Customer Reviews

Brenda Kinsel's Fashion Makeover: 30 Days to Diva Style!

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I'm interested in the subject of style and have read or at least skim every book I can find on the subject. I hadn't purchased this author's books before because I thought they were for older ladies (i.e. a lot less cool than me!). But I decided to buy this one, thinking that I would just fly through the exercises and maybe get some tiny tidbit of out of it. Instead, there was an execise that was like a revelation and I finally figured out why I've been wearing the same things over and over again and never looking quite finished. Now I feel like I'm well on my way to looking polished all the time, and I feel that my style is still youthful and sexy. Thank you, Brenda.

I had so much fun with this book! I read through the whole thing in one day and immediately started on the different exercises...using the quizzes, I was able to clarify and articulate my personal style, poring over magazines, I ripped out examples of color combinations, accessories, and textures that I am attracted to, and then I got started on my closet...cleaning, organizing, and putting together fun, layered, and accessorized outfits. I even had my son take pictures of the outfits. It was so much fun! It was just the right pick me up in the middle of a cold and dreary winter. Interestingly, I discovered that I don't need to do very much shopping...so that was a definite plus. I had most of the pieces already and also had a variety of fashion bundles already in my closet. I also have a HUGE pile of clothes to donate. I love the way the book was structured and organized. It was simple to read..no extra text, lots of use of text boxes, quotes from women. The only suggestion I would make for improvement is that I would like to see large glossy photos of women with before and after pictures as well as just inspiring photos of divas rather than boring pencil drawings! If I were the author, my second book, would take it to the next step, with the marketing of a resonance journal/workbook, that includes pockets to include inspiring photos and words, as well as before and after photos showing ideas on how to combine different accessories, colors, and textures together.

This book was great for expanding the imagination, setting goals, and updating your closet for YOU. If you do not already love clothes, it provides a sort of role model as to how to get in there and really have fun with them, without a lot of "shoulds." However, since I am fashion challenged I needed to get a second "should" book about how to put together an outfit and be told which are the basic pieces. If you are a mature woman, I recommend Nifty After Fifty as the antidote to this book, because it brings you back down to earth, back to basics about what to wear on what occasion, based on a few basic colors and your personal life situtaion.

I have read all of Brenda's books and find this one especially delightful!!! She gives those of us who need help with fashion (but don't know where to begin) an easy way to bring out our inner Diva. It is very fun and helpful to have this process broken down into a 30 day program so it seems manageable. My favorite part is how you are gently guided along the way of her step-by-step process with the help of experts in each area. It's a great way to start the New Year!

If you're ready to take hours and hours to find your "diva style", this book is for you. I was looking for something that didn't require so much "homework".

The "spa" sections of the book I thought were ridiculous... like hiring a masseuse to come to your home to meet you and your friends for a "spa" day. I can't think of 1 person that has that kind of money to throw away.

There are several "assignments" in the book that really do help you determine your style if you need that kind of help.

The section on cleaning out your closet was a great help to me. Sometimes you just need that kind of kick in the pants.

I didn't care for her writing style. It was a bit too wordy and too "happy" for my taste, but others might enjoy it.

Some of the ideas for working with your body type were great for me, and proved very useful, and for that I am truly thankful. So while I didn't love this book, it was still quite helpful in the long run.

Two thumbs up to Brenda Kinsel's Fashion Makeover: 30 Days to Diva Style! I am a big fan of all Brenda's books and this one is the best yet! It is a very fun and constructive guide to help get one out of a clothing rut and onto looking and feeling their very best. There are fashion exercises and projects that are simple, fun and effective. It's like having Brenda in my closet - she is a fairy guide mother, guiding you to the wisdom of your own inner fashionista. It's a great awakening when you can discover your inner diva! This book is very helpful. This book is on my gift giving list for friends and family for the holidays! Kudos to Brenda!!!

I just LOVE fashion & style books; I have a dozen books and was beginning to think that there will be no more on this subject that could really inspire me. Well, I was wrong! This book helped me lose so much junk in my closet, makeup drawer, and shoes closet; it was helping me in ways that none of the declutter books could!

