One of my guilty pleasures is reading women's magazines--you know, the kinds that tell you what kind of makeup to buy, show the latest styles, and do those "before and after" articles.
I'm not sure why I like reading them, as I'm not all that stylish of a person. But I guess I care a bit about the way I look, and maybe that's more important as one gets older--you can't just rely on the natural beauty of the young!
When I saw this book at the library, I grabbed it. I like the idea of style better than the idea of fashion. Seems more long-lasting and classy, though sometimes a bit out of my reach. And maybe too time-consuming and uncomfortable.
But this book was great. This is the same designer who has a line of clothes at Target, so obviously he's kind of a "for the people" guy. What I liked about his book is that he found 10 ordinary women and helped them find a style that worked with their lives--what they liked to wear, their very real figures, and their incomes. I like that they were quirky-looking people, and he didn't make them all look the same.
The other thing I liked was that he wasn't all about buying new things. "Shop your closet first" was one thing he emphasized. The other was "shop without your wallet." I guess you do that first, getting ideas of what looks you like. Then you go back to your closet to see what you can create with what you've got. Nice thinking! I've done that already since reading the book--instead of pining away after a cute outfit I saw in a catalog, I looked in my closet and discovered I had something similar already, just by combining stuff I already had!
He also encourages people to stop shopping for cheap stuff (he even told one of his charges NOT to shop for a week--she could only go 3 days--imagine that!) and save up for nice things that will last. Probably his "nice things" are way nicer than what I'd save up for, but still, it's a good mantra.
The final thought I'll take away from this is just to take a few minutes before getting dressed to think about what I'm wearing--think about how to make it look a bit stylish, rather than just throwing things on.
1 comment:
I got the kids a book about "style" that centered on Audrey Hepburn as an example. I very much liked the concept of "style" over "fashion", how to look- and act- classy, rather than flashy.
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