Elsa Klensch

Atelier

Hoppity Hop
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
7,988
Reaction score
4
Elsa Klensch's show on CNN was one of the reasons I got into fashion. I'll be interested reading this new book.

WWD 8.5.04 Dressed to Kill

NEW YORK — During her 21-year reign as the host of “Style with Elsa Klensch” on CNN, Elsa Klensch spent five months out of every 12 in fashion pit stops such as Paris, London and Hong Kong. She also spent endless hours in their sterile airports. To bide the time, Klensch did what many other travelers do: She read mystery novels.

“I love John le Carré and P.D. James,” she says. “My husband says he can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write a mystery myself.”

Three years after leaving the cable news channel, Klensch will debut her first work of fiction, “Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15” (Forge), this September. It’s an Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery centered around a family-owned fashion house where everyone — from the hot young designer to the controlling publicist to the freebie-loving magazine editor — has a motive to kill.

“I can’t say every character is a touch of somebody on Seventh Avenue, but they are blends of characters,” Klensch says cautiously. “The world of fashion is very small.”

For this novel, the beginning of a series starring television producer Sonya Iverson, Klensch stays away from defining her characters simply by the labels they wear. When she does describe clothing, it’s with the same intellectual bent she employed on TV. One evening dress is “very thin, stretchy fabric on top. And the bottom is just a whiff of parachute silk — not transparent but almost.”

When “Style with Elsa Klensch” began in 1980, she was often the only fashion journalist who arrived at shows with a TV crew in tow, interviewing designers who weren’t nearly as media friendly as they are today. “They feared me, and then they welcomed me with open arms,” Klensch says of the designers. “There are two great things for television — one’s sport, one’s fashion,” she adds. “They both are mesmerizing.”

Now that her show is over, Klensch, who still attends the shows each season, is able to enjoy the impact it had. “I actually brought fashion to so many women,” she says at her Manhattan apartment, which is decorated with finds from the Far East. “My object was always, ‘The design is important, not who’s going to wear it.’”

If she were doing a show today, Klensch says she’d rethink her approach but would stay away from celebrities. And if she were ever to write a memoir, Klensch would leave out her Australian childhood and the war reporting she did in Vietnam, where she married her husband, Charles, in 1966. “It wouldn’t be an autobiography,” she says, “just flashes of my life in fashion.”

— Jamie Rosen
 
Sounds interesting. I loved her show because it was so clean and straightforward. No slick editing, no booming techno, no outrageous characters. Just beautiful fashion presented in a beautiful way. I was so heartbroken when CNN cancelled it. :( Nice to see she's still around.
 
I think this would be an interesting read. The last fashion mystery I read was about the House of Gucci, what a read.
Thanks to Elsa for introducing me to fashion in the early 80s. I couldn't wait until 1:00 on Saturday afternoon. Hmmm...my parents should have figured it out then :innocent:
 
same with me chris...i watched religiously every saturday for a glimpse into the magical fantasy world called fashion...

she was always very journalistic in her approach...she was genuinely 'reporting'...
i have a lot of respect for her and applaud her for being at the forefront of fashion journalism...

plus-i love agatha christie and a good murder mystery...!!!
 
I used to watch it as a little kid. I love her! :smile:
 
was it just me or was everyone else like mysteriously hypnotized by her voice...like i couldn't leave the tv screen while she was talking
 
Still haven't gotten around to reading it. In fact I totally forgot about it but she popped in my mind today.

live100023.jpg
 
funny she lieks John le care, I used to be friends with his grandson, odd family...

The book sounds intresting.
 
Wow...the connections you've got Space* :lol:

I concur with everybody. While I am more indebted to Tim Blanks for showing the world of fashion to me,I still very much admired Elsa Klensch's genuine way of presenting. It wasn't celeb induced....there was so much emphasis on the collection's and interview's with designer's describing the work. As she said herself it was all about the design and nothing else really.

The book sounds really interesting,indeed.
 
I miss her show terribly...she's one of the few journalists who inspired me to become a journalist. I remember all those years ago, watching Style, and then getting inspired to sew...I'd start a project, and leave cnn on all day...caught some fine news reporting back then too. its all different now.

all the hyperactive editing high-energy hokey presenters really cheapen television coverage of fashion. Elsa's show allowed it to be a quality art form and product on for simply what it was. I like tim blanks...that show by jeane beker is good too. But Elsa...shes the best.
 
elsa

I still have vhs tapes from the 80s of 'style' on cnn.
havent watched them in awhile but i have a log of all the designers 7 models she featured...

what about "YOU!" with edie locke- anybody remember that show...??

met edie once at a kors show she was REALLY nice.
 
ha.. i must also have some good old tapes of Style somewhere,
used to love Elsa
 
i just loved her show, never missed one, and always taped it.....she made me aware of fashion, and when it was cancelled it was like the end of an era. i still miss that show!!
why was it ever cancelled anyways? i'm still wondering to this day......
i just wish she would venture back into the fashion world, maybe as an editor or guest editor, or with another show....
 
Because,I believe they were revamping CNN and CNN International totally and they wanted to introduce some new programming. That's when they introduced Design 360º ....which is also very good too!.
 
design 360 is pretty good too, but for sure its no STYLE ..
 
in the last few years cnn has gone through major management and ownership changes...but if the viewership of Elsa's show wasnt as consistently high then they may have taken a ratings based decision. But really, tons of people loved that show. Actually come to think of it, CNN went through this big re-branding, where they were getting rid of most of their "mature" correspondents in favor of the younger less paid correspondents. There were several older reporters who's contracts were not renewed, and older style shows that were cancelled. Poor foresight on their part, no?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

New Posts

Forum Statistics

Threads
210,543
Messages
15,118,400
Members
84,197
Latest member
Drue Price
Back
Top
monitoring_string = "058526dd2635cb6818386bfd373b82a4"