Champagne Supernovas
Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the 90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion
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4.7 • 9 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The 1950s had rock 'n' roll and the 60s had the Beats. In the 70s and 80s, it was punk rock and modern art. But for the 1990s, it was all about fashion and Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander McQueen were the trio of rebel geniuses who made it great. Each had an amazing talent and each had demons that would jeopardize that same talent. Collectively, they represented a "moment" in fashion and pop culture that upended everything that had come before it.
In the tradition of pop-cultural histories like Girls Like Us and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Maureen Callahan explores a particular, pivotal time - the moment when the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, the alternative became the mainstream, and Gen X took over the reins of power in the fashion industry - through the lives of three people who would become both fashion icons and cautionary tales of the era. Callahan interviews insiders and reveals exclusive insights into the biggest dramas surrounding the most celebrated personalities of the decade: why Kate Moss and Johnny Depp broke up, how Marc Jacobs came through the crucible of the AIDS crisis, and what really drove Alexander McQueen to suicide.
Champagne Supernovas is the story of that singular time, as exemplified the lives of the three luminaries who forever changed the way we think about fashion and culture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like the life of a partier, this book from Callahan (Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga) starts out terrifically exciting and fun but then turns repetitive and ultimately depressing. True, Kate Moss is a cool girl with a great look, and Marc Jacobs is a cool guy with a great eye. And while no one would ever accuse Lee Alexander McQueen of being cool "He was self-conscious about his weight. He hated his face, and for the first few years of his career would only be photographed with his head wrapped in cling film or gaffer's tape" he was brilliant, at first. But then he too gets boring, repetitive, and very, very depressed. Ultimately, these three (along with Miuccia Prada and Consuelo Castiglioni, and others) do change the look of pop culture, from the glamazon to the waif, from hair metal to grunge, from Versace to Versus. In the meantime, they all consume loads of coke, heroin, and sex. Perhaps it's a testament to Kate Moss's ineffable style, but her chapters are the strongest, while Jacobs's battles with fashion's corporate overseers are the least interesting. The sections on the self-destructive McQueen simply feel ominous. Still, this book works as a fun, if cautionary, read about some of the folks who changed fashion in the 1990s. Readers will wonder when a similar trio will arrive to save us all from the Kardashians.
