Runway Revolution: The Battle of Versailles by Robin Givhan

In November 1973, an epic event in the history of fashion took place. Five leading American fashion designers: Bill Blass, Stephen Burrows, Oscar de la Renta, Halston, and Anne Klein, and five renowned French couturiers: Pierre Cardin, Marc Bohan for Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro, presented their work with great fanfare and drama at the Théâtre Gabriel at the Palace of Versailles. 

The showdown between French haute couture tradition and the new trends of American design was intended as a fund raiser for the King Louis XIV Palace, which was badly in need of restoration. It attracted the leading lights of international high society, royalty – Princess Grace of Monaco was in attendance – artists, movie stars and others who were household names of the time. Not only were the designers' collections shown, but there was top flight entertainment from Liza Minelli fresh from her triumph in the movie Cabaret, iconic performer Josephine Baker, and the world famous ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

Robin Givhan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic for the The Washington Post, presents the backstory and the preparations for the event and dissects all of its historical and social implications in this page turner of a book.

Givhan brilliantly describes how far more was at stake than who were the better designers – the French or the Americans. The early 1970s were an extension of the period of great social and economic change around the world that began in the early 1960s with the coming of age of the oldest Baby Boomers in America and abroad: new trends in popular music and art, changes in the role of women, youth culture, new sexual freedom as a result of the invention of the birth control pill, and the demands of the Black community for equality.

Givhan gives us capsule biographies of the designers, describes the fashion industries and their histories in both France and the United States, introduces us to the leading models, many of whom on the American side were African-American and had remarkable life stories, and weaves in the biography and accomplishments of master publicist Eleanor Lambert, a woman who wove together the all the elements of the event and brought it to life. Altogether, it is a remarkable slice of history. Almost fifty years later, 1973 seems both distant and only yesterday, depending on the age and perspective of the reader, but Givhan recounts that time and the settings for the events so vividly that they feel like elements of an incredible technicolor dream.

I highly recommend this book for readers with interests in social history, fashion as an expression of its time, and anyone who knows Paris or has worked in the fashion and garment industry in France or New York.