OK. So why is it that I am so into this book?

a) it gets me past the basic wardrobes thing; so many books have already taught me about wearing the right color (seasons), fit (get it altered, dress for your body type), and style (all those illustrations of what types of skirts are out there). The book does address those three, Color, Fit, and Style, but it doesn't stop there!

b) unlike some books that make me do exercises to define my style in just "writing" - it makes me do some fun tic-tac-toe exercises, WITH visuals! I have at least 2 books that made me define my style words, and then after I was done with them, they still left me clueless about how to go about shopping. (eg. I had words like Enigmatic for one book, and Constructive Elemental with another, but how on EARTH was I to know how they relate to my style decisions as a whole?! I ended up feeling more lost and confused than before!) Not so with this one! It got me process my style, color, texture/pattern/finishes/etc. and I didn't feel overwhelmed because it was as easy as tic-tac-toe! The best part is that after I was done with them, I had visuals (mostly magazine clippings) to remind myself of what I was moving towards. The first 2 exercises on Ruts & Moving Away From / Moving Toward anchored me and gave me a concrete bottomline of what I was working towards.

c) Most of the style guide books always talk about how to go through your clothes, score them, organize them etc. but this book does that so much better! It asked me to do a Boutique Exercise which I felt was so fresh & motivating. It gave me that edgy-confident feeling, and I felt so ready to lose the clothes I was holding on to for years! And it got me to separate the STAR pile from the just good-condition pile.

d) OK. Above points were things that other books had touched upon, but BETTER. Now for the really truly ORIGINAL parts of this book. The author had me work on my jewelry & accessories closet! For me this was a first! She asked me to weed it out, and then to group them in COLOR! I didn't really think much of it at first; but once I got them all out of their boxes and pouches, and had separate trays according to color, WOW! Just seeing them there like that totally opened my eyes to a whole new world of new possibilities! And once I had all my golds / silvers / greens / blues / reds / ambers etc. in their own groupings, I was beginning to see how big one grouping was against the others.

e) She also got me working on grouping all of my accessories together which was something I had not done before; I got all my browns together, the blacks, the silvers etc. So in each grouping I'd have any number of things like bags, belt, shoes, jewelry, hair accessories... but had them TOGETHER. I truly began to see how for the past 10 years or more, I was just stuck on buying more clothes, clothes, clothes and although others had told me that I look good, I still knew I hadn't hit the ceiling to my satisfaction. It turns out what separated me from the TRUE STYLE DIVAS was in learning how to use the power of accessories and this is the first book to get me started on that path!

f) The next installment in the book is to start creating bundles, and that's what I'm working on right now. Once I started seeing my clothes and accessories in color groupings, I realized why some women can dress well with a small collection of clothes and still look good, and also get dressed quickly and look so great, whereas I had done so much shopping and had so much clothes but I wasn't looking as great as I had hoped. It was also at this point that I went back to a host of looks I had kept in my clipping file (mostly from a Japanese style magazine called Oggi) and begun to stuy their accessories. She was right; nobody can look that great without the well-matched accessories. All of the images I had pulled included a belt and some well chosen ring/bracelet/earrings/necklace, and I had paid little or no attention to them.

g) After working extensively with my accessories groupings and bundles, it was very easy to see where the missing gaps were! I had a large silver accessories grouping, but it was lacking shoes. My black grouping had a sizeable shoe foundation but no good bag. And I also realized that my gold/beige group was OK except that the necklace I wanted to wear had a distinct round shape, whereas the clasp on my Gucci bag had a clasp that was narrow and rectangular and didn't look right together.

h) Another thing that almost made my heart stop was a quote from the book: it's not how much skin you reveal that makes you sexy, it's all about revealing your SHAPE! She got me to write down just 3 of my assets I wanted to focus on - which happened to be wasit/wrist/legs - and had me look at magazine clippings to figure out how many ways there were to doing this. And doing this exercize saved me $$$ in shopping mistakes. I realized there were many ways to acheiving the look I wanted, and by studying them, I could see what to look for in my clothes and accessories. And because of all this thoroughness, I felt like even if I went shopping tomorrow, I wouldn't be swayed by all those marketing strategies the fashion industries are putting in my way!

i) This book also deals very well on color; I have a book for men's fashion and style that dealt with color better than any women's fashion and style book, and it talked about the level of contrast of your hair/skin/eye colors. Many women's fashion and style books guide you through your seasons and stops there which is a real shame. Anyway, I was glad to find that this book dealt with this topic with illustrations of it. She didn't go heavy into the subject but I think the illustrations gave a clear idea of it. eg. If your contast is high like mine, you look good when your clothes reflect that level of contrast. So you could be wearing all the colors in your season's palette but if you're not reflecting the level of contrast in your hair/skin/eyes, you could end up looking dowdy or less striking. All in all, I think she kept it very practical and open enough for safe exploration; other books on color can be very restrictive and tell you that you should only where this and this and this which I didn't appreciate so much.

j) The book includes things like Beauty Soak and more indepth information on topics of jewelry from the gurus of the jewelry industry, and also a lot of fun & personal accounts of how other women approach beauty & style in their lives. I felt connected to a whole community of women when reading them! And those things have enriched me.

