TALES FROM THE BACK ROW

TALES FROM THE BACK ROW – a non-fiction DEVIL WEARS PRADA that gives reader’s an inside look at the fashion industry and takes them behind the stage of New York’s hottest fashion shows to meet the world’s most influential models, designers, celebrities, editors, and photographers.. Amy Odell is the editor of Cosmopolitan.com. Funny and fearless.

Funny and fearless, Tales from the Back Row is a keenly observed collection of personal essays about what it’s really like to be a young woman working in the fashion industry.

In Tales from the Back Row, Cosmopolitan.com editor Amy Odell takes readers behind the stage of New York’s hottest fashion shows to meet the world’s most influential models, designers, celebrities, editors, and photographers.

But first, she has to push her way through the crowds outside, where we see the lengths people go to be noticed by the lurking paparazzi, and weave her way through the packed venue, from the very back row to the front. And as Amy climbs the ladder (with tips about how you can, too), she introduces an industry powered by larger-than-life characters: she meets the intimidating Anna Wintour and the surprisingly gracious Rachel Zoe, not to mention the hilarious Chelsea Handler, and more.

As she describes the allure of Alexander Wang’s ripped tights and Marchesa’s Oscar-worthy dresses, Amy artfully layers in something else: ultimately this book is about how the fashion industry is an exaggerated mirror of human fallibility—reflecting our desperate desire to belong, to make a mark, to be included. For Amy is the first to admit that as much as she is embarrassed by the thrill she gets when she receives an invitation to an exclusive after-party, she can’t help but RSVP “yes.”

Amy Odell is the editor of Cosmopolitan.com. Chief amongst her interests are cats and Beyoncé. She is a feminist (thank you for asking). Her first book, Tales from the Back Row, drops in the fall of 2015.