Overview

Fashion is one of the most powerful industries in the world, accounting for 6 per cent of global consumption and growing steadily. Since the 1980s and the birth of the neoliberal economy, it has emerged as the glittering face of capitalism, bringing together prestige, power and beauty and occupying a central place in media and consumer fantasies. Yet the fashion industry, which claims to offer highly desirable job opportunities, relies significantly on job instability, not just in outsourced garment production but at the very heart of its creative production of luxury. Based on an in-depth investigation involving stylists, models, designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, photographers and interns, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri draws back fashion's glamorous facade to explore the lived realities of working in the industry. This challenging book lays bare the working conditions of 'the most beautiful job in the world', showing that exploitation isn't confined to sweatshops or sexual harassment of models, but exists at the very heart of the powerful symbolic and economic centre of fashion.

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9780522876109

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Reviews

It's the kind of book that makes you underline quotes and fold down page corners, that at times makes you so angry at the world, at the way passion is weaponised to justify exploitation, that you want to fling it across the room. The Most Beautiful Job in the World offers a very specific glimpse into one industry, but will change the way you look at the relationship between capitalism and creativity forever. - Elizabeth Flux, Kill Your Darlings Giulia Mensitieri turns her searing anthropologist's gaze to the exploitation of young creatives that operate at the heart of the (in this case, French) fashion industry. And it's not pretty. - Feminist Writer's Festival Boldly declared by one of our editors as the best fashion book I have ever read , The Most Beautiful Job in the World takes a piercing look at the inner workings of the luxury fashion industry. It exposes a lived reality that many within the fold already know: the greater the prestige, the lower the pay. - Fashion Journal

"""It’s the kind of book that makes you underline quotes and fold down page corners, that at times makes you so angry at the world, at the way passion is weaponised to justify exploitation, that you want to fling it across the room. The Most Beautiful Job in the World offers a very specific glimpse into one industry, but will change the way you look at the relationship between capitalism and creativity forever."" - Elizabeth Flux, Kill Your Darlings ""Giulia Mensitieri turns her searing anthropologist's gaze to the exploitation of young creatives that operate at the heart of the (in this case, French) fashion industry. And it's not pretty."" - Feminist Writer's Festival ""Boldly declared by one of our editors as “the best fashion book I have ever read”, The Most Beautiful Job in the World takes a piercing look at the inner workings of the luxury fashion industry. It exposes a lived reality that many within the fold already know: the greater the prestige, the lower the pay."" - Fashion Journal"

Author Information

Giulia Mensitieri (Author) Giulia Mensitieri has a doctorate in social anthropology and ethnology from the l' cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Her research focuses on globalisation, the transformations of work and the coveted imaginary worlds produced by contemporary capitalism. Natasha Lehrer (Translator) Natasha Lehrer is an award-winning writer and translator. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and The Nation. She has translated books by Nathalie Leger, Chantal Thomas, Georges Bataille, Robert Desnos and the Dalai Lama. She won a Rockower award for journalism in 2016, and in 2017 her co-translation (with Cecile Menon) of Suite for Barbara Loden, by Nathalie Leger, won the Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize.

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