j) Last but not least, the author shows you HOW an outfit is PUT TOGETHER, through her concept of Star Pieces / Support Pieces / Accessories. I'm still struggling a bit on this though, as I am working on putting together my Beauty Bundles; I am not sure if I want to dress the way she does regarding these Beauty Bundles. Her Beauty Bundles evolve around one specific color usually; but when I start to make my bundles, I have a hard time sticking to One Palette like that. Nevertheless, I do feel that her concept is a valid one; especially for busy women. If you're a busy woman, these color based groupings will save you time and a half in dressing well! Or maybe I'm stuck with my beauty bundles because my accessories groupings are not as well developed. eg. I was going to make a beauty bundle for my pale pink pashmina for one of my dates, and I ended up picking a black/blue dress. Now, this dress looks MORE like a Star Piece than my pashmina, so I felt like I was doing it all wrong. So this matching felt like an Outfit all right, but it was not what the author was suggesting that I do. I think her point was for me to create a bundle that works as a group (bag/belt/jacket/earrings/shoes) so that all I had to do was choose a certain skirt or pants or dress to go with them. Hmm. I think for now I'm just happy to separate out what are the things I mentally have in My Own Boutique, against Not. Other books on this topic have approached it in ways such as a) lists (minimal), b) illustrated lists (expansive ones, like Lucky Manual), c) Clothing Capsules, d) your Personal Uniform (and 6 ways to create them), and e) how you can dress for a month with 10 key pieces (which is a lie, because they use 50 other items to mix and match with them!), f) a Christian version of dressing humbly, in some ways like Men. So I guess this really is a complex thing... and probably a personal one too. Although not a complete system by itself, Lucky Manual for Mastering Any Style did feature some interesting ideas on this for each of their looks - how people can wear 1 special item all year round, and how it becomes like a signature piece. I think for now, I'm still weighing on this topic; Star Pieces VS one Signature Piece. To conclude though, I did feel that this advice helped me - because depending on WHAT you choose as your Star Piece, you can't wear it alone, it WILL need support pieces; and learning what's in your wardrobe and what's not will help you determine what your next step is. And often, in the past, I have spent a lot on buying Star Pieces, but not had enough support pieces to make it shine.

The only small wish I have with this book is that it didn't include people like me - women in their 30s looking for fashion advice. She kept addressing women in their 40s and 50s which I did find a bit off putting. But that was a small thing compared to the vast amount of knowledge she shared in this book!

I especially love this book's format - as a beauty boot camp - having come from a family (or mother) who didn't allow herself to enjoy fashion & soaking up in beauty, I truly felt like I had met my own fairy godmother for fashion, and the best part was feeling like I had been given to PERMISSION to do all these exercises!

I still have weeks 3 and 4 exercises to get to! Shopping & Hair/Makeup appointments, and finally the Dates - but I really wanted to thank the author for sharing her unique and true gift in this book. I feel totally enlightened & empowered!!

Best regards from Seoul, Korea.

A new fan.

As a long time fan of Brenda Kinsel's books and newsletter, I was anxiously awaiting the release of her latest book. I feel it is her best yet. The book leads you through Brenda's 30 day beauty camp and through the use of her everyday Divas examines the various aspects of updating your look so that it reflects where you are currently and what truly represents you. Brenda has a very pleasant and humorous way of writing so that you never feel talked down to. Her warmth and compassion as well as clothing knowledge are very apparent in this latest book.

There's a wide range of style in my family - a dashing sister, a demure sister, a hip aunt, a mod aunt and a classic, yet simple mother. Well, to be frank, they all could use some help from time to time. I came across this book on Union Street in San Francisco and after flipping through a few chapters I realized that Brenda Kinsel's Fashion Makeover was just what my girls needed. Quite simply, they love this book. Brenda has helped each of them create new looks from their existing wardrobes and has given them insight to add key new pieces to their collections. You can't go wrong - this one's a winner.

I've been a fan of Brenda's for years and have loved reading all of her books. Fashion Makeover is no exception.
Brenda's writing style is so warm and encouraging, like we're chatting over coffee.
The layout of the book makes the "highlights" easy to absorb.
The illustrations were so richly colorful and brought the concepts to life for me.
I enjoyed the Diva Advisors bringing their area of expertise to MY Fashion Makeover.
The Beauty Bundles have helped me finish my outfits and I feel so pulled together and polished. I've also
modified a bundle to "dress up" or "dress down" an outfit.
Thank you Brenda, for this fun guide that helped bring my inner Diva out!