Dressing Rich: A Guide to Classic Chic for Women with More Taste than Money

This book really encourages you to clean up your closet getting rid of the cheap looking pieces. It helps you to create a wardrobe of more quality and if you follow all the up to date advice, discarding what can no longer be used in today's society, you will never be overdressed or underdressed (don't know which is worse...:)).

It also teaches you a bit about different fabrics, which is helpful if you don't know anything about them.

The book talks about a bunch of different dressing styles. Personally I would never make one of them my own, but nevertheless I enjoyed reading about them.

After reading this book I went through my closet and was very happy to discover that I mostly own natural fabrics and there were few pieces I had to get rid of to make my wardrobe more of quality.

What I found the most interesting in this book is when it talks about an article of closing being "quality" depending on how you use it. For instance if you use plastic coat as a raincoat, it is "quality" or "q", but if you use it as a "leather" coat, it's non-q. I like this kind of philosophy. I am passionately against fakes - clothing that looks like couture but not, fake D & G, Valentino etc. I'd rather wear generic clothing than something with a false pretense of a brand name.

I believe this book is a must have. Even though it is pretty old, it is still useful and will be for a long time. After all that's what defines a good book, piece of clothing or anything else - timelessness

Nothing to Wear? A 5-step cure for the common closet

A pretty useful book for those who wants to clean up their closet a bit and actually ending up having more to wear. Personally, I got rid of half the things in my closet and as a result I have a lot more to wear and also I stopped buying impulsively and filling up my closet with items I never wear.

Mistake number one for most women is that we do not always stick to our style when shopping for clothes. Some times we just like something, other times we cannot walk past a real bargain. Either way, we end up buying things that are not a part of our "signature" look.

This book helps you define your style, if you already haven't and encourages you to get rid of all the clothing that does not constitute your style "uniform".

The book presents you with 5 steps to improving your wardrobe:

1. Define your style

Five different styles are presented in the book:
Classic
Chic
Bohemian
Whimsical
Avant-garde
















There is a style type quiz you can take to determine which style do you fit in with. One can belong to more than one type. For example one's style can be Chic-Classical, etc.

2. Edit your wardrobe - discard everything that is not your "uniform"

3. Fill in the gaps - build a backbone of your closet, the basics, and then add the "frosting", items beyond the basics

4. Put it all together - get out your digital camera and take pictures of outfits, build wardrobe capsules, photograph them etc.

5. Nurture the new you - instructions on how to care for your wardrobe, how to store clothes and such

Here is a sample inspirational board from the book:

Steps to organized closet

1) First go over every single item in your closet and pull out items you have not work in the past year. This often include very nice pieces that are hard to part with but face it, if you haven't worn it for that long, what are the chances you will in the next year?

2) Go over "not worn in the past year pile" and pick out
  a) items that are torn or otherwise ruined and non-fixable
  b) items that are not your size
  c) items that are your size according to the label but do not fit you
  d) items that are "wrong" color, i.e. color that is not in your color palette (spring, summer, fall, or winter)
  e) items that are not your usual style. Maybe that's why you haven't worn them for a year

The remainders of that pile should be hang in a separate closet for another 6 months to a year to see if you will use them or not.

3) Look over the rest of the items in your clщset and see if there are any colors outside of your palette. If there are, you should remove them. You do not need anything that does not flatter you.

4) Go over the jackets in your closet and check the sleeves if they are ending somewhere below the wrist bone but before the first knuckle on your thumb. If they are shorter you should get rid of them, and if they are longer - shorten them. Next check is wearing each jacket and lifting your arms to see if jacket moves with you and whether you are comfortable.

5) Go over the sweaters and tops and ensure they are not baggy and make you loook like a scarecrow, then check the length to make sure they are reaching to either your high hip bone, or your lover hip. Anything shorter or longer than that might not flatter you or look tacky.

6) Check the pants to ensure each pair is the right length for the style:
  a) Skinny jeans or pants with tapered leg should reach to your ankles
  b) Straight leg pants should cover half of your shoe
  c) Wide-leg pants or bell-bottoms should cover your shoe almost completely

Then try on each pair and make sure the pants are not wrinkly at the lover hip level, that zipper is working, and that the crotch is not hanging
If any of these criteria are not met, see if you can have the pants tailored to fit you and if not - discard them.

7) Check each skirt to ensure they are the most flattering length - either right below the knee, right above the knee or up to the narrowest part of your ankle. The most flattering hemlines are the ones at the level of the most narrow parts of the leg.

8) Do the same for dresses

9) Review the remaining items in your closet to check for the following
  a) each item is "your style"
  b) each item can be worn with at least 3 other items in your closet
  c) the patterns are suitable for you (if your facial features are rather small, I'd recommend getting rid of all the large prints for they will make you look vulgar, and if your facial features are larger, then small prints will only emphasize them and that's not very flattering.

Style on a shoestring

It was just OK. Nothing extraordinary and nothing new. I'd recommend The Pocket Stylist instead. There is info some might useful but to most it should be common sense. For example on how to pick the right fit. Does one really needs a guide to be able to tell if an item fits well or whether you can see undergarments' lines on your clothing or not?

I also found that most recommendations on the styles did not take into account specific body types. I could be wrong, but I got an impression the author was using a particular body type as a model for this book.

The book starts out talking about undergarments and wearing correct undergarment for each outfit, how undergarments should fit etc. Then it talks about how other clothing items should fit and what to look for to get the right fit. Also there is a lot of info on thrift stores and when to shop for what to catch good sales, some on organizing your closet, picking the colors and what each color means. There is also a section on what not to wear.

What I found useful was some info on the pockets, pocket alignment and shape. Information on thrift store was also somewhat useful, as well as the section on what not to do. Overall the book isn't bad at all, just not as informative as one would expect from all the positive reviews.

Rock and roll

Another illustration to "The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style". The iconic leather jacket, narrow jeans, motorcycle jacket and black leather mini

White coat, bright shoes

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Originally uploaded by capoeirawardrobe

Here is my new Ann Taylor white coat my husband gave me for our anniversary last Sunday.

Weekly wear - 06/01-06/05

Here is the clothes I've worn this past week