Couture Confessions : Different Fashion History

The art of conversation and storytelling requires a special talent, but things get a tad more complex if you attempt to make a dialogue with the deceased legends of the past. It’s not about conventional biography-compiling work and has nothing to do with spiritualism if those are the references on the top of your mind. It’s all about Pamela Golbin's ‘Couture Confessions’, a recent addition to the must-read fashion books and quite a treat.

Pamela Golbin, a renowned chief curator of the 20th –century collections, fashion and textiles at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, is beyond doubt an expert of many talents. You may say that fashion is a calling that chose her since in 1993 she became the youngest curator in France at the time. What seemed like a temporary job turned into more than twenty years of professional devotion. She curated over 30 exhibitions and authored many catalogs and books on iconic fashion legends, but her new work goes further.

In ‘Couture Confessions’ Golbin unveils a fascinating history of 20th century fashion in the own words of iconic designers from Poiret to Lanvin, Vionnet, Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli to name a few. Based on a vast variety of archival sources, the book combines what the designers had said or written with thought-through questions into “improbable interviews”, as if the conversations really happened. The extent of the research leaves you speechless, but the ‘as if encountered fashion icons of the past’ impressions is even stronger. As first-hand account as imaginable today, the book certainly won’t let you go till the last page.

对话和讲故事的艺术需要特殊的才能，如果你试图研究亡者过去的传说，会更复杂。它不是传统的传记编写工作，与唯心论无关，即使你是唯心论者。Pamela Golbin的《时装自白》是最近的时尚必读书籍而且真的很有趣。

Pamela Golbin是20世纪巴黎装饰艺术博物馆著名资深时装策展人,得到许多专家的认可。你可能会说,是时尚选择了她，自1993年,她成为法国当时最年轻的策展人。一个临时工作变成了二十多年专业的投入。她策划了三十多个展览，撰写了许多目录和标志性时尚传奇的书籍,但是她的新工作更加深入的发展。

在《时装自白》一书中，Golbin用著名设计师的语言揭示20世纪迷人的时尚史，从Poiret到Lanvin、Vionnet、Chanel、Dior和Schiaparelli等等。基于各种来源的档案,这本书将设计师说过或写过的话和“不真实采访”令人深思的问题结合起来,好像对话真的发生了。研究的程度超乎你的想象,但“好像遇到过去的时尚偶像”的印象更为深刻。一手的记述和想象的一样，这本书肯定能让你读到最后一页。