“You can’t ask for a more knowledgeable and entertaining guide to the art and business of fashion than Grumbach, who has long been at the epicenter of the industry. The original edition of his definitive history has been a best-seller in Europe for two decades. The first English edition is thoroughly updated and abundantly illustrated. An extraordinarily in-depth report, it is richly layered with up-close profiles, energetic and expert analysis, and insider tales enlightening and scandalous. Grumbach covers the evolution of haute couture and the knotty regulations that have controlled every aspect of its operations while tracing the careers of such indelible designers as Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, and Nina Ricci, and onward to Issey Miyake, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, and Sonia Rykiel. He reveals shocking financial struggles and organizational battles and betrayals as outlandish and dramatic as over-the-top fashion shows. Grumbach’s dissection of the ready-to-wear world is even more compelling with its cast of intense personalities, cut-throat competition, and audacious practices, including the explosion in branding and licensing. Much of this is channeled through Grumbach’s own extensive experiences, beginning with his family’s textile company, where he strove to create ready-to-wear that had the same quality manufacturing as haute couture. Grumbach concludes with a shrewd look at today’s globalized fashion industry. Just like the best designer clothes, this exposé is both dazzling and enduring.” — Booklist, starred review

“Grumbach, a popular and indefatigable figure on the Paris fashion scene is a living encyclopedia about French fashion’s creative legacy, and its industrial history. He compiled his experiences and brushes with some of the 20th century’s most important fashion figures Couture was always a particular passion for Grumbach, who could often be seen welling up at fashion shows. He championed new high-fashion entrants such as Bouchra Jarrar and Alexis Mabille, as well as stalwarts including Adeline André, viewing couture as a versatile tool, platform and observatory for business and creativity.” — Miles Socha, European Editor, Women’s Wear Daily

“Industry veteran Grumbach takes you through the history of fashion in this lavishly illustrated book, from its humble beginnings to today’s superstar designers. As he explains, the first designers were low-ranking dressmakers, who, until the 17th century, couldn’t even cross over into private industry without becoming subjects to fines and virtual witch-hunts. The dawning of recognition for these artisans came in 1675 when King Louis XIV gave master dressmakers official status. Fashion fans will be happily caught up in Grumbach’s history of the first designers to be officially known as such, including innovators like Charles Fredrick Worth, Charles Poynter Redfern, Jacques Doucet, and Paul Poiret. Dispersed within this narrative are fun tidbits, like how today’s fashion shows started with one Lady Duff-Gordon, a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic who preferred to stage her showings at teatime. Grumbach moves on to the establishment of categories of style, such as ready to wear and haute couture, and to the decline and unlikely rise of the latter category, brought about by WWII. While the world was reeling from war and the Wall Street crash, he explains, haute couture flourished in occupied France thanks to negotiations with German authorities. Fascinating undeniably informative book… casual and passionate fashion aficionados alike should both enjoy seeing how the people and industry that determines what we wear has changed over time.” — Publishers Weekly

“Grumbach has long been a major figure in the world of French fashion, first as the head of his family’s textile company, C Mendès in 1963, in 1966 as cofounder of Saint Laurent Rive Gauche with Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, and most recently from 1998, as the chairman of theFédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à -Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, and of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, from which he retired in 2014. In this book, originally published in French in 1993 and now updated and translated into English for the first time, the author chronicles the history of the French fashion business from the rise of haute couture in the 1920s to the rebirth of couture after World War II and the expansion of this industry in which couturiers such as Dior licensed their names to items such as stockings and created perfumes that symbolized their fashion houses. Grumbach also describes the rise of ready-to-wear fashion in the late 1960s and 1970s with the birth of brands such as Saint Laurent Rive Gauche and Sonia Rykiel. In his postscript, he brings this history of French fashion up to date, discussing the globalization of the art form and the rise of large fashion group conglomerates such as LVMH, which dominate much of luxury fashion today. VERDICT With numerous archival images and personal anecdotes from this industry insider, this work is recommended for anyone interested in the history of the fashion business.” — Library Journal