Roger Kuperways
Author of From Chocolate to Philosopher
A Paris street boy becomes a New York fashion designer, builds a thriving fashion label, loses the world he created, and ultimately discovers his true vocation—not in fashion, but in philosophy.
Query letter, synopsis, and sample pages available below.
The complete manuscript is available upon request.
Literary agents and publishers are welcome to contact the author directly.
Speaking at Javits Center, New York
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The Book
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From Chocolate to Philosopher
Literary Memoir • 93,000 words • Complete manuscript
A Parisian Memoir of Pastries, Passion, and Reinvention
From Chocolate to Philosopher traces a life of reinvention—from the chocolate-pastry-scented streets of postwar Paris
to haute couture ateliers, from New York’s Garment District to the lecture halls of NYU, and onward to Argentine tango.
Blending vivid scenes with reflection, it explores immigration, ambition, loss, and the art of beginning again.
More than fifty years later, “Roger Kuper” garments continue to circulate as sought-after vintage pieces in the U.S. and Europe—a quiet afterlife that, like the memoir itself, speaks less about fashion than about endurance, identity, and the art of becoming.
Materials for Literary Agents
View online or download each document
Comparable titles:
Born a Crime,
Educated,
Kitchen Confidential
About Roger
Roger Kuperways was born in Paris and immigrated to the United States as a teenager.
After rising from the sweatshops of Chinatown, he built a fashion label in New York’s Garment District.
Major department stores—including Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue—carried his collections, and his designs appeared in their Fifth Avenue windows.
His garments were sold nationwide through stores such as Neiman Marcus, I. Magnin, and Marshall Field’s, as well as abroad.
Among the women he dressed was Jacqueline Kennedy, who arrived at his showroom one Saturday morning accompanied by Secret Service agents.
n a private fitting that forms the emotional center of the memoir, she said words he has carried ever since — reconstructed from memory, but never doubted in meaning: "You didn't just dress me. You reminded me who I am.”
He later transitioned into academia, teaching entrepreneurship and philosophy at New York University.
He is now Professor Emeritus, lecturer, mentor, and teacher of Argentine tango in New York City.
Selected Press & Appearances
- The New York Times (feature coverage)
- Television appearances (fashion and entrepreneurship)
- Lectures and conferences on entrepreneurship, identity, and reinvention
Contact
Email: roger@rogerkuperways.com
Website: rogerkuperways.com
© Roger Kuperways • All rights reserved
