Great words...

"All a woman needs to be chic is a raincoat, two suits, a pair of trousers and a cashmere sweater."

- Hubert de Givenchy

Harper's Bazaar Great Style

First chapter of the book is dedicated to talking about the wardrobe basics.

Key items as building blocks of your wardrobe:

1. Dark lean suit
2. Pencil skirt or a-line skirt if more suitable for your body type
3. Crisp white shirt
4. Great pair of jeans
5. Little black dress

In addition to basic building blocks, the book talks about classics that are worth having regardless of current trands, such as white t-shirts, cashmere cardigan, white jeans, trousers, shift dress, tuxedo, bouclé jacket, trench coat, and camel overcoat.



Then there is a list of items worth splurging on as well as the items one could save on.

Splurge list: Coat, chunky knits, such as cashmere sweaters, dressy blouses, furs, cocktail dresses and evening gowns.



Save list: jeans, pants, skirts, button-up shirts, lightweight knits, tank tops and t-shirts.



I totally agree with saving on t-shirts since in order to look good, they need to be replaced often and thus are not worth splurging on. Although personally, I prefer white t-shirts and tank tops from quality cotton even though I always avoid paying much for them, trying to catch them on big sales.

For the most part I found advice in the book reasonable and useful but a few things were not to my liking. Like, for instance, the calendar on when to shop for what. The calendar in the book recommends to shop for seasonal items BEFORE season starts when seasonal clothes are the most expensive. I believe that if one is not in search of the current trends but is stocking up on timeless classics, it's better to shop for seasonal item AFTER the season has began, or towards the end of the season. this was you will have exactly what you want for much less. For instance I shop for winter coats and cashmere not in october, as calendar in the book suggests, but staring in Mid-January, early February. I barely ever pay full price and my closet is full of cashmere and I always have a nice fur jacket or two that were a real bargain.

I agree that when you see an item that you absolutely love, you should grab it since later it might be gone, or when you want to get some trendy pieces. In that case yes, shopping before season begins is the only option, but when stocking up on basics I prefer end of season.

Next chapter talks about personal style and various style personalities:

The Classicists (Jackie O)
The Bombshells (Sophia Loren)
The Bohemians (Jane Birkin)
The Ladies (Grace Kelly)
The Mavericks(Kate Blanchett)
The Minimalists (Kate Winslet)
The Eclectics (Gwen Stefani)



Then another chapter is dedicated to what is most appropriate by age group (20s,30s,40s etc.), followed by a chapter on what's most flattering for various shapes. The fact that "pregnant" was added as one of the shapes, on top of regular "curvy" or "boyish" made me especially happy.





then the following chapters talk about

Office wear




Evening wear



Casual wear

Chapter on casual wear again has a number of different casual style types:


Preppy
Glam
Sporty
Urban
Country
Jet-Set
Boho
Romantic
Rocker












The last two chapters talk about accessories and lingerie.



Every chapter is generously illustrated with celebrity photos

Discovering Your Inner Style - 8 Steps to G.U.R.U.

Does not add anything to what any other book on personal style will tell you. As any other book on style, it describes number of styles and provides the reader with a quiz that you can take in order to determine your dominant style. The styles are not your regular "Classic", "Bohemian", "Bombshell", or "Eclectic". Instead, this book uses slightly different names "Natural", "Classic", "Polished", "Artistic".

Also it uses different names for color types: instead of Spring, SUmmer, Winter, Fall, it uses Bright, Subtle, Strong and Deep, but that's where the difference ends.

The book has a lot of contradictory information. For example, it tries to combine your inner personality traits with a closing style and body shapes. That's the part I find contradictory as author suggest that a particular personality trait suggest a clothing style which in turn suggests a body shape. Well, I took the quiz and based on the results, my body shape should be "apple", while in reality it is hourglass. Thus I was not able to user author's recommendations.

In real life I have not seen any connection between personality and body shape, and very little connection between dominant personality trait (i.e. communicator, mediator etc) and clothing style. For example if your personality train it a "Mediator" or "Communicator", does not necessarily mean that you would look good in clothing classified as "Natural" or "Artistic".

Disappointing...

Style Clinic

The book starts out talking about a distinction between the concept of style and the concept of fashion. Style is different from fashion in the way that fashion trends come and go and style is timeless. It helps knowing exactly what works for your body type and your style personality. What pieces worth splurging and what to buy cheap. What needs to be renewed often and what will last. The book also talks about classics - the pieces that will never go out of style. I especially enjoy that part since I prefer timeless pieces over new trends. Trends come and go and there is no need to follow each one, especially considering the fact that not all trends will work well for a particular body type. As the book mentions, if one looks great in boot-cut jeans, there is no need to get into unknown territory of skinny jeans just because they are trendy at a particular time. there is no need to deviate from what has worked well for you in the past. The basic moral is - Fashion makes you desire things you should not. Shop your style, not the hottest fashion trends.




Also the book lists some timeless classics, such as trench coat, LBD, tuxedo suit, good jeans, classic knits such as twinsets, turtleneck and v-neck sweater.



Personally I am a big fan of trench coats, cashmere, good jeans, twinsets, pearls and LBD.



Then the book goes into what should be kept in your closet and what should be discarded. The more you buy, the less it seems you have to wear. Buying a lot does not mean that everything you buy will work for you, most of us buy impulsively on a whim and then end up with disfunctional wardrobe. And that's where the Style Clinic comes in.
It helps you to decide what to purge from your wardrobe and what is worth keeping.

Next subject is wardrobe basics - white shirt, cardigan in your favorite color, suit jacket that goes with your skirt, 3 pairs of pant: jeans, tailored work pants, and smart day-to-evening pants, classic LBD, couple of casual t-shirts and tank tops, dressy round-neck top as a dressy alternative to a t-shirt, day skirt, 3 pairs of shoes: boots, ballet flats and a pair of high heels.



The list of basics is followed by details about each item, how to pick the right one and what to wear it with.


Also there is plenty of advice on how to find the perfect fit for your body, on using colors and prints in order to emphasize or camouflage, dressing appropriate for your age, and some successful shopper tips. Such as CBS: coat, bag, and shoes formula and other useful rules.

Second part of the book talks about each piece of clothing (jeans, skirt, dress etc.) more in depth, what to wear it with, what kind to choose for each body type, how to build a coat capsule, how to select a perfect pair of pants, a skirt, dress, accessories etc. Well illustrated with pictures of celebrities that fit a particular body type and/or wearing particular article of clothing.




I'd highly recommend this book since it has a good advice for any occasion

The Pocket Stylist

One of the most useful books on dressing yourself. It talks about 3 body types: apple, pear, and hourglass, helps you determine which one do you belong to, gives you an idea of what type of clothes would look good on you, emphasize your best features and conceal your worst... Also it will teach you how to take your measurements correctly, where to buy clothes and accessories while staying within your budget, organizing your closet and much more.

In addition to 3 body types, the book takes into consideration not only skinny women of these types, but also those who are bigger than average. Therefore, there are 6 types listed in the book: A,B,C,D, E, F. Where A is pear shape regular, B - hourglass, C - apple, and D - pear ample, E - ample hourglass, and F - ample apple shape.

The book is pretty compact in size and can be easily carried with you

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: