Elements of Style [Paperback]

Phillip Bloch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1998

Phillip Bloch, Hollywood's top stylist, shows you how you can look like a celebrity whether you're in a Gap turtleneck or a Donna Karan gown.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like Strunk and White before him, Hollywood stylist Phillip Bloch has precise ideas about the elements of style. Bloch's elements, though, are strictly visual, and he has them down pat. Before many of Tinseltown's biggest stars face the cameras for magazine or publicity shoots, they turn to Bloch to make sure they put their most fashionable foot forward. The book is packed with full-page photos of the stars modeling Bloch's elements of style--satin, jeans, T-shirts, chinoiserie, to name a few. Pop culture consumers will no doubt recognize many of the pictures that are fodder for the pages of Vanity Fair and Elle magazine, among others: Will Smith decked out like a 1940s gangster; Drew Barrymore in men's underwear, on a zebra-skin rug; John Travolta wearing a black turtleneck sweater; Jodie Foster balancing on a crater-ridden boulder. Alongside these images, Bloch offers tips on how the merely mortal can pull off similar looks and shares bits of fashion history and trivia: it takes 213 yards of thread to make one pair of Levi's 501 jeans; Marilyn Monroe's famous white halter dress was purchased off the rack; and Mae West had two versions of most of her clingy evening gowns--one to stand in, and one to sit in. All these goodies are enough to make a book of their own, but they're bracketed by mini-essays on fashion by designers like Prada and Calvin Klein, photographers, and hair and makeup designers. This Elements of Style is a fun addition to any trendsetter's library or the bookshelves of those who like to look at pretty pictures of pretty people.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446674230
• ISBN-13: 978-0446674232
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,418,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Must Style Preclude Function?, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Elements of Style (Paperback)

No index, no page numbers, no captions to the photos--teasing out the credits for them is hard enough. This book is pretty, using very au courant page and font layout and colors, photos of the latest "it" gals and guys (Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, Samuel L. Jackson), their clothes and hair(slip dresses, blue eye shadow, twin sets, bouffy hair). This book is going to be out of date in about ten seconds from now. Buy a Vogue magazine instead--at least you'll know who the models are and whose clothes they're wearing.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One star rating more "starpower" than it deserves..., April 4, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elements of Style (Paperback)

Save your money and buy yourself something pretty. This has the depth of a coloring book. The celeb photos are nice, but a subscription to In Style or People is cheaper. The copy is so bad it almost reads like a parody. You won't get any useful info from this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great photos of stars -- but not useful for ordinary people, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Elements of Style (Paperback)

If you like looking at photos of celebrities this book is fine. But if you're looking for useful suggestions for looking pulled together, try another book, "Big City Style," for example, by Vincent Roppatte, has head to toe advice and is aware that we're not all size 4 movie stars.