Part 2: Chapters 7-8 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 7, "Dressing the Dolls" deals with the fashion industry. Ten days before the stock market collapses in 1987, fashion designer Christian Lacroix unveils his "Luxe" collection for "women who like to 'dress up like little girls'" - at $45,000 per gown. Fashion writers proclaim him again the "messiah" of couture, but when the "High Femininity" (or "frou-frou") goes on sale, women fail to buy. Manufacturers and retailers adjust by inflating prices thirty percent, and sales drop forty percent. In 1988, they force bubble skirts and minis on consumers and another forty percent mark-up, and earnings drop fifty to seventy-five percent. It should be clear that designing little girl dresses around a body size that only twenty-five percent of American women fit is a mistake, but this is ignored. Frills represent male designers' rebellion against women's growing aloofness from their dictates...