Book Review

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My Journey:  Donna Karan

Author(s):  Donna Karan with Kathleen Boyes

ISBN:  978-1-101-88349-5

Publisher:  Ballantine Books, 2015

Canadian price:  $39.00 (Hardcopy)

My Journey has been on my want-to-read list for quite some time. But since it's release several years ago I just haven't made the time to sit down and read it. It just happened to be one of the books that the local library was selling from their collection at a deep discount. It seemed like my last chance to finally read it. The crisp pages and binding that appeared to have never been cracked open made me wonder if it had ever been signed out. It sparked a feeling of sadness bringing me back to when I learned that Vogue Patterns would no longer be carrying Donna Karan and DKNY patterns.

My desire to read this book is attributed to the fact that I've been a huge fan of Donna Karan's designs and have, over the years, sewn many of her Vogue designer patterns.

Out-of-print Vogue 2092, circa 1988. 

This was one of the first Donna Karan patterns that entered my collection.

I wanted so much to enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed sewing her designs over the years.

OOP Vogue 1262, circa 2011.  Another favourite Donna Karan design.

The book didn't capture the joy that the designs brought to my sewing table. Sure, there were parts that I found interesting and things I learned about Karan's career that I was previously unaware of. I enjoyed reading about Karan's time at Anne Klein in the nineteen seventies and the menswear line and dressing a president. And the concept of seven easy pieces! But there was an underlining sadness that never seemed to escape from it's pages.  

What I didn't enjoy is how the book begins with the dark chapter Born into Fashion. Honestly, if I weren't a fan of her creative work, the start of this book would have been enough of a turn-off to abandon what laid ahead in the pages that follow. Despite the constant celebrity name-dropping peppered throughout the pages (I wasn't impressed), it is a story about a resilient woman who has overcome a great deal in her life. In that, it is a wonderful book. As far as being a reader who enjoyed sewing her designs, it didn't deliver any new inspiration or desire to revisit some of those old Donna Karan patterns. Maybe one day.

OOP Vogue 1175, still to be made one day.

Happy Sewing!