………….. I just received a new book……”THE BATTLE OF VERSAILLES……THE FASHION SHOW DOWN OF 1973″ by Mark Bozek…….This historic fashion show pitted 5 AMERICAN DESIGNERS against 5 FRENCH DESIGNERS……..It was a huge benefit show for the preservation of the Palace of Versailles……A large group of American models were selected by the American designers to represent them, while the French had their own group of models….The top photo in the center shows the American models arriving in Paris….Jac is third in from the right……LIZA MINELLI also represented the Americans, and sang the opening number…..”BONJOUR PARIS”…..[photos left column, second pictures in]….She brought the house down!….The American show was directed by her Godmother and movie star KAY THOMPSON…..known for her song “THINK PINK” in “FUNNY FACE”, with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire…….The Americans were faced with unprecedented challenges…….First, the stage sets that were designed for the show, and made in America, all had to be scraped, because when they arrived it was realized they were made with American measurements….NOT EUROPEAN, so they didn’t fit. The French rehearsed all day, while the American models had to wait for them to be finished, which meant the models rehearsed into the night in a freezing cold palace….It was NOVEMBER!……Tempers FLARED!…..The French segment lasted OVER two hours…..with an overproduced production that everyone thought was…..BORING!…..The American fast paced segment, showing the FIVE DESIGNERS, was less than 40 minutes!…It was GREAT MODELS showing SENSATIONAL CLOTHES on a stark empty stage with the best, most current American popular HOT music at the time….a PEREFECT COMBINATION!…It was a TRIUMPH!!!!…..The Americans won the battle HANDS DOWN…….The Americans got huge applause from the stellar audience with the gold playbills flying into the air!!!!………JAC was one of the models…..She was a teenager, and we hadn’t even met yet! She was in 3 of the 5 segments, and Steven Borrows wanted her for his segment, because she worked with him, but it would have meant she was in three back to back segments, and it would have been impossible for her to make the quick changes……She was in the opening ANNE KLEIN segment….the middle BILL BLASS segment [photo of her in the long white dress with the veiled hat, and the last OSCAR de la RENTA segment [photo of her in the white chiffon dress with the bow…..I have to say the author, or who ever did the research on who the models were in the Bill Blass picture was incorrect about who the model was with Jac in the Bill Blass photo! Jac in the Bill Blass outfit is not with Tasha, she is with Carol Brandt Stoltz who told me about this new book…..For years Bill Blass had a giant blow up of this picture mounted on a board, and it stood proudly behind his desk…..He used to do all his fittings on Jac…..He called her his “Carol Lombard/Grace Kelly”……..Liza opened the American segment, and closed the show……Afterwards there was a gala dinner in The Hall of Mirrors which Jac attended…..wearing a see through nude mesh, long body hugging halter dress with a deep V-neck neckline with crystals all over…..a la Marylin Monroe……She was escorted into the dinner by a very handsome man, named Tom Fallon who was Bill Blass’s right hand assistant……She apologized to him for not wearing Blass, but he said “honey, don’t give it a thought….you look incredible”…….Jac was a sensation!!!!!!!!!……..NEVER again would the American designers be thought of as second to the French!!!!…..It’s a fun book with lots of information and pictures!