Oh my God. Oh my God. Where were those shoes? Oh God, not the Manolos!

It was Fashion Week in Paris, and if it was Tuesday, it was Chanel. And if it was Chanel, it was my new black Manolo slingbacks with the two-and-a-half-inch kitten heels, to go with the charcoal-gray tweed A-line skirt I got at the Chanel sample sale last season and the perfectly Coco-esque black boiled-wool jacket with the delicate grosgrain trim that I had slipped out of my mother’s closet years ago. It said so right there on the daily wardrobe schedule I had meticulously entered into an Excel spreadsheet last week: Chanel skirt, trusty black jacket. Black La Perla bra, the one with the light padding. Matching thong. Tahitian pearl choker. Mabe ring. The black Balenciaga bag. (The brown version was slated for Thursday.) Manolo slingbacks. Only on this Tuesday morning the shoes were nowhere to be seen among the contents of the three suitcases scattered around me.

What a disaster. This would throw off my week’s schedule completely. I mean, I suppose I could switch over to the Wednesday outfit, but then I’d be wearing vintage Yves Saint Laurent — and we’re talking Monsieur Saint Laurent himself, not the Tom Ford era — to a Chanel show, and that just wouldn’t do. Not given the history between Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. I’m not stupid. I know better than to do that. And forget about the Thursday outfit. God and Anna Wintour know better than to wear Stella McCartney to Kaiser Karl’s show. Nope, it was Chanel or bust. And without those Manolos, I was utterly, absolutely, fabulously screwed.

And so opens “Some Like It Haute,” a caper of a book taking readers on a dizzying, fantastic run through the City of Lights as its hero — a style writer for The Weekly magazine — lands in Paris along with thousands of other preening fashionistas for the seasonal launch of the runway shows.

Its author, Julie K.L. Ðàm, is not just a new voice among young Vietnamese American writers, but someone who, in her debut novel, chose to move away from her contemporaries’ obsessive focus on their culture to, well, obsessively focus on another culture, lacing her observations with details about stilettos and scent.

Alex Simons, her main character, has a “heart beating in perfect tempo with the hallowed words” Prada and Jimmy Choo. We follow her escapades as she tries to get her scoops as well as get her man, in between bouts of fantasy shopping.

The result is a “fun, frothy, fashion romp,” says her editor, Caryn Karmatz Rudy, of Warner Books, who adds: “I think that she covers the frenzy of being a reporter at Fashion Week beautifully.”

Rudy also calls Ðàm’s volume “smart, chick lit,” the wildly successful genre filled with pastel covers showing heels, cocktails and trendy purses, and one that is winning followers rooting for frustrated singles in their search for soulmates and sole mates. “We wanted to keep this book topical,” she notes, “and I was looking for a wonderful voice and a comic touch.”

Ðàm, deadlines aside, had a ball with Simons and her exploits, making it up as she went along, weaving in James Bond-like kidnappings, passwords and a blindfold. Is there any connection between the literature she studied at Harvard and the literature in which she immerses herself in now?

“Not really,” she says, laughing. “I studied the classics, and in my junior year, my thesis was on immigrant literature, but actually what I read in college were some things that were very evocative of a certain time and place, and even though my book may be considered light and fluff, it is still evocative of a certain time and place. It’s the demi-monde of the late 20th century. It is a time capsule of what it was like growing up in the late 20th century.”

Born in Vi?t Nam, Ðàm grew up in Dallas, where, according to her biography, she first experimented with hairspray and learned the difference between a mule and a slide. Her undergraduate days led her to journalism, lured by the chance of viewing films and listening to CDs before anyone else did. When she finished school, she moved from Boston to New York to work for Time magazine.

She later spent two and a half years in London writing for the publication, documenting newsmakers in fashion and entertainment, from the death of Princess Diana to an exclusive interview with Donatella Versace on the eve of the designer’s premiere solo show after her brother’s murder. Ðàm is now a senior music editor at People, having reported exhaustively on the love lives of J. Lo and Britney Spears. And instead of trying to get sources to open up, she describes her job as “mostly I deal with publicists, which is another art in itself.”

Nguoi Viet 2 settles in for a read, coming up with plenty  of questions.
 
NV2: How is Alex Simons like you and unlike you, both of you being devoted to fashion?

Ðàm: We both love shopping and shoes, and we’ve had similar professional experiences. But I think she is a little less responsible and a little more accident-prone, which I suppose makes her a more interesting character!

NV2: In building a character, especially the main character, how did you hope the reader would relate to her?

Ðàm: Well, the type of person who’d read this book probably wishes she (and I know the readers are 99 percent women) had the opportunity to go to Paris, cover the fashion shows, etc. So I can understand if she envies Alex’s good luck but I also think Alex is still enough of a wide-eyed fish out of water that the reader can relate to her. And I think she has the same guy problems and relationship with her mom that anyone can relate to. She just may have a better wardrobe!

NV2: The public sees runways shows, easily impressed by glamour. What surprised you over the years of covering them? How does one get front-row seats, especially these days when there are so many celebrities clamoring after them? And who, apart from the rich and famous, buys these clothes?

Ðàm: The fashion world is glamorous and fun to cover but probably the most surprising thing is how quickly it becomes just another job! Yes, it can be a grind, when you are covering all the European shows day after day. But every once in a while you see an amazing collection or an amazing spectacle and you fall in love with it all over again.

