Being a young teen with a subscription to Sassy magazine in the late 80's, I was aware of Betsey Johnson. I was never really into fashion but there were certain designers I really liked, Betsey being one of them. My husband met her at a couple of her shows in NY in the 90's and said she was one of the nicest people he'd ever come across in the industry.

I had no expectations about this memoir at all considering that the only things I really knew about Betsey was 1) her penchant for cartwheels and 2) that I had liked many of her designs that I saw.

I really enjoyed this book - her positive mindset is so refreshing and wonderful to come across in a memoir. Considering my response to this book, I would think that Betsey Johnson's fans as well as fans of fashion will love this book.

My thanks to Betsey Johnson, Penguin Viking, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I've always had an appreciation for Betsey Johnson: the Fashion Designer. I now have a deep appreciation for Betsey Johnson: the Entrepreneur, the Leader, the HUMAN. As a self employed entrepreneur myself, although notably not in the same industry, I loved hearing her stories of tough times, of failures, and most of all of perseverance. Betsey was/still is a game changer, and I would recommend it even to people who may not be all too familiar with her work.

Betsey Johnson writes in an authentic and inspiring voice. The story of her journey to becoming an icon in the world of fashion design will be of interest to many readers.

Betsey Johnson's reality.

Don't get me wrong, I love Betsey Johnson designs. I own jewelry, shoes, sunglasses and my particular passion these days, watches. I loved her zany mixture of fabrics.
So who was this woman with such ingenious designs! I did watch a TV series about her that I enjoyed, but for some reason I didn't connect as I thought I would with this title.
Some of her reasons for doing things seemed unconventional, even when wrapped up in conventionality. Like marriage. Her reason for marrying burger flipper Jeff? Well it's ... really, I have no words. Possibly it was the times, the 60's. Still Betsey's reasoning maybe says it all. As she tells it, it was 'because that’s what I was designing at the time—a collection for an entire wedding party: the bride, bridesmaids, the hot ex-girlfriend, and of course, the flower girls.' The thought of capping off a new collection with a high profile occasion seemed liked a good idea. Maybe it was just part of going with the flow, seeking new experiences, the fantasy of it all. Who knows? Betsey doesn't seem to either. The marriage lasted three months.
This look into Betsey's colorful life is inviting, where she came from, her various struggles including health issues, her rise in and the challenges she faced over years in the fashion/design industry, her relationship with her beloved daughter Lulu, and her many friendships. Always ready to look in new directions!
BTW you just have to love her book cover.
Betsey the design icon! As I said' I love her work, and I do admire her ability to tell it how she saw it--Betsey being ... well, Just Betsey!

A Penguin Viking ARC via NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-arc copy of Betsey. I appreciate being able to read a memoir when it is not in my usual reading wheelhouse. I think that for anyone that enjoys Betsey's designs and thoughts on fashion will enjoy this book.

This book was received as an ARC from PENGUIN GROUP Viking in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am very familiar with the designs of Betsey Johnson and the unique empire she built from the ground up and everyone loved her designs because they are all about pops of color and using unique materials that no designer has ever thought to have used before such as beads, barrettes and costume-esque wear for the main materials of the design. My favorite part was the beginning when Betsey really went in depth of her upbringing and high school/college career and how she admits that looks are not everything and fade over time and that she was popular because people embraced her fun personality and it showed throughout her clothing which she believes was the rise of her clothing empire. I remember her on Dancing with the Stars and have been to a couple of her stores and remembering how fun the clothing was and having the pink mixed with the leopard as her signature look. Knowing where she came from and the work she took to build her empire will make you a fan even more and I know a lot of people will be remembering her for a long time.

We will consider adding this title to our Biography collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Betsey Johnson has been an innovator and style icon since the 1960s, and for the first time here she tells her story from her salad days (or rather, tuna fish days) working at small downtown NYC boutiques (which, shortly after she began working there, became trendy) to CEO of her own brand. In her irreverent, inimitable and breezy style, she does not dwell on the failures or successes of her business ventures nor her love affairs (she admits she has done less well in the latter) but continues to take the reader on her journey towards fulfilling her vision. The last portion of the book is dedicated to her more recent health issues and her current life as mother and grandmother, in a more somber tone.

Any fans of Betsey Johnson's designs would enjoy this memoir, Her own collection of memories.

Disclaimer: I generally don't care for memoir, and when i do read a famous person's memoir, i also read a lot of other books/articles about them, because I don't believe you can know your own life's truth and tell it without personal bias and aggrandizement.

I've long been a fan of Betsey Johnson's fashion designs and have owned several of her dresses, boots, and bags. Her aesthetic tends to jive with my own personal style, or has at various times in the past. So, it was as a wearer of her designs that i came to this memoir.

Johnson is not a writer. I mean, yes, she has written this memoir which reads like it was dictated to her phone; it actually might have been since she claims she was briefly married to the original inventor of voice-to-text. She's led a wild and interesting life, but she doesn't tell her own story in an engaging way. I was carried along by the events and circumstances of her story, but it feels like when a small child tells you about a dream they had in exhaustive, circuitous detail. Very much a feeling of, "and then this happened and this happened and digression and wacky wacky and cool cool."

She's remarkably devoid of introspection when it comes to the lives of anyone around her. For example, she gushes about how hot Edie Sedgwick looked wearing her clothes, but doesn't even make note of the fact that Edie was an anorexic junkie about to die at the time. She's fairly clueless about her abusive exes and her own battles with health challenges like breast cancer are recounted with a similar shallow perspective.

The last section of the book is a defense of her decision to enter into a corporate partnership in which she tried to absolve herself of any responsibility for why the brand/chain then imploded and failed. It was interesting to see all the photos, and particularly to see one of her and Bill Cunningham, whose recent posthumous memoir was similarly vapid.

I don't know, i didn't hate it. I don't wish I had the hours of my life back i spent reading it. But, don't go into it thinking it's anything beyond an admittedly talented designer bragging about her mostly-awesome life.