It's All About the Dress
What I Learned in Forty Years About Men, Women, Sex, and Fashion
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Vicky Tiel started as an "it" girl of the 1960s and has had a four decade career designing clothes that make real women look fabulous. Her sexy, fresh hot pants and miniskirts were used by Woody Allen in his first movie, What's New, Pussycat?, her classic design inspired the red dress that transformed Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, and her creations are worn today by stars such as Halle Berry and Kim Kardashian. Tiel's own life has been dance-the-night-away fun, from her earliest days flunking out of Parsons to design on her own, to starting a chic boutique with best friend Mia Fonssagrives in Paris, from marrying MGM's top make-up man to becoming Elizabeth Taylor's dear friend and part of her longtime entourage. Tiel forged her own path, and picked up some distinctive and hard-earned lessons from the rich, famous and celebrated along the way.
In IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DRESS, you'll get a glimpse of what it's like to be Hollywood royalty (think yachts, tiny dogs, giant pearls and peanut butter sandwiches washed down with Chateau Margaux), discover the seduction secrets of the greats (from Kim Novak to Goldie Hawn to Warren Beatty), take in a little husband-hunting advice, and even learn legendary model Dorian Leigh's recipe for gigot d'agneau sept heures.
Vicky Tiel will teach you to dress like a sex symbol, cook like the owner of a French country inn, and seize what you want from the world like an American ingénue.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The original purveyor of the miniskirt and Elizabeth Taylor's caftan unravels fabulous, chatty tales of her early success in the 1960s as a young American fashion designer in Paris. A student of Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, Tiel became known around Greenwich Village as Peaches LaTour for her original, thrift-store, bohemian look (leather mini, lace stockings, boots), creating sexy looks that delighted her boyfriends but shocked the establishment. Along with a well-connected schoolmate, Mia Fonssagrives (stepdaughter of Irving Penn), Tiel aimed to take Paris by storm, and they did, within a few months of arriving in 1963, with the help of former top model Dorian Leigh (aka Holly Golightly) and fashion designer Louis F raud. From doing the costumes for movies like What's New, Pussycat? ("Ursula Andress taught me the power of a dress") to dressing Elizabeth Taylor for more than 20 years, Tiel was the "it" girl. By turns nutty and tender, she offers priceless anecdotes about Liz and Richard, Romy Schneider and Alain Delon, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, hippies, and dating married men.
Customer Reviews
Fab
What a great life story of a designer I had never heard of but recognize all her dress designs. Inspires this artist!