My Paris Dream: An Education in Style, Slang, and Seduction in the Great City on the Seine($28.36Value)

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For readers of How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are My Paris Dream is a charming and insightful memoir about coming of age as a fashion journalist in 1980s Paris by former Vogue and Harpers Bazaar editor Kate Betts the author of Everyday Icon Michelle Obama and the Power of Style “[A] glittering coming-of-age tale.” — Entertainment Weekly (The Must List) “[Kate Betts] shares her coming-of-age in a self-assured book that should be given to every college senior with a Doisneau poster (or Chanel ad) on her wall. . . . Fashion and self-examination—froth and wisdom—might seem like odd bookfellows, but Betts brings them together with winning confidence. . . . Young worshipers of Paris—and of fashion magazines—are in for an education. Those of us who’ve been there and back will find it entertaining and sneakily poignant reading on the flight to Charles de Gaulle.” — The New York Times Book Review   “As light and refreshing as an ice cream cone from the legendary Berthillon, My Paris Dream evokes the sights, sounds, smells and styles of 1980s Paris.” — USA Today   “ My Paris Dream is awesome.” —Man Repeller “What was Bett’s Paris dream? Her dream was her awakening, [which] is elegantly chronicled in these pages.” —The Daily Beast   “For those who are interested in the men and women involved in haute couture, Betts’ reminiscences will be a delight.” —Kirkus Reviews “Full of slangy French, delectable food and swoon-worthy fashion.” — BookPage “An amazing story of a young woman in Paris trying to break into the fashion business as a journalist, My Paris Dream is a fun read. Kate Betts’s trajectory of inventing herself is uniquely her own but incredibly universal as well.” —Sophia Amoruso, author of #GIRLBOSS   “With beauty, poignancy, and stirring precision, Kate Betts describes what it means to come into your own by going far from home. My Paris Dream is a valentine to a city, a language, and the thrills and confusions of young love and young ambition. But, even more so, it’s a tribute to style itself. Betts has all the elements—grace, humor, humanity, wisdom. What a gift that she has shared them in these delightful pages.” —Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable   “Kate Betts’s story brought me back to my own young self and the journey I made—in my case, from a small town in Illinois to New York City. She’s captured that youthful fearlessness and the romantic impulse we have to strike out and find ourselves—through work that inspires us, through friendships that sustain us, and through heartbreaks that help us learn about our deepest desires. This is an enchanting, magical memoir.” —Cindy Crawford   “When I first met Kate I was wowed by her intellect and dazzled by her style—I idolized her. Now that I’ve read her brilliant and stylish memoir of her early years breaking into fashion, it is clear to me that Paris was the catalyst that turned her into the woman she was always meant to be. And this is her unforgettable story.” —Stacy London   “We all have our own Paris, wherever it is—the place that made us who we are—and this is Kate Betts’s: vintage late 1980s, effortlessly stylish, a little gritty, and seductive as hell. My Paris Dream is a coming-of-age story that crackles with brilliantly drawn, larger-than-life characters, fashion-world intrigue, and a hint of bittersweet nostalgia.” —Luke Barr, author of Provence, 1970   “What an entertaining read this is! This is a paeon not only to the City of Light but to the pleasures—and perils—of following your heart.” —Elizabeth Berg, author of The Dream Lover Kate Betts has been covering the world of style for twenty-five years, first as a reporter in the Paris bureau of Women’s Wear Daily and later as an editor at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Time magazine. The youngest person ever to serve as editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, she is also the author of the critically acclaimed book Everyday Icon: Michelle Obama and the Power of Style . Betts lives in New York City with her husband, the writer Chip Brown, and their two children. chapter one Seeds of the Dream In the summer of 1982 I discovered Paris for the first time. I was on a high school graduation adventure with my boarding school roommate, Maria, and her sister Johanna. We bought Eurail passes and spent two months traveling around France, Italy, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. We arrived in Paris on a hot June morning, bunked in a youth hostel on the rue des Barres behind the Hôtel de Ville, and made a beeline for Berthillon, the ice cream parlor on the Île Saint-Louis that Johanna’s worldly older boyfriend had told her had the best ice cream in the world. It was true. I still remember the intense flavor of the side-by-side scoops of raspberry and lemon-lime sorbet. Everything about Paris was more intense, from the sorbet flavors to the cornflower-blue sky stretched over the sharp spire of Sainte-Chapelle to the scarlet poppies poking out of green grass squ