Champagne Supernovas: Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and the 90s Renegades Who Remade Fashion

By Maureen Callahan

A glittering history of fashion in the 1990s, told through the lives of Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.

The 1950s had rock 'n' roll and the 60s had the Beats. In the 70s and 80s, it was punk rock and modern art. But for the 1990s, it was all about fashion and Kate Moss, Marc Jacobs, and Alexander McQueen were the trio of rebel geniuses who made it great. Each had an amazing talent and each had demons that would jeopardize that same talent. Collectively, they represented a "moment" in fashion and pop culture that upended everything that had come before it.

In the tradition of pop-cultural histories like Girls Like Us and Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, Maureen Callahan explores a particular, pivotal time - the moment when the 1980s gave way to the 1990s, the alternative became the mainstream, and Gen X took over the reins of power in the fashion industry - through the lives of three people who would become both fashion icons and cautionary tales of the era. Callahan interviews insiders and reveals exclusive insights into the biggest dramas surrounding the most celebrated personalities of the decade: why Kate Moss and Johnny Depp broke up, how Marc Jacobs came through the crucible of the AIDS crisis, and what really drove Alexander McQueen to suicide.

Champagne Supernovas is the story of that singular time, as exemplified the lives of the three luminaries who forever changed the way we think about fashion and culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Sep 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781471137006

Maureen Callahan

Maureen Callahan has worked as an editor and writer at the New York Post, covering everything from the subcultures of the Lower East Side to local and national politics. She has also written for Spin, New York, Vanity Fair, and Sassy. She lives in New York City.

Reviews for Champagne Supernovas

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The 1980s were all about excess- huge hair styles, giant shoulder pads in rigid skirted suits, fancy everything, lots of cocaine. At some point in the 90’s, though, things changed. Grunge took over from hair metal. Fashion got stripped down and dirtied up and became shocking instead of pretty- but the cocaine stayed. The author has picked out three people who she feels were the primary forces behind this movement: two fashion designers and one model. Kate Moss has a very different look from the super models of the 80s; skinny, wan, and messy. She became the first model to have the look that came to be named “heroin chic”- strung out and apathetic. Marc Jacobs’s first collection- which failed miserably- was grunge. Alexander McQueen was an outsider, showing in empty warehouses and stealing fabric for his impossible to wear early collections. Of course these three did not work in a vacuum. Kate was discovered by a photographer digging through a drawer full of ‘maybes’ at a modeling agency; McQueen was given contacts by his ‘muse’, Isabella Blow; Jacobs took the traditional route of design school. And the zeitgeist of the world of haute couture was changing. The picture Callahan paints of these three and their world in the 90s is not pretty. All three indulged in huge amounts drugs- I’m talking super human amounts that it’s hard to believe they survived it. Their personal lives were wrecks for most of that era. It’s rather hard reading, really- but I couldn’t put it down because it was another of those books that’s like watching a train accident. But it was also very interesting to see how art and fashion made such a sea change so fast.