurled."
Huffington Post deemed Gods and Kings: "One of the non-fiction titles of the year...like a modern Faustian tale of tragic dimension." [2]
Amazon named Gods and Kings a Best Book of the Month, calling it: "High drama, high fashion, high stakes, and high tragedy." [3]
References
- ^ "Penguin Books Group". Retrieved December 28, 2010.
- ^ "Dana Thomas's Compelling Dual Biography of Fashion Icons".
- ^ "Gods and Kings by Dana Thomas".
Further reading
- "Two Books Look Back at Fashion's Messy Choreography". The New York Times.
- "Five Lessons about Self-Destruction All Creative People Should Know". Refinery29.
- "'Gods and Kings,' by Dana Thomas - Review". Kirkus Reviews.
- "Gods and Kings is a Spectacular Work of Reconstruction". The Globe and Mail.
- "'Gods and Kings' book tells stories of high-stakes fashion". newsobserver.
- "Gods and Kings by Dana Thomas and Alexander McQueen by Andrew Wilson review – brutally unsympathetic lives". the Guardian.
- 'Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano', by Dana Thomas - Review. The Spectator. (subscription required)