book review #10: chloe

The mail was quite good to me this birthday, a generous thank you gift from carmen, a gift card for anthropologie from Lauren, and quite the birthday package from alex and carla last week, in it was a vintage movie film camera (with instructions), a framed butterfly, and two of those assouline books, one about Cacharel and the other about Chloe. I've only read the Chloe one, and the more you read about a brand, the more you grow to like it (or dislike it). Chloe was founded by Gaby Aghion in 1952 and has taken on the roll of feminine and bold pieces that broke the line between haute couture and what everyone else wore. It was one of the first labels to create ready-to-wear designs, for daytime, and was sold exclusively at the boutique which belonged to the author's, Helene Shoumann's, mother. She recounts her mother's clientele and relationship with the brand. Its really an interesting story, and its nice to see how today's designer's interpret and maintain the original spirit of Chloe.