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| Review |
| Klein
sans mystique |
| PROSENJIT DATTA |
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THE
HOUSE OF KLEIN
Fashion, controversy
and a Business Obsession
By Lisa Marsh
John Wiley & Sons
Pages: 248 ; Price $24.95
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LISA Marsh takes a clinical look at designer Calvin
Klein and dissects his life, his work and his business
in a rather bloodless manner. Which is to miss the
whole point. Klein is arguably one of the most famous
designers America has ever produced. There is a
mystique to this man and his work that can never
be fully understood without measuring him against
the society which produced him and without a modern
appraisal of the world which, in a way, he helped
create.
The book traces Klein from his undistinguished origins
to the present but the author doesn't seem to like
her subject very much. She fails, therefore, in
creating a three-dimensional character of the person
who so well defined the zeitgeist of modern fashion.
Klein's image in the fashion world is of a reclusive
and somewhat distant personality, and Marsh never
succeeds in penetrating that membrane that could
have given us insights into the mind of a designer
who almost single-handedly relaxed the way the world
dressed.
Marsh begins her book with a schoolmarm's finger
wag, admonishing the designer about his temper.
Having been at the receiving end of one of his famous
put-downs, she does not seem to have forgiven him
or come to terms with the fact that she never made
it to his inner circle. So Marsh appears to have
settled scores by writing an unauthorised biography.
This is served with a lot of second-hand details
of business transactions and financial deals.
Klein's greatness as a designer was defined by his
futuristic vision that understood the mood of his
customers and often created it. His obsession with
simplicity and purity created a look that actually
defines a whole genre of fashion. He made dressing
up so sexy, and then made undressing even more sexy.
Calvin Klein underwear is probably the most sought
after brand in the world today and occupies a place
in fashion history as the ultimate status symbol
- to the extent that the waistband emblazoned with
his logo was often worn to great effect by style
icons who let it show between low-slung jeans and
cropped T-shirts.
Marsh begins her story in the Bronx, the New York
borough where Klein began life as the son of Hungarian
immigrants. How he built his $3-billion company
is documented in great detail by Marsh and students
of fashion and fashion historians would do well
to read this book, which fits a couple of pieces
into the jigsaw that was the Klein empire. Rohit
Bal could mull over the chapters where Klein went
from being a single store designer to the head of
a multibillion-dollar company and make notes.
The author also documents his marriages along with
his obsession - that word just keeps cropping up,
given that one of Klein's most successful perfumes
was called that - with Waspy blondes from backgrounds
far more privileged than his; his success in identifying
the Next Big Thing; his frequent spats with people
and the loathing he had for the press. Klein does
not come off very well in this book. Marsh damns
him with faint praise and never seems to look into
the darkened recesses of the mind that could conceptualise
design with such subtlety. Lots of trivia spice
up the action but chapters tend to ramble on.
Buy the book if you are really into fashion or need
to know some of the inner workings of the fashion
industry. To the general reader the book might seem
a bit dry - and rather pointless.
Prasad Bidapa is a Bangalore-based fashion writer
and consultant.blockbusters |
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| BROWSING
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Nandan Nilekani,
CEO, Infosys Technologiesm |
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I have just completed a fascinating book, THE
COMPANY - A SHORT HISTORY OF A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA
by John Micklethwait
and Adrian Wooldridge.
It gives great insights into the changing yet central
role of the joint stock company in history and modern
times. It puts into perspective current debates
on corporate governance, social responsibility and
the transnational power of companies. A must read
for a business leader. I picked it up due to the
good reviews it got (See 'In Good Company - And
Bad', BW, 21 April) and because I had met one of
the authors at the Microsoft CEO Summit in May.
My reading is fairly eclectic, based on reviews
in leading journals. I usually pick up the titles
I want during my travels and finish them over a
week or two on long flights. |
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| Alert |
| Learning Financial
Management Using Financial Modelling |
By Ruzbeh Bodhanwala (Taxmann) |
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The Taxmann volumes make no pretence of being
stylish prose. But what they lack in elegance,
they make up for in utility: they make a layman
familiar with the basics of finance, taxation
and law. The latest volume starts with the use
of spreadsheets, and moves to financing decisions
and working capital management. A good addition
to the Taxmann family.
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| Selection |
| CRM is dead,
long live CMR |
IF you are not clued into marketing fads, this could
easily escape you. Between customer relationship
management (CRM) and customer management of relationship
(CMR) it may seem just a case of a transposed word
- or a letter in the acronym. In Why CRM Doesn't
Work (Bloomberg Press), marketing consultant Frederick
Newell explains why it's time to change the game
to CMR.
The new mantra is all about empowering customers
so that they are the ones to tell you what kind
of information they want, what level of service
they want to receive, and how they want you to communicate
with them. Newell, who has helped multinationals
and small businesses around the world strengthen
customer loyalty (his previous book was loyalty.com)
and increase profitability, says this is a way of
staying ahead of the curve. Newell is a former apostle
of CRM who has discovered its flaws and is all set
to found a new faith. He provides plenty of examples
to prove his point.
There are case studies of good and bad relationship
marketing from companies as diverse as Kraft Foods,
Procter & Gamble, Budweiser, Dell, Charles Schwab,
IBM, Lands' End, Sports Authority, Radio Shack and
Staples. As is usual with such books, all the instances
are all US firms; yet Newell does not seem to have
found a shining example among the small companies
he has shown the light to. The advantage of changing
philosophies, according to the author, is CMR works
without additional expense. As nothing much is working
in marketing anyway, companies might as well give
this a shot.
Advertising Basics
THE (Un) Common Sense of Advertising delivers
exactly what it promises in the subtitle - Getting
the Basics Right. Sanjay Tiwari's book (Response
Books) is an accurate albeit theoretical beginning
to what advertising is all about, how it ties in
with branding and the way it functions. There are
some examples as Tiwari plods through the advertising,
marketing and brand perspectives but too many of
them are foreign, and mostly ones that Kotler has
used earlier.
So an Indian reader could be left wondering why
there aren't any fresh examples from a market that
has seen so much action in the last 10 years. Surely
Coca-Cola's advertising bloomers in India and its
subsequent comeback or Cadbury's repositioning are
interesting case studies? For advertising and marketing
professionals there is very little in this book.
But students may well benefit from it. |
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| Blockbuster |
| Making
History |
SIMON & Schuster
is one happy publisher - and an extremely surprised
one. It is all set to recover the near-record $8.1-million
advance it paid Hillary Rodham Clinton for her memoir,
Living History,
with sales crossing 1.2 million. That was in the
last week of July; sales are now said to be nudging
1.35 million, the point at which the book will start
earning big bucks for the company and royalties
for its high-profile author.
This is a rarity in the book trade as celebrity
authors seldom cover the cost of the advance and
receive royalty before the paperback edition is
out. Competitive bidding for such authors drives
the advance above levels that the royalties will
never cover. So Clinton is an unexpected bonanza
for Simon & Schuster. But the success is a result
of a stupendous promotion by the senator herself.
She has been at countless bookstore events and autographed
20,000 copies, which required her to wear wrist
support and soak her hand in ice water.
Can Vikram Seth, who was paid a £1.3-million
advance for Two Lives by Little Brown, an imprint
of Time Warner Books, equal this feat? This is the
highest advance for a literary memoir and enticed
Seth away from Penguin, which published all his
earlier books. The book will be out in 2005. |
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