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Should you find yourself browsing in a bookshop around now, your attention might well be caught by a photograph of a female model adorning a dust jacket. No, it's not further evidence of declining standards in book publishing. This is an expose of the fashion business. It will expose little to the insider. The fashion guru, after a glance at the index and a quick flick through the pages to check what Colin McDowell has to say about self, friends and enemies, will very likely place it firmly back on the shelf.
If The Designer Scam finds its way on to the reading lists of fashion students, they will derive little comfort from its tales of the life of work awaiting them -- which they may be inclined to dismiss as the bitter ramblings of a jaded man. But they might remember McDowell in a few years' time, when they're sweating away in the shadow of a petulant prima donna, for scant reward and less recognition.
It is to the general reader that The Designer Scam is aimed, the moneyed 'victim' who pays through the nose to be seen wearing the right label. McDowell...