Labels
by HC Carlton
(Orion Books, R150)
This book is billed as a million-copy bestseller, and while it certainly gives haute couture slaves insight into the world of design and fashion mags, it’s surprising that its appeal is so widespread.
This is a look at the styles, attitudes and rampant competition evident in the fashion industry in the 60s and 70s.
Harold Carlton, a former designer at Nina Ricci, sketched Paris collections for the Sunday Times, the Observer and other publications including Elle magazine.
He has also been menswear editor of the Sunday Times among other things.
Judging by the brief glimpses I get in bypassing the Style channels en route to more mundane fare like BBC Knowledge or Discovery, I imagine Carlton has managed to encapsulate what it was like to work in that scene when fashion was all-consuming and the swinging 60s created celebrities out of designers.
As would be expected, when there’s not enough drama in the lives of the high priests of fashion, sex and drugs livened things up.
The characters are interesting enough, if a little “plastic” for my liking.
Self-styled queen of teen pop, Mackenzie Gold, creates inexpensive fashion for the masses.
Mia Stanton, is refined and classy, but takes time to become a celebrated designer, much to the horror of Coral Stanton, high-flying editor of a fashion magazine and Mia’s unscrupulous mother.
Labels is not particularly mind-bending stuff, but great as a holiday read. – Daily News