Ready To Wear: An Expert's Guide to Choosing and Using Your Wardrobe (Paperback)

by Mary Lou Andre (Author) "Whether you are living in a tiny loft apartment with makeshift closet space or have a sprawling mansion with multiple walk-ins, the first step toward..." (more)
Key Phrases: base wardrobe, wardrobe management, main closet, Insider Tip, Labor Day, New York City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Dressing well is more of a science than one might suspect, asserts wardrobe consultant Andre. Five strategies are at the heart of her philosophy, beginning with an assessment of lifestyle and proceeding to the development of a shopping focus. The emphasis is on clothes investment strategy: the building of a base wardrobe, assessing your clothes, understanding your own style, and then and only then, venturing out into the stores. Lest the subject seem too frivolous, she inserts personal anecdotes and "insider tips" that do help streamline wardrobe management. Some examples: if purse switching happens frequently, consider storing cosmetics, glasses, and other handbag paraphernalia in small, zippered pouches. The minimum number of shoes for work? Three--dress pumps, loafers, and ankle boots. This handy book functions as a refresher course for those who continually moan about having nothing to wear as well as a basic reference for new-to-business women workers. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Most women feel like they can barely find their shoes in the morning-let alone pull together a stylish, snappy ensemble for the day. Mary Lou Andre is here to help. An expert in wardrobe management and fashion consulting, she shows her clients how to find their own style-and make the most of what's already in their closets. And in this illustrated guide, she explains her effective wardrobe organization system and simple style strategies to help every woman get out the door faster-looking better than ever.

Each reader will learn how to:
€ Assess her lifestyle to ensure that her wardrobe accurately reflects how she lives
€ Organize a closet so that dressing becomes easy and effortless
€ Choose styles that will flatter her figure
€ Develop an organized, efficient shopping strategy that won't drain her budget


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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399529535
• ISBN-13: 978-0399529535
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #349,619 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but goes overboard on how many clothes you really need., August 5, 2005

By	ReadNReVu - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This is a 3.5 star book. 5-stars if you live/work in an area where people pay more attention to your clothes than how well you do your job and/or you go to a lot of formal functions. 1-2 stars if you are a work/stay-at-home parent looking to upgrade your wardrobe a bit.

Good points: Clear descriptions of types of dress for various situations, including business casual (always a tricky one). Clear steps on how to "shop in your closet" and reorganize it. Some good forms in the back to help you keep track of what you have and what you need to shop for. Pictures of some clothing styles, types of shoes, etc., all line drawings, there are no color photos in the book anywhere. Good plan for what to do when you're at the store, and what to look for in good dressing rooms. Lots of suggestions for accessories, as well as what to keep in your office for the occasional clothing emergency.

Bad points: Not enough on seasonal dressing for your climate--she assumes that everyone has (or should have) 4 full seasons' worth of clothes. Ahem(!) In for example, Southern California, you pretty much have dry season and wet season. Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest, you need some clothing for cold weather, but hardly a "season's" worth, and so on. And trenchcoats are great for cities with sidewalks, or where you drive up in a car and get dropped of at the curb and never touch dirt or grass. For people in climates where it only occasionally gets cold, one or two coats and perhaps a nice wrap is plenty.

Occasional silly rules like "no straw hats after Labor Day" which perhaps apply to New York and points north (the author lives in Boston), where it gets cold in the autumn, but not in Southern California, or other states where summer-type weather extends well into November. She also doesn't like athletic shoes with business wear while commuting. It apparently doesn't occur to her that perhaps people wear them for comfort (because they have to stand for an hour or longer on the train or bus) and safety (never know when you might have to run from a mugger). Very few formal/work shoes are truly comfortable and safe to run in (or even walk fast). When they make such things, people will buy them, until then, it is athletic shoes.

Relies too much on black as the basis of a wardrobe. Black is great on many people, but by no means everyone. She says people "don't remember" black. If you wear any color to excess, people will remember it.

I didn't see her advice so much as "dated"; instead, it seemed very "back east" and corporate-oriented, and it helped if you have tons of money to spend.

She insists that everyone needs at least one suit. If you do not work in any outside job, "business casual" will carry you through everything except a true formal occasion. You're much better off spending money on quality separates. She is very into "power dressing" and it gets annoying after a while if you're the type of person who pays attention to the person, not the clothing.

Bottom line, a good book if you live back east, or in your very large cities where at least some people pay attention to fashion. For the rest of us, some good sound info, but you have to wade through some annoying attitudes to get to it. And there are mistakes in the index. A good companion book would be Does This Make Me Look Fat? by Leah Feldon, which has more and better line drawings and better ideas for what to look for to make the most of your figure, whatever size it is.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for women..., April 3, 2004

By	destiny morna "destiny21" (louisiana) - See all my reviews

I love this book..It has great information on organizing your closet, updating and refining your wardrobe, and making your closet filled with "ready to wear" outfits and separates.

It was written by a professional wardrobe consultant and stylist. The great thing is that her tips can be tailored to each individual..be she a professional working women, stay at home mom or combination of the two.

Her chapters on closet organization were the best..its easy to see how your closet can get crammed and filled with seldom used things..like your prom dresses, wedding dress, off season coats etc. She is correct when she says that you use only 20% of your wardrobe..and motivates you to get rid of the 80% that is cluttering your closet. It made me want to revamp my whole closet!!

Less helpful, were the chapters dealing with styling for your figure type. But that is hard to do in written form for most women. We need concrete examples...its better to just go to the store and try on bunches of stuff and see what works for your body shape.

Also included in the book were worksheets and lists to help you write down your style and things you need. I didn't find these very useful but i certainly appreciate the idea. All in all, I found this book to be very helpful..i have already culled out many clothes in my wardrobe that don't work for me and I appreciate having extra space in my closet. Plus, I look forward to shopping trips where i can be more selective of what i choose. Great book!!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great closet organization advice; bad fashion sections, May 8, 2005

By	MyBookOpinion (USA) - See all my reviews

I'm glad I got this book from the library. I've already put some of the advice to work, but I wouldn't want to have paid for the book. While I think the organizing parts are great (it seems so obvious to not hang the stuff you wear only once a year front and center in your everyday closet, but we do tend to get away from the obvious), the parts on fashion need a lot of work. I am not a charity-event attending 60-year-old wealthy Bostonian. I can't tell you how many times in this book the author recommends pearls. I don't want to wear pearls, thank you very much. Her "dressing to flatter your figure" sections are ridiculous, because, as many others have pointed out, there are NO illustrations to demonstrate her points. I was left scratching my head. She's also really big, big on all things turtleneck or turtleneck-like. Again, no thank you. Lastly, a BIG sticking point I have is that the index is totally useless because, at least in the edition I borrowed, ALL THE PAGE NUMBERS IN THE INDEX ARE WRONG!! How did this slip past the editors? Even when the author refers to other parts of the text, the page numbers are wrong! It's really annoying. If I owned the book and wanted to use it as a reference once in a while, I'd be on my own to find the pages I want.