Bettina Ballard, Paris-based correspondent and later Fashion Editor for US Vogue, was at the centre of the fashion world from the 1930s to the '50s and an intimate of Coco Chanel, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Elsa Schiaparelli. With journalistic flair, she captures the spirit of pre-war Paris, the working methods of the fashion greats and the transformation of the post-war fashion industry with the arrival of Dior.

First published in 1960, this book is part of the V&A Fashion Perspectives Series. Selected by V&A publishing in consultation with our world-leading fashion curators, the Fashion Perspectives series offers an access all areas pass to the glamorous world of fashion. Models, magazine editors and the designers themselves take readers behind the scenes at the likes of Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Dior, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue in the golden age of couture.

Inhalt

1. On Being in Vogue2. A Neophyte in Paris

2. Artists, Models, and Photographers

3. The Sorceress - 'Coco' Chanel

4. Schiaparelli, Mainbocher, and Other Designers

5. The Woman Who Make Fashion

6. From the Riviera to Regent's Park

7. The Secret World of Cristobal Balenciaga

8. The Realm of the Gifted and Tromented

9. A Time for Frivolity

10. The War Descends

11. Living in Fashion in New York

12. Off to the Red Cross

13. Life Overseas

14. The Rebirth of Paris

15. Editing at Vogue

16. An Intimate Portrait of Christian Dior

17. The New Style Centres: Italy, Spain, Ireland

18. The Mechanics of Fashion

19. The American Role in World Design

20. An Epitaph to Elegance