The Green Room - Wendell Rodricks

When I first got to know that Wendell Rodricks', a fashion designer who is a household name (if people of that house read newspapers) is coming up with a book, I made up my mind that I am surely going to read it. I have always followed news related to the fashion world, not to the T, but yes on and off so I knew who Wendell Rodricks' was and what he was famous for. The book named "The Green Room" with Malaika Arora Khan on its jacket landed up at my house on previous friday and thats when I thought that this is going to be my weekend read. 

The book opens up with a prologue in which models are getting ready in the green room, the backstage manager shouting at the models, and the choreographer of the show is all set to fire instructions so that the show can begin as soon as possible. Amidst all the chaos, the backstage manager keeps shouting that if something goes wrong, Wendell is going to throw a fit, so models should make sure nothing goes wrong. The way prologue has been written instantly had me. Wendell came across as a strikingly good story teller. It was one of the youtube videos that I saw about the book in which Wendell shared that it was a challenge among friends that who can write 60,000 words in two months and Wendell took up the challenge quite seriously and actually began writing. He completed the challenge and later realised that he should add some 60,000 words more to bring this book to life. In the book he shares that Lara Dutta once asked him to write a book because she liked the way he told stories. Wendell has politely thanked her in the book! :) 

The book has some 350 odd pages and 21 chapters and covers each and every aspect of Wendell's life. His family, his ancestors, his education, his friends, his collections, his designs, his assorted works, fashion shows he did, his sexuality, the controversies of the fashion industry, his infinite holidays all over the world, his stints in various parts of the world, his love and passion for Goa, his love for food, numerous friends he made in his life, his love for wine, his discoveries including Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, controversies around him and his relationship with his partner Jerome, a french man he met in Oman, his pets and people who have worked with him over the years. 

The way this book has been written makes it an absolute page turner. If you have the slightest idea about fashion and fashion industry and popular names of the industry, you would sail through the book quite easily. Wendell is witty and blatantly honest with whatever he has shared in the book. His writing has got the WOW factor. The way he has described everything in the book shows how observant he is with things surrounding him. Also, Wendell praises Shefalee Vasudev, who has written a book Powder Room, which I read and reviewed few days back, for her honest reviews about the fashion shows and the fashion world. I absolutely loved Powder Room as well. 

I would definitely suggest you to read this book once. It gives you a wide insight about the fashion world and how to become somebody from nobody. Wendell has poured his heart out in the book and deserves a place in your book shelf if you enjoy reading autobiographies. 

Publisher : Rain Tree Publishers
Genre : Autobiography
ISBN : 978-81-291-2022-9 

Powder Room

Author: Shefalee Vasudev
Publisher: Random House India
Genre: Non fiction
Binding: Hard cover
ISBN: 978-81-8400-161-7
Pages: 332
Rating: 3.5/5

Powder Room made me wait. Powder Room made me read (and review) many other books. I wanted to lay my hands on it the moment I saw it in the list of books Random House India wanted me to review. It came to me after a while, and was worth the wait. Shefalee Vasudev's debut book held this special attraction for me because I am closely allied to the industry and wish to crossover sometime in the near future. The glamour of this world, as Vasudev testifies, is undeniable, and I am drawn to it like thousands in this country.

Powder Room, however, makes people like me think twice about charting this murky territory, and therefore succeeds as a book. It means to tell the inside story of the glittery, dog-eat-dog world of fashion, and it does so without mincing words. Although non-fiction, the book reads like a story, with a generous sprinkling of anecdotes that render the near-legendary fashion personalities, real. She also, often, speaks of her own experiences as the 'misfitting' fashion journalist, offering the reader fairly intimate views of what goes on in the wings.

The book is divided into 10 chapters, each offering insights into different aspects of the fashion industry. Fashion, explains Vasudev, has many faces: a sales girl at a luxury brand's kiosk in a city mall, struggling female and male models by the dozen, powerful and experienced models, rich industrialist wives, young designers, old designers, fashion journalists, luxury brands, tailors and masterjis, retail chains, fashion weeks, Page 3, Bollywood, fashion magazines and artisans to name a few pegs in this complex tapestry. The author tells the story and struggle of each of these players to help the reader understand the rather large, and often ugly, underbelly of this industry.

As the ex-editor of Marie Claire, Vasudev has an insider's perspective on fashion. That she has written this book after leaving the fashion world has served her well, and helped keep the book objective. When she narrates the life stories of, say, Nagma - the B grade model, or Rohit Bal - the King of Indian fashion, Imcha Imchen - the young and depressed designer, or the Salvis of Patan - the last standing family of Patola weavers, it is all believable. The author claims to have interviewed about 300 people as part of her research for the book, and it shows in the extensiveness and conviction with which she writes about fashion. Whether it is the politics of the designer lobby, the marketing tactics of international brands, the poor conditions of weavers, the lack of a code of ethics, the gigantic egos of designers, she knows what she is talking about.

The book concludes with the author's disenchantment with the world of fashion and her eventual exit from it. Fashion journalism, Vasudev states, is really a sham in this country, where brands with clout and money run the real show. Powder Room shows how in this world of excesses, any person with half a conscience soon begins to squirm with discomfort. Yet the lure of its arclights is so powerful that it draws people like moths. Those equipped with the author's clinical detachment, swim, and those without, sink.

Read this book for many such truths.