CHARLES JAMES: PORTRAIT OF AN UNREASONABLE MAN: FAME, FASHION, ART
Inspired by the discovery of long-overlooked interviews conducted just before his death, this is the first biography of the visionary fashion designer Charles James.
Christian Dior described him as the inspiration for the “New Look.” Salvador Dalí called his work “soft sculpture,” and Virginia Woolf exclaimed, “He is a genius.”
As George Bernard Shaw tells us, only unreasonable men change the world. This portrait of the life and times of Charles James—winner of two Coty awards, and the subject of a 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art show—draws on the glamour of Europe in the 1930s, and the dazzle of New York City from the ’40s through the ’70s as it travels with James from his birth to privilege in England in 1906 and follows his career through his complex and turbulent relationships with exceptional women such as Elsa Schiaparelli and Eleanor Lambert, ending with his penurious death in New York’s fabled Chelsea Hotel.
As engrossing as a novel, as dramatic as grand opera, James’s story provokes, rivets, and inspires.
WHERE TO BUY CHARLES JAMES: PORTRAIT OF AN UNREASONABLE MAN
Press for Charles James: Portrait of an Unreasonable Man
Kirkus Reviews
Interview Magazine
Kirkus Reviews
“A luscious exposé of a game-changing designer who revolutionized the fashion industry” and also says “Klein pushes the biographical genre by writing about her subject through the stories of those who surrounded him. Refreshingly, the result is neither a chronological nor traditional biography.“
Vogue
Interview Magazine
Kirkus Reviews
“James seems to have met, befriended, loved, or reviled most of the 20th century’s great fashion and style makers, from Paul Poiret to Antonio Lopez, and this book is a who’s who of those glittering, fascinating characters. The impossible Mr. James emerges as one of the most compelling of them all.”
Interview Magazine
Interview Magazine
New York Social Diary
“Klein’s James…faithfully parallels the real man both inside and outside of the atelier, as she meticulously documents the period that became his legacy. Peppered with society drama, his patrician connections, and the financial and personal pitfalls that haunted him, she also memorializes the remarkable women that inspired the creative genius of James.
New York Social Diary
New York Social Diary
New York Social Diary
"… I wouldn’t recognize a Charles James if I collided with a mannequin got up in one of his designs, but I loved this book…” – Dennis Ferrara
Bookforum
New York Social Diary
Financial Times
”Michele Gerber Klein’s 2018 page turner follows the arc of the couturier’s life across his relationships with the women who were closest to him."
Financial Times
New York Social Diary
Financial Times
This talented British couturier, pioneer of the spiral-cut dress and the puffer jacket, is often overlooked today. This uproarious biography rectifies that, introducing us to the ne plus ultra of queeny fashion designers, while taking us on a gossipy tour of transatlantic high society."
Business of Fashion
New York Style Guide
New York Style Guide
“As this very readable account makes clear, James was admired by all as the world’s greatest fashion creator. Everybody who was anybody, from Paul Poiret to Antonio Lopez, who at some time crossed Charles James’ path, all have vivid memories of him, which is why this book is such a page-turner."
New York Style Guide
New York Style Guide
New York Style Guide
“Charles James: Portrait of an Unreasonable Man […] presents a riveting look at the infamous designer whose legacy has been informing fashion for decades.”
Vogue Portugal
New York Style Guide
Vogue Portugal
“À época. foi um visionário e, hoje, ainda é relembrado. ”
Tatler
Beyond Fashion
Vogue Portugal
“… there is no doubt that this visionary designer was a legend in his time. Now, following the discovery of long-overlooked interviews, author Michèle Gerber Klein has woven together his story.”
Beyond Fashion
Beyond Fashion
Beyond Fashion
“The book […] is a perfect description of Charles James’s life and work through his own and other people’s eyes, it gives you an unbiased perception of how much his revolutionary designs had influenced fashion throughout the 1920’s to the 1970’s…”
BookAuthority
Beyond Fashion
Beyond Fashion
“As engrossing as a novel, as dramatic as grand opera, James’s story will provoke, rivet, and inspire.”
*5 Best New Fashion Designer Biography Books To Read In 2018
*6th Best Fashion Designer biography of all time.
New York Social Diary
New York Social Diary
New York Social Diary
“Michele Gerber Klein’s biography is empathetic but also get’s down to detail so you have no illusions…(it) gives you a true story about a man who in his way, despite himself, succeed into legend”
Metrosource
New York Social Diary
New York Social Diary
“Charles James Portrait of an Unreasonable Man may be a non-traditional (or at the very least a non-chronological) biography but it is nevertheless a fitting work to honor an extraordinary life.”
journal of books
New York Social Diary
Publishers Weekly
“This reader was actually rationing his reading time so that the enjoyment would be prolonged as long as possible.”
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
… the book focuses “on his relationships with industry insiders and socialites, such as Anne Armstrong-Jones and Dominique de Menil, both of whom served as James’s muses, Klein shows how James “set the standard for style in the Western World” for mid-20th-century haute couture. ” It also states that “James spent his last years writing letters to his former friends and associates—a handful of which are excerpted here. The result is a juicy account of the influence of an often-overlooked figure in the history of fashion.”
British Vogue
Publishers Weekly
Womens Wear Daily
“Klein dedicates each chapter to one of the couturier’s muses, from his heiress mother Louise Brega to friends like Elsa Schiaparelli and Elizabeth Arden, and finally his wife Nancy James.”
Womens Wear Daily
Publishers Weekly
Womens Wear Daily
"Michèle Gerber Klein’s new biography looks at the designer who influenced generations of others, among them Christian Dior, Halston, Schiaparelli and Yves Saint Laurent."
Monocle
The Telegraph
Monocle
[Charles James was also] “very influential to artists of the 30s, 40s, 50s, and even Andy Warhol” … “He was an artist who was making clothes.” … “He put dresses in museums.”
The Cut
The Telegraph
Monocle
“Michèle Gerber Klein examines the brutal, brilliant perfectionism of Charles James, known as ‘the grand master of American fashion.’”
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
The New York Times
“If you think Karl Lagerfeld gives spikily good quote, make room on your bookshelves for a new biography of Charles James, the mid-20th-century British-born maestro of American ball gowns and tailoring.”
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times
“He was one of 20th-century fashion’s most brilliant couturiers and one of its most notorious enfants terribles.”
W
The New York Times
Give and Take
In W magazine’s “Simply the Best” Editor-in-Chief, Stefano Tonchi added Portrait of an Unreasonable Man to his wish list, naming Charles James the "spirit" behind the Daniel Day Lewis character in the Academy Award-winning film Phantom Thread.
Give and Take
The New York Times
Give and Take
Michèle was interviewed as part of thier "Conversations at the Heart of the Matter" series.
Harper's Bazaar UK
Harper's Bazaar UK
Harper's Bazaar UK
Charles James' creations were fêted by Dalí, painted by Matisse and worn by Virgina Wolfe. A new biography explores his audacious, groundbreaking vision.