Klensch, Elsa

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KLENSCH, Elsa
(Elsa Aeschbacher)

PERSONAL:

Original name, Elsa Aeschbacher; born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; daughter of Hans Ernest (in business) and Mary Margaret Aeschbacher; married Charles Klensch, 1966. Education: Studied at University of Sydney.

CAREER:

Fashion journalist and writer. Worked as a journalist in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, London, England, Papua New Guinea, Saigon, Vietnam, and Hong Kong, 1960s; fashion editor for Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar, New York, NY, 1970s; CNN, Style with Elsa Klensch, host and producer, 1980-2001. Lecturer at the Chicago Historical Society, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and the San Diego Historical Society.

MEMBER:

Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (visiting committee).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Council of Fashion Designers of America award, 1987, 1999; Recipient of Cavaliere Order of Merit from the Republic of Italy, 1988; recipient of honorary doctor of fine arts degree from International Fine Arts College of Miami, 1990; Woman of Achievement award, Anti-Defamation League, 1995; Golden Aldo award, Menswear Fashion Association, 1996.

WRITINGS:

(With Beryl Meyer) Style (nonfiction), illustrations by David Croland, photographs by Randy Brooke, Berkley (New York, NY), 1995.

Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15 (novel), Forge (New York, NY), 2004.

Shooting Script (novel), Forge (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to Elle Décor and Architectural Digest. Author of a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, 1994-98.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elsa Klensch is most widely known for hosting and producing the Style with Elsa Klensch fashion show on CNN. Klensch covered the fashion industry from New York, Milan, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and all the other fashion centers of the world. She broke barriers for later fashion shows and networks by bringing television cameras and crews right up to the runways and bringing the designers out from behind their designs. Before her twenty-year period with the show on CNN, Klensch worked for various magazines in New York as fashion editor, including Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar. Prior to moving to New York with her husband, Australian-born Klensch worked as a journalist in Australia, England, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Klensch turned to writing in 1995, publishing Style, but did not continue writing until after she retired from CNN.

Her novel Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15 introduces Sonya Iverson, a television producer who is still healing from her face-lift. When the wife of a fashion mogul is murdered at an awards gala she organized, a number of attendees having plenty of ill-will towards her become suspects as the body count begins to rise in this fashion-themed mystery. Writing in Booklist, Ilene Cooper noted the glamour in the book, but commented that "this is one of those books where no one talks like a real person." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Clarissa Cruz praised the pace of the book but found the characters "two-dimensional." A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews concluded that Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15 is "fast-paced and funny—a debut with style."

Shooting Script is the second of the Sonya Iverson mysteries. Here Sonya is in Hawaii to interview her network's chief executive and his wife at the opening of her posh spa. When Sonya arrives and finds her boss murdered in bed, a web of suspects among his own family makes it difficult for Sonya to solve the mystery. Reviews of Shooting Script were generally better than her debut. Margaret Cannon, writing in a Globe and Mail review, compared the sequel to the original calling Shooting Script "just as funny but with a more solid plot." A reviewer writing in Publishers Weekly wasn't as enthusiastic, stating: "The author's bio notes that she's made the Best-Dressed List, but the bestseller list looks less likely." In a Booklist review, Jenny McLarin noted that Klensch "manages to create a perfectly pleasant entertainment" which "should appeal to Danielle Steele fans." A Kirkus Reviews critique claimed that "Klensch is adept at drawing memorable characters and keeping the pace moving."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Newsmakers, Issue 4, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2004, Ilene Cooper, review of Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15, p. 214; September 15, 2005, Jenny McLarin, review of Shooting Script, p. 36.

Entertainment Weekly, March 5, 1993, Lisa Schwarzbaum, "Cindy Crawford's Got Nothing on Her," p. 38; September 10, 2004, Clarissa Cruz, review of Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15, p. 170.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), November 26, 2005, Margaret Cannon, review of Shooting Script, p. D34.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2004, review of Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15, p. 662; July 15, 2005, review of Shooting Script, p. 757.

Library Journal, November 1, 2004, Shelley Mosley, review of Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15, p. 63.

Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2005, review of Shooting Script, p. 213.

Time, September 27, 2004, Andrea Sachs, interview with Elsa Klensch, p. A16.

W, September, 2004, Jamie Rosen, interview with Elsa Klensch, p. 214.

WWD, January 18, 2001, Lisa Lockwood, "Elsa Klensch Leaves CNN Post," p. 14; August 5, 2004, Jamie Rosen, review of Live at 10:00, Dead at 10:15, p. 4.