Front Row: Anna Wintour: What Lies Beneath the Chic Exterior of Vogue's Editor in Chief |  | Author: Jerry Oppenheimer
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 98380
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.41092
ASIN: B001O9CFVS
Publication Date: February 7, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
She’s ambitious, driven, insecure, needy, a perfectionist—and she’s considered the most powerful force in the more than $100 billion fashion industry. She’s Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue, the world’s fashion bible. With her signature Louise Brooks bob, trademark sunglasses, and glamorous furs, she’s a sexy international diva, gossiped about the world over. As famed designed Oscar de la Renta declares, “She’s a star.”
How did Wintour, who quit school over the length of her hemline, and who had no real writing or communication skills, rise to the pinnacle of the fashion magazine world? Based on scores of interviews with present and former friends and colleagues, Front Row is the scrupulously researched, often shocking life story of this enigmatic icon—a candid portrait of a fashion-obsessed teenager in Swinging Sixties London who claws her way up the ivory tower in New York. It is also an intimate examination of Wintour’s personal passions and needs, her loves lost and won, and her feuds and achievements. Anna Wintour’s story is an inside look at one of the world’s most influential women as well as the catty, competitive bitch-eat-bitch world of fashion. Meow!
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
 An Amazing Biography March 19, 2005
DISHY DEB (DENVER)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I'm not into fashion, but I saw this on display at Barnes & Noble near my house and picked it up just to glannce through it. I could not put it down. This is truly a fascinating read about a powerful woman who I guess is onwe of the most powerful in the world. I had read the author's book on Martha Stewart so I knew he was good and had all the dish. But this one really goes much deeper. Based on all of his interviews, he nails Anna to the wall as tough, ambitious, driven -- and REAL bitchy. This is a great beach read, but since there's slush on the ground it'll keep me warm and cozy. I read i Devil Wears Prada but this is superiour -- and REAL!
A MESMERIZING, SCINTILLATING READ!!!!! February 11, 2005
Catwalk watcher (Los Angeles)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I picked this book up during Fashion Week in NYC and could not put it down until I came to the back cover. The author has captured the Queen of fashion in exquisite detail, giving the reader an immaculate portrait of Wintour's rise to the pinnacle of power from her childhood in London, her wild&crazy teenage years during the swinging sixties, her climb up through the fashion magazines over fellow aspirants with her 4" Manolos and lovers&friends lost and won along the way. This biography is so well researched and well sourced. Kudos to the author for not only giving us those details so that we have an accurate portrayal of the woman who determines what's hot and what's not in fashion but also for recognizing that she certainly deserves to be on the top rung of the ladder. It is only by detailing her early years that we fully understand how she ascended to this throne.
I don't think previous reviewers read the same book. You don't have to be a fashionista to want to read about one of the most powerful women in business today in the world.
I also read Oppenheimer's book on Martha Stewart, the first and last biography on the doyenne of domesticity. As a lover of biographies, I think he interviews hundreds of subjects and lets those who know the subject well tell the story -- unlike other popular biographers who write only from news clips. This is the real deal. If you are remotely interested in who decides what's in or out in fashion and how she acquired this extraordinary power, you'll love this page-turner on Anna Wintour.
Fascinating, insightful read April 27, 2005
Madame M (Quebec, Canada)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
They say a picture worth a thousand words, well, one look at Anna Wintour ooze the following thing, pure, absolute morgue. Jerry Oppenheimer's book is a fabulous, well-reaserched piece about the most powerful woman of fashion, revealing eloquent examples of her icy, ruthless, gross carreerism. As a reader of French,Italian and American Vogue, I always found the latter to be boring, sterile, cold, lacking the edginess, soul and warmth of its european counterparts. I've always found Wintour to have a dry, not particularly articulate writing style and Oppenheimer confirmed my beliefs when he reveals she was a high school drop-out, without any communication or writing skills. The woman is a pure case for the 48 Laws of Power (by Robert Greene), where cunning, maliciousness, seduction, backstabbing and using men become main instruments to claw at the top.Wintour, we learn in this book, is no woman's woman, despite heading the first fashion magazine in the world. We learn everything about her outright catty bitchiness and petty competitiveness with other women, yet how she is needy for male attention (craving time with her father among this), playing little girl, seducing,flirting and even hiding a lascivious soul behind that icy, morgue-ish exterior. A tremendous pleasure to read- plus the Arab drag queen story, where "she" and a macho French photographer terrorize Anna is hilarious!!! Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power and Samuel Vaknin book about Malignant Narcissists complete very well this book, in order to understand the woman's persona.
HARD-HITTING AND POIGNANT February 11, 2005
AVIDREADER (NEW YORK CITY)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
Oppenheimer bills himself as an investigative biographer and if Anna Wintour is Watergate, Oppenheimer is Bernstein and Woodward. He does an incredible job of tracing her life from the Swinging '60s in London to the most powerful job in fashion magazines. I read the Devil wears Prada, but this is the REAL story. A fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read. I posted a review earlier but a note popped up saying Amazon had a problem. So I may be posted twice.
Darin Gregus March 9, 2005
Darin Gregus
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Loved it! Yes, I'm surprised because I'm a novel reader who never picks up a biography. Oppenheimer's gift for story telling, however, made this one read more like a wonderful work of fiction. What's more, it's well known that this author is a well respected journalist who does a great deal of research so this tale is all true. Wow. What a bizarre world behind all those fashion mags and the big "philanthropic" events of the New York aristocracy. Bottom line...if you're not the type to read this kind of book, you'll love it. If you enjoy biographies, you'll love it. Can't wait for the movie (and Oppenheimer's next book). Two thumbs up.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 40
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