It’s true, the front row is reserved for celebrities, high-roller clients and big-name fashion editors. But I think just being in the house at all is still pretty cool.

There are a few dozen people who are haute couture clients (i.e. shell out $20,000-plus for a made-to-measure outfit) but fashion trickles down. Plenty more people still buy the less expensive ready-to-wear lines, and even more will buy accessories or perfume. That’s really where the money is made.

NV2: Did you start out wanting to write a spoof? Take us from concept to publication — what were the major hurdles you had to clear?

Ðàm: I started out wanting to write something fun/funny. I wanted to have fun with it. I’ve known my agent, Marianne Gunn O’Connor, for probably eight years now. We met when I was covering fashion and she was a publicist for a designer I liked. So we kept in touch, and when she became a literary agent she encouraged me to write a book.

My original idea was to write historical fiction, set in Vi?t Nam in the 30s, but I think that was such a big, difficult project to tackle for a first novel that I never got the courage to even start. So Marianne was the one who told me to set it aside for now and write something fun instead.

This idea of setting a novel in the fashion world kind of came up, since it was something I knew well and the subject matter was ripe for parody. I actually started out thinking it would be a typical chick lit novel, light and fluffy and romantic, but I really couldn’t help myself. All the silliness just came out too.

Marianne said if I wrote 50 pages (single-spaced) she would sell it. Three months later, I gave her my first five chapters, and she sold it. That was almost the easy part, since I didn’t really have high expectations. But then I had a contract and a deadline, and since I work for a weekly publication, I do believe in meeting deadlines!

I was still working full-time so most of the struggle was making time on weekends (and rides on planes, trains, you name it) to write. The editing wasn’t a problem, but there was a long wait (about two years!) before publication, and that’s not something I was used to.

NV2: And how does a writer balancing deadlines get the motivation to write even more, away from the office? What was your routine? Who did you bounce around ideas or plot twists with?

Ðàm: By the time I started writing the novel, I wasn’t writing for People anymore — I was editing full-time. It’s a fine distinction but I think in my mind they were two distinct tasks. That helped.

I almost never wrote during the week, because I’d get home most days a little fried from work, and I knew I couldn’t focus. So I made myself write for a few hours almost every weekend for nine months.

I’m not actually sure where the discipline came from, because every time I sit down to even start thinking about Book No. 2, I can’t imagine how I’ll be able to make time to write it! I guess once I signed that contract I took that deadline seriously. Having written/edited for a weekly publication for 10-plus years helped.

A good friend of mine, who also likes to write fiction, was my first reader and she was really helpful in giving me feedback. My boyfriend (who really does not like the fashion world at all but has seen enough of it to know what was funny about it) also gave me some ideas. I think once I decided to make it really over-the-top, I came up with all sorts of nutty plot twists and just ran with it. I didn’t have much of a plan when I sat down, just a few scenes in my head. So I let the plot go where my imagination took it.

NV2: How did you reward yourself when you finally turned in the manuscript? Buy anything cool?

Ðàm: Ooh, what didn’t I buy?

When I got the first installment of my advance, I bought a laptop (very practical.) With the second (when I turned in the manuscript) I think I bought a really nice watch (still practical.) And when I got my last installment (at publication)... well, I don’t think I’ve finished the shopping spree yet.

NV2: With such shopping savvy, what’s your M.O. for finding hot deals and chic outfits?

Ðàm: I guess I’m just always looking.

I do follow some trends but mostly I buy what I like. I have one particular below-the-radar designer I love, especially since her pieces are one-of-a-kind. And I do like to mix the designer stuff with some J. Crew/Banana Republic staples.

If I’m feeling particularly flush or an item is just destined to be sold out immediately, I’ll buy now, ask questions later. But with a lot of things that I’m not just DYING to have, I’ll keep an eye on them until they go on sale. It helps to befriend the salespeople!

NV2: As for your day job, what is it that fascinates you about pop culture?

Ðàm: Just about everything. Sure there are more important things going on in the world, but it’s good to be entertained. And I’m happy to do my part.

I think everything that has its moment in pop culture — whether it’s reality TV or James Frey — says a lot about the era we live in.

NV2: What do your parents have to say about that job? Have any Vietnamese relatives eager to do what you do?

Ðàm: My parents think my job has given me a pretty interesting life, which I also think is the best thing about it. They’re still excited when they see me on TV or see my book in a store! You know, I don’t think I have any relatives who want to go into journalism/publishing at all. Maybe the next generation will...

NV2: Going back to book No. 2...

Ðàm: There’s a germ of an idea, and once the publicity dies down a bit for this one, I’ll figure out how to do it. (She’s targeting chick lit, again, she reveals, sitting in her office wearing a lightweight black wool V-neck sweater, olive-colored pants from Alexander McQueen, her feet clad in toffee Christian Louboutin.) My agent wants me to do another fun book. The Vi?t Nam book will be the third book, focusing on the early part of the 20th century and less about our generation.

NV2: And your mom and dad? Have they finished this volume?

Ðàm: My mom has. She liked the second half better because there are more things happening. My dad has not. She said he wouldn’t understand all that girl stuff.