Book Review: I LOVE YOUR STYLE

Title: I Love Your Style: How to Define and Refine Your Personal Style
Author: Amanda Brooks

A truly wonderful and unexpected gift from my oldest sister, Janet; I Love Your Style is a book I will forever cherish and return to again and again for fashion advice and shopping wisdom. I had never seen or heard of the book before I held that copy in my hands, so I was not sure what to expect. I was probably most expecting to read a book that promoted my favorite aspects of fashion by glorifying an unobtainable goal for putting together an elite, all-designer wardrobe. But, once I began to read it, I was mesmerized by the wisdom and creativity I found within its pages.

"There was still one store too intimidating, too fancy for us to approach: Chanel. Even as children we could sense the force field of pristine chic emanating from those interlocked C's." --Amanda Brooks

Born in Palm Beach in the 1970's, Amanda Brooks was the daughter of Stephen Cutter, president of the family's real estate firm and Elizabeth Stewart. Beatrice Bowry (once the director of the Clothes Institute at Filene's among many other fashionable things) was Amanda's grandmother and an "exceedingly stylish dresser" who is credited with influencing and instilling Amanda with a love for fashion.
Amanda has interned with fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier "assisting on magazine shoots, designer ads, and album covers", she has worked as the assistant to the director of the Gagosian Garllery, helped Frederic Fekkai create a handbag line, and she was later brought on to assist Diego Della Valle as the creative director at Hogan (Italian accessories company). Perhaps most significantly, for about three years Amanda became the muse and creative director at Tuleh, a fashion label that "married all the aspects of" her "fashion personality at that time". Now a fashion writer and consultant Amanda is still indulging her fashion fantasies and her innermost style by embracing "all the possibilities" fashion has to offer.
Amanda has a long history of visiting thrift stores, flea markets, vintage boutiques and secondhand stores as well as the occasional high end or luxury designer purchases to create and build up her wardrobe. She is no snob and I really respect her self-assuredness and confindence in her style and shopping habits. A real fearless woman, Amanda shared some of her fashion triumphs and disasters with her readers in order to show that there is nothing wrong with taking risks and trying new things. The essence of what she was trying to convey is that you never know when a real leap of fashion faith will reward and surprise you which is why it is worth taking that risk in possibly looking foolish. Individual style is more important than simply following the trends and playing it safe.
The book covers 6 "distinct ways of dressing--classic, bohemian, minimalm high fashion, street, and eclectic--and four essential ways of shopping--basic, cheap chic, designer, and vintage". I would like to review each section of the book in depth and do some experimenting of my own in each area of style and shopping techniques. I would like to use this blog to springboard some of my trials and errors with the experimenting that I do. I will upload photos and write about how I pieced together outfits from my existing wardrobe mixed with some new purchases. I am very excited about breaking down the book layer by layer and adopting a whole new sense of style and how it works for me! I think that by doing this I will truly make some great new discoveries and I will be acting out exactly the same kind of open mindedness and innovation that Amanda Brooks so encourages. I hope that the next posts on I Love You Style might inspire others to go out and buy a copy of this book and do some experimenting also!

"We women today have a lot on our plates. We want to look good, but do we really want to reinvent the wheel in a state of panic every time we have to find something to wear to a big meeting, a date, or an important party? Imagine how great it would be to face getting dressed with confidence and excitement instead of anxiety or boredom. Well, you can, and you can also have a lot of fun while you're at it." Amanda Brooks

Kelley's Introduction

Hello all! My name is Kelley Avery and I LOVE fashion! My respect and adoration for fashion has been a steady and more of a recent progression. I grew up in a very large conservative, homeschooling family for most of my early life and during my childhood horses took the forefront of my every thought. I wanted to walk, talk, live and breath everything horses and my main aspiration was to be a horse trainer when I "grew up". My early ideas of fashion were mainly gleaned from the old movies that we would be allowed to rent from the library and although sometimes misguided, I saw a way of dressing that I wanted to copy in those films. Dress up was my favorite game or hobby and my imagination went wild during those times. I went through a phase of wanting to make and wear hoop skirts and my siblings and I would dismantle hangers and mold them into a hoop frame and drape them with any and every skirt we could get our hands on! My siblings and I had very active and elaborate imaginations and I we had to really get creative when trying to entertain ourselves. We were not a well off family and we had to make due with hand-me-down clothes and I hate to say it, but I look back at those days with more than a little embarrassment! We never went out to the movies, and shopping for clothes was a very rare luxury. Shopping for Easter dresses was the highlight event of every spring, and frills and bib collars abounded!
My few moments of true fashion inspirations or epiphanies occurred while watching the old movies from the library. I remember oohing and aahing over Ginger Roger's feather and satin dress in Top Hat with Fred Astaire.



I was also very influenced by how Myrna Loy dressed in The Thin Man series.
Even her night gowns were breathtaking!





My early influences were women of a different time and era and I still wanted to be and dress like them. Women such as Audrey Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Ginger Rogers,Grace Kelly, among many others, were the ones I wanted to emulate. I thought to myself: This is how all women should dress! When I was a teenager working at Talley Oak Stables pursuing my consuming love for horses and all things equestrian, my fashion was more of a non-entity. I was just concerned about dressing in comfortable and weather appropriate attire for long days spent at the stables and horse shows. I knew how I wanted to dress, but it simply wasn't practical for the life I was leading. But when I went out with friends to the movies and to the mall, I would put so much pent up energy into what I was wearing, and I wore heels anywhere I could outside of the farm. I started reading Vogue, Elle, and Lucky whenever I could sneak a look and I started to sketch and design gowns and fashion of my own making.
Ultimately, I can say that my style is always evolving and taking a more clear and decided form, but money has always been what truly holds me back. Until a few weeks ago, I had not gone clothes shopping for myself in over a year and I was itching to add some new pieces to my very sparse wardrobe. I typically shop clearance when I do get the chance to shop and I have been lucky enough to find some very great wardrobe staples in the bargain racks. Although I have big dreams for my closet, I can only take one step at a time, and right now, wishing, reading, sketching and developing my tastes is all I can do as far as fashion is concerned. This year I hope to find some real deals and steals for my wardrobe and my style transformation will take shape even more, I am sure. In the long run though, I have hopes of learning to sew and construct apparel so that I can start making my sketches become reality. I also have hopes of creating my own design label in order so that I can make and sell affordable fashion for women of every walk and lifestyle. My two main passions and career choices are fashion and film, and I hope to, in time, make them both a functioning reality!
This blog is the venue I have chosen to keep my creative juices flowing, and also as a place where others like myself can share and gain some fashion inspiration as well. So I hope that whoever stumbles upon this page might be able to appreciate and enjoy the fun and ever evolving world of fashion on a whole new level! I would like to use this blog as a way to collectively gather my many ideas and inspirations in one place, as a way to track my interests, and to learn and utilize a more efficient shopping technique and as a way to help myself transform my sometimes boring wardrobe into something