The ELLEments of Personal Style: 25 Modern Fashion Icons on How to Dress, Shop, and Live

To be honest, I was very disappointed. I expected to learn something new and interesting but instead I found another celebrity list: 25 famous women and their short style bios. The list contains Fergie, Diane Von Furstenberg, Angelica Huston, Candace Bushnell, Christina Hendricks, Milla Jovovich and 20 more (some of which I am not familiar with), all of whom are either models, actresses, novelists or stylists. There were a few pages dedicated to each, containing either short style bio or short interview, "inspirational board", and one article of clothing most important to them (for instance for Diane von Furstenberg it was a wrap dress and for Angelica Huston it was a pearl necklace). I admit, it was fun to read about one or two that I, personally, admire, like Diane Von Furstenberg, but other than that it was a bore. The photos were nice but that's about it. In my opinion the book was too subjective. if you want to learn from one of the women of style, get "I love your style" by Amanda Brooks.

Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them

This book is the exact opposite of Lloyd Boston's "The Style Checklist". "The Style Checklist" contains the items that are a must have, while "Oh no she didn't" contains the list of faux pas. I had a good laugh looking throught the book and I should say, this book would make an excellent gift for some people I happen to know. Clinton Kelly takes all the things he finds appalling and disects them one by one brutally but not without humor. My personal favorite nightmares are counterfit items, cropped pants, stripper shoes, flip-flops, tattoes and evening wear and wearing all black. These are the things I absolutely cannot stand but see around nearly every day.

Don't get me wrong, I love black. But I do agree with Clinton Kelly, it gets to be too much when people just start abusing it, and sadly so many do.

In addition to some tendencies listed above, the book includes things like mustaches, hairy legs, camel toes, baggy jeans, exposing midriff covered with stretchmarks, wearing bubblegum pink tracksuits over the age of 15, boca shoes, flashy acrylic nails, wearing sweatsuit to places other than the gym, scruffy shoes, just to name a few.

This book will make a perfect gift, telling people things you can't :)

How to wear a turtleneck

Turtlenecks are considered a staple in woman's wardrobe, but they can be deadly since they visually shorten even a long neck and they are just brutal on shorter necks.

There are a few things though one can do to get away with wearing a turtleneck:

- wear a long necklace to visually elongate your shape
- avoid horizontal patterns on any other items
- wear it with vertical stripes
- wear it with heels
- just wear anything that has lengthening and slimming effect
- high waisted pants to elongate the legs

The Style Checklist: The Ultimate Wardrobe Essentials For You

If you enjoyed Nina Garcia's "The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own" and "Lucky Shopping Guide", you will definitely enjoy this one. While Nina Garcia's book is more of a list of her personal favorites, "Style Checklist" is a complete guide to all the basics every woman must own. In author's words, this book should be a prerequisite to his other books where he teaches women how to create outfits without realizing that there are a lot of women out there who does not own the aforementioned basics.




I loved the beautiful photos and good descriptions of every basic item, starting from black pumps and ending with a trench coat, paired up with some tips on what to wear it with. The book is divided on a number of sections: Work, Weekend, Saturday Night, Travel, Entertaining etc. and each section contains a list of basics pertaining to that section.



For example Work section contains black pumps, black suit, white shirt, navy blazer, twinset, black skirt, black turtleneck. Weekend section: easy jean, khakis, thong sandals, polo shirt, white jean, linen shirt etc. Travel section: Trench coat, nude heel, trouser jean, festive flats etc.

Spring colors

Slowly but steadily, the "summer" colors in my wardrobe have been replaced by "spring" colors. The interesting thing is that it's so much easier to find nice things in "summer" colors than "spring" colors. Especially when it comes to t-shirts.

My favorite "spring" colors are apricot, peach, and green apple. Followed by coral, turquoise, yellow and orange.

Here are some of my t-shirts i especially favored this summer in those colors:



As for the t-shirt brands, I prefer Banana Republic, Gap, Ann Taylor, Bebe, and Lilly Pulitzer.

Trench coat for a baby

I got this itch to get my son a trench coat so that this fall we both could be wearing trench coats, the mother and son. Turns out it's not that easy to find one in infant size. The only one I liked was a Burberry one and it was very expensive, I felt bad buying him something he might not be able to appreciate while there are so many things he might enjoy that I could spend this money on, so I was hesitating to get the Burberry one and kept on lookng.

And finally today, when I went to get sushi at lunch time, I stopped at this store and saw the cutest baby trench coat for 6 month (He will turn 6 this fall!) and I absolutely fell in love.

Here it is:

Summer wardrobe for the baby

The other day I posted a question on some baby forum on what should constitute basic baby wardrobe for the fall-winter. Basically asking what is the minimum needed to suffice and to cover any occasion. I guess I was not understood completely because the answer was "depends on how much laundry are you planning on doing".

Well, that lead me to put together a basic summer wardrobe for the baby. I swear, if I did not have anything else, my son would suffice this past summer.

Here it goes:

1) 2 short-sleeved sun suits



2) 2 bright polo onesies



3) 2 shirt-like, more dressy onesies


4) 2 casual onesies, one striped, one solid


5) 2 light-colored onesies for sleeping


6) 2 t-shirts


7) 1 pair of pants


8) 1 pair of shorts


9) 1 pair of overalls