Tales from the back row

Amy Odell takes readers behind the stage of New York's hottest fashion shows to meet the world's most influential models, designers, celebrities, editors, and photographers. She introduces an industry powered by larger-than-life characters: she meets the intimidating Anna Wintour and the surprisingly gracious Rachel Zoe, not to mention the hilarious Chelsea Handler, and more. Amy artfully layers in something else: ultimately this book is about how the fashion industry is an exaggerated mirror of human fallibility--reflecting our desperate desire to belong, to make a mark, to be included.