num_pages: 256
description: A charming and insightful memoir about coming of age as a fashion journalist in 1980s Paris by former Vogue and Harpers Bazaar editor Kate Betts the author of Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of StyleYou can always come back my mother said. Just go. As a young woman Kate Betts nursed a dream of striking out on her own in a faraway place and becoming a glamorous foreign correspondent. After collegeand not without trepidationshe took off for Paris renting a room in the apartment of a young BCBG (bon chic bon genre) family and throwing herself into the local culture. She was determined to master French slang style and savoir faire and to find a job that would give her a reason to stay.After a series of dues-paying jobs that seemed only to reinforce her outsider status Kates hard work and willingness to take on any assignment paid off: Her writing and intrepid forays into la France Profondetrue Francecaught the eye of John Fairchild the mercurial fashion arbiter and publisher of Womens Wear Daily the industrys bible. Kates earliest assignmentsinvestigating the mineral water preferred by high society chasing after a costumed band of wild boar hunters through the forests of Brittanywere a rough apprenticeship but she was rewarded for her efforts and was initiated into the elite ranks of Mr. Fairchilds trusted few who sat beside him in the front row and at private previews in the ateliers of the gods of French fashion. From a woozy yet mesmerizing Yves Saint Laurent and the mischievous and commanding Karl Lagerfeld to the riotous brilliant young guns who were rewriting all the rulesMartin Margiela Helmut Lang John GallianoBetts gives us a view of what it was like to be an American girl learning about herself falling in love and finding her tribe.Kate Bettss captivating memoir brings to life the enchantment of Francefrom the nightclubs of 1980s Paris where she learned to dance Le Rock to the lavender fields of Provence and the grand spectacle of the Cour Carreand magically re-creates that moment in life when a young woman discovers who shes meant to be.
language: English
title: My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine
publisher: Spiegel & Grau