A Boy and his Bear

In this raw and hilarious memoir, a boy of humble beginnings in working-class Melbourne goes from dressing up his teddy to designing for Melbourne’s high society. Gregory Ladner lifts the lid on a world of gorgeous women, glamorous gowns and salacious secrets. It’s a rags-to-riches story – without the rags!

A Boy and his Bear tracks Ladner’s career as an Australian couturier, an international designer working in Hong Kong, and a creator of a hugely successful fashion accessory company. Beneath the glitz, it is also a highly entertaining mosaic of intimate and shocking confessions, both sensitive and brutal – a story of love, loss and social taboos in a society laced with contradictions.

Revealing in more ways than one, and illustrated by the author’s own exquisite pen drawings, the colourful retrospective is a vivid, no-holds-barred reflection of a bygone era.