It’s the time of the year when we look for decadent summer reads & when a summer obsession can also combine the need for a read with topics like fashion & shoes… well… how can we resist?
The newly available title The Selling of One’s Sole is the story of one of America’s most celebrated shoe designers Donald J Pliner. But this isn’t just some rudimentary biography starting with birth & trudging though a life in sequential order. Donald J Pliner- The Selling of One’s Sole takes the reader on a circuitous path reads like a real-life-lived roller coaster ride. But, as the release notes say, for Donald J Pliner, he calls this rollercoaster ride by one simple word: “Life”
Donald’s life starts humbly enough, the second son of immigrants from Poland, who found themselves living in the storied Black Belt of Chicago, running a mini-chain of shoe stores catering to the city’s burgeoning, yet underserved, population of fashionable African Americans who were largely ignored by the more mainstream fashion boutiques in the city’s chic shopping districts. From Chicago, Donald embarks on a whirlwind tour of Europe & North Africa, before finally landing in CA managing a noted shoe boutique, where he eventually worked his way up to owning one of the most ballyhooed retail emporiums on the most iconic shopping boulevard of all in the world of fashion retail… Rodeo Drive, in the heart of Beverly Hills.
His clientele at his “Right Bank Clothing Co.” read like a Hollywood phone book… literally every major celebrity of the era – from Cher & Elton John, to Diana Ross & Wayne Newton, with Suzanne Sommers, Tina Turner, & Elizabeth Taylor in between – shopped in his emporium of cool. Watching over it all was Donald himself, the purveyor of fashionable cool that everyone who was anyone at the time, turned to to learn what was the latest & greatest in terms of style.
Later in the story, with his wife Lisa (the Miami-based right hand & muse of Gianni Versace) by his side, the two built a fashion empire that counted legions of loyal fans as its supporters. From coast to coast, Donald J Pliner in store appearances drew crowds who hoped to get a glance at the man who married comfort & fashion. Along the way, the duo overcame adversity, found successes few could ever imagine & even had a run-in with the KGB along the way… yes, it’s true.
Written by two fashion insiders themselves, Vivian Kelly & R. Scott French – the former a seasoned journalist & fashion history buff & the latter a CFDA member designer & fashion publicist – the books reads like an adventure story crossed with trade publication news article, detailing the real life ups & downs of two of American fashion’s most treasured creatives as they wind their way through the hallowed halls of fashion, from the factories in India & Italy, to the trade shows in Las Vegas & Miami, to the pyramids of Egypt… It’s all a part of this story!
This is a must read for the Summer & trust us, it’s a beautiful piece of work that will undoubtedly find its place on your coffee table for a long time following… your guests will love it too…
$60.00 available only at this link: www.thefashionlist.com/shop
268 pages with 62 pages of full color images.
