Style Clinic: How to Look Fabulous All the Time, at Any Age, for Any Occasion [Paperback]

Paula Reed (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 3, 2009

Fashion's best-kept secrets from London's leading fashion authority

Why is it that simply getting dressed in the morning can be a bewildering experience? Last month's must-haves date you faster than a frizzy perm, and before the credit-card bill is paid, some expert is telling you your latest fashion fantasy is now "so last season." The more you buy, the less it seems you have to wear.

Knowing what works and what doesn't, how and when to shop, how best to dress your body shape, and how to work an accessory like a styling pro will propel you on your way to fashion nirvana: the effortlessly chic set. With timeless tips and practical advice, fashion editor Paula Reed proves that you don't have to have a big budget, a whole new wardrobe, or the latest fad to look great.

Transform your life with these expert lessons

• When to spend: what is worth a budget blowout and what can be a cheap buy.
• How to find the fabulous in every figure: dress thin, tall, and timeless . . . promise!
• Secrets of the successful shopper: how to know if it's eek! or chic!
• The essential proportions of the perfect pants, the jacket you'll love forever, and dresses to die for.
• And much more—on coats, suits, shirts, shoes, bags, and essential accessories. Here you'll find everything else you need to release your individual style.

Each chapter focuses on a particular element of fashion—coats, dresses, suits, bags, jewelry—making it easy to navigate the world of fashion. From eveningwear to work wear, weekends to big nights out, from the boardroom to the home office, Reed covers it all with warmth, wit, and intelligence. With a little basic skill, deftly applied, you can have confidence in knowing that what you put on looks great and serves you well. Whatever your age, whether you have a big budget or are flat broke, Style Clinic will help make fashion work for you.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Incorporates all the great elements of many books in this genre: bright, bold images, a fun, informative tone, and tips most women can apply to their own wardrobes. Peppered with pictures of celebrity fashionistas like Sarah Jessica Parker, Style Clinic is as fabulous as the personal style it promotes.” (Library Journal )

About the Author

Paula Reed is the style director at Grazia, the UK's highly influential glossy fashion weekly. She is a regular on Project Catwalk in the UK and is cohost on Twiggy's Frock Exchange with the original supermodel. She is a former columnist for InStyle in the United States and has held the position of fashion or style director for several fashion magazines and British newspapers for the past twelve years, including the Sunday Times, InStyle UK, Harpers & Queen, and Condé Nast Traveler. Her writing has appeared in the Times (London), The Financial Times, Elle, and Town & Country. She lives in London with her family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060793546
• ISBN-13: 978-0060793548
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.9 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucky Garcia February 21, 2009

By Dr. Shanelle

Format:Paperback

I didn't think I could love a book as much I love Lucky's Shopping Manual, a timeless classic for crafting your own style. However, Paula Reed's Style Clinic jutxaposes the practical, readily applicable, styling advice of Lucky's Manual with the chic sophistication of Nina Garcia's seminal texts (Black Book of Style and the "Hundred"). While you love the whimsical drawings by Ruben Toledo in Garcia's book, it left you wanting actual photographs to help pull the concepts together. In terms of its visual appeal, Reed's Style Clinic delivers what Garcia's texts do not.

The chapters are well organized, easy to understand and apply, provides styling choices at every price-point, as well as to-do lists, and suggestions for essential items. The book stresses QUALITY over QUANTITY and the photos are beautiful, vibrant, and inspirational. I had the book two days before I went and purged several ill-fitting, overly trendy, cheap garments from my closet and what a difference it makes!

Lastly, while many love Lucky's shopping manual, it does tend to lean heavily towards the early-mid twenties, size 2-6 crowd. Reed has styling recommendations for any age, the thin, curvy, top heavy, and bottom light. Like Garcia, Finney (the budget fashionista), and Tim Gunn, Reed stresses Style over fashion and trends. Sound advice in an economy where many of us are recessionista converts.

In short, GO GET IT! YOU WON'T BE SORRY!

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Basic Style 101 March 27, 2009

By Lady Maxwell

Format:Paperback

This book is the perfect combination of Nina Garcia's The Little Black Book and Lucky's Style Manual. I was looking for a book that was similar to either and luckily, I found this book! It has a list of "the basics" like Garcia's book, but instead of drawings, it has pictures like Lucky's. After reading this book, I felt an urge to organize my closet and redefine my style.

I find most fashion books to be either (1) too wordy causing me to lose interest or (2) has too few pictures of the fashion - and they are usually pictures of styles that is beautiful but impractical to wear. This is the type of book that you can use as reference and will never go out of style. I wish more fashion books were like this.

Btw, if you're into vintage fashion, there is a book similar in style to Garcia's book (which I love) that combines drawings with brief description/ history of each design/ designer called Shopping for Vintage: The Definitive Guide to Vintage Fashion by Funmi Odulate and Richard Merritt, which is brief but informative without all the extraneous information.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Ruined by its own organization and blahness July 22, 2009

By Nguyen Pham Doan Khanh

Format:Paperback

I had high hope hope and expectation for this book when I bought it, partly because of the author and partly because I was on a beauty phase of my own. I was disappointed.

There is good information in this book for sure and for any woman who might need some direction in planning a new closet of her own. but for people who have at least read a few magazines or fashion how-to book before than it becomes pretty much redundant.

Add into that, the organizing of the book make it confusing and not a little bit user-friendly, especially for people who might want to get a little deeper in customizing their own style based on their body types and personality.

Further more, the pictures and clothes used in this book just spell BLAH (big one). I got the feeling that the author was writing for some kind of old style, extremely conservative woman who was just beginning her own journey of finding something beautiful in life. The pictures of celebrities were hardly what you'd call outstanding (and in some an out right crime, 70 year-old looking woman in a spaghetti strap floral dress. I'm not against beauty and style at any age but at some point you have to say, please, lady, that's too much skin!!). In my opinion, fashion and style is fun. You're supposed to enjoy it (after all it is part of yourself you're discovering here). But I didn't find anything such in this book. There are no colors except for the suffocating sea of neutral, black, and white (repetition!!!), and I didn't find any section dedicated to finding your best-looking color or how to put colors together in your wardrobe either (which is a must if you want to go any where near "fabulous")

To wrap it up, unless your closet has just been hit by a mini hurricane and you want to reconstruct a new one, DON'T BOTHER. You're probably getting off more as 'conservative, safe, librarian lady (with no sexy librarian vibe)' than 'fabulous at any time, age, or occasion)