Customer Reviews

Dressing Smart for Women: 101 Mistakes You Can't Afford to Make...and How to Avoid Them (Career Savvy S.)

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The author gives some good tips on color, basic items to buy and styles but the photos are terrible. They are extremely outdated - who wears denim jeans with animal print and belts printed on them? Or jeans splattered with paint that look like a bad spinart project. The few photos that are in the book are very outdated. The author also trys to pair a scarf with everything. Maybe I'm too young for this book but I was trying to find something that would show me how to put together a professional look. I'm still looking.

This book is worth over $5600. That's how much I paid for my Color 1 Associate training from Joanna Nicholson in 1990.

This book contains all that I learned and more. I have saved myself and others thousands of dollars of fashion mistakes by using her approach to color and style.

Buy the book if you are interested in easy to understand, accurate information about how to look great everyday using your best colors and styles.

Joanna's color system is not seasonal and she believes everyone can wear every color as long as the shade,and clarity are flattering.

There is so much great information in this book that you might feel a little overwhelmed. In that case it might be worthwhile to slowly read the book and highlight parts that pertain to you.

If you have diffulty determining your color type you may want to contact your nearest Color 1 Associate who can quickly shorten your learning curve about your best colors and styles. Then you can use this book as a reference.

JoAnna Cole does a good job of pointing out color contrast which I had never before heard - and I grew up hearing about seasonal coloring (she doesn't subscribe to seasonal coloring). The contrast between the colors you wear is a factor and should mirror your natural coloring. I really liked the exercise where you hold up different whites (white & off-white) and see which draws more attention to your face (rather than drawing attention to the cloth). I wish she had explained the color theory more clearly, but figured that maybe she's trying to get you to hire one of her consultants in order to get more info. She mentions there are 12 precise configurations but doesn't go into detail, just sticks with the basics. About 3/4 through the book my interest waned because she seemed to get very picky about which earrings go with which necklace - and we're not talking just gold and silver clashing, but scale and very specific details. If I had a store with all the variety she illustrated, I'd be in heaven. Honestly, the differences she pointed out seemed minor to me. Some good tips - create illusion with dressing and grooming, be consistent or people will think the one time you looked good was a fluke, wear makeup, do your hair, extend your eyebrows if necessary to fill the proper space (and I must), wear jewelry, fill in your whole lip with lip liner so that when the lipstick fades your lip color won't go with it. I like the point that we are not being superficial by attending to our appearances - just get things in order so you can go on with your day confident about your personal presentation. We have important things to do - don't be distracted by feeling uncomfortable or unsure about how you look.

JoAnna Nicholson is brillant! She goes over complete head to toe looks for dressing smart and elegant in any situation. Starting with color which is essential in looking great, to shoes, belts, purses, hairstyles .... everything for the finished, polished look. She also makes you very aware of all the myths and bad advice we have received throughout the years. The color pictures in the book are very helpful. I highly recommend this book to everyone.