Rating: 
Summary: BORING!! A waste of time and money
Review: This book is poorly written and very dull, full of repetition. Nothing in this book is shocking. It seems the only reason Mr. Halperin wrote this book just so he could hang around models and do the "research". Models do drugs and drink?!! Shocking!! Models who can't pay their drug dealers and their rent turn to prostitution? Say it isn't so. Models taken advantage of by creepy photographers and agents? I can't believe it! Please. How did he ever convince someone to publish this. You are better off reading Us magazine or the National Enquirer.
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable Read
Review: This book rocks the fashion world. It reveals all the inner secrets behind the secrets of the fashion and modeling industry. And it is extremely well written. I highly recommend all fashion fans to consider Bad and Beautiful. The author posed undercover as a model to get the story. It is highly entertaining and investigative journalism at its best.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money! Don't buy this book!
Review: This book was incredibly dull and poorly written.
The majority of it is about wanna-be models who, while hoping for their big break, partied too hard and were "sexually abused" (as the author phrases it repeatedly) by men that like to hang around the fashion scene looking for naive girls. A typical passage: "Rio spent the next four hours convincing me how dangerous modeling has become. She admitted she had been beaten, held at gunpoint by a jealous boyfriend, and raped at least six times." Details about her harrowing ordeals follow ("Get out, get your hands off me", Rio yelled).If you find that interesting then this book is for you because much of it is just like that.
There are some pages about models that I have actually heard of (Halperin on model Kate Moss,"[She] appeared to be a beautiful, intelligent, and complex woman possessed of a smoldering sensuality.") But it's all recycled gossip told in a National Enquirer style but with a more pro-model spin. Naomi behaves badly because she has been "victimized by people who are trying to take advantage of her wealth and fame", Gisele Bundchen has become more famous because she dated Leonardo Dicaprio..and so on.
The insider slant, the author was a "model undercover" in L.A. not exactly a modeling mecca like New York, is rendered ridiculous as soon as you see Ian Halperin's picture. Not exactly model material.
I recommend instead Michael Gross' "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women". It's money much better spent!
Rating:
Summary: If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Review: This is the Watergate of high fashion.Award-winning investigative journalist Ian Halperin went undercover as a model to expose what goes on in the fashion industry off the runway when the lights and cameras go off. I read this book with my jaw on the floor. You will be outraged to read how beautiful young girls, some from poor countries and others red-blooded Americans with dreams of making it big, are prime targets of being sexually used, abused, perhaps murdered; they are made to go through things one wouldn't wish on their worst enemy. If you want to be a fashion model, this book will scare the living daylights out of you; if you believe this book doesn't relate to you, think of your daughter, your neice, your granddaughter. In addition to Halperin's investigating the darker, lesser known sides of this industry, also included later on in the book are top notch, in-depth chapters of more publicized occurences in fashion recently: the untimely death of Gianni Versace, the Fashion Cafe, Niki Taylor's tragedy, the John Casablancas scandal. It's tragic, as John Casablancas and the way he took advantage of his models is a sort of a tip of the iceberg to what is described in the first part of the book, and somehow what's below the surface has yet to be picked up by mainstream media and be prosecuted by authorities. Also: insightful biographies of Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and other supermodels. A well-rounded book, paced wonderfully and written skillfully.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book Ever On Fashion and Models
Review: Without hesitation, I strongly suggest that this is the best book ever written on the fashion industry. The way the author Halperin posed undercover and revealed all is brilliant. This is investigative journalism at its best. I had so much fun reading this book, I did not put it down for more than two days. Sexy, brilliant and entertaining!
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