Not only do I love to wear and look at fashion, but I love to read about it, too. Whether it’s the autobiography of an iconic designer (Diane Von Furstenburg, "A Signature Life"), a historical account of my very favorite period in fashion (Alicia Drake, "The Beautiful Fall"), or a beautifully designed and brilliantly conceptual coffee table book (Mary Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, "Influence"), I’ll imbibe anything.
So, you can imagine my excitement when I discovered that Nina Garcia – of Project Runway, Elle, and Marie Claire fame -- has recently come out with a third book in her series of sartorial wisdom, triangulating her fabulous guides to style with "The Style Strategy", a one-stop guide for reassessing your closet and creating your perfect wardrobe. No matter what kind of fashion maven you fancy yourself, there is nary is woman who can’t benefit from a little closet consultation.
What I love the most about Garcia’s books is the clarity of her voice, the quality of her advice, and the precision of her highly articulated thoughts. Garcia minces no words, and does not equate or compare her career filled with unprecedented successes and experiences within the industry to her reader’s love for fashion. For Garcia, fashion is about self expression and artistry, points she communicates resoundingly. And if Nina Garcia wants to have a tete-a-tete with me about our personal wardrobes, I am all for it.
The illustrations by Ruben Toldeo make this book all that more covetable. In fact, we want to wallpaper our homes with them!
In chapter one of her book, “Taking Inventory,” Garcia relates, “We all know that what we wear isn't the be-all-end-all of our eternal souls, but fashion is a key form of self-expression, and just about anything we were once committed to via an actual purchase, usually comes with an incredible array of life's great memories…Parting from that garment which saw you through a first date, a job interview, or a fabulous party, the garment that's now entwined with these memories can be so much harder than you thought. I get it. Ugh, I absolutely get it.” And I really believe she does. Unlike other memoir-esque guides “written” by the rich and famous, which spend so much time imploring the reader to not pay attention to their fame and wealth, that eventually their fame and wealth are their book’s only major throughlines, it’s clear that Garcia has something to say and, entirely unpretentiously, has chosen literature as her means of articulating that.
No matter what, The Style Strategy is a must-have for the library of any fashion-lover, or woman looking to reassess her style. Don’t forget to grab The Style Strategy’s brilliant predecessors, The Little Black Book of Style and The One Hundred. Take the plunge and transform yourself…if anyone can help you do it, it’s Nina.
Order The Style Strategy here.
- Amanda Aldinger
Article source: Refinery29.com
Video source: abcnews.go.com
Photo sources: refinery29.com, eonline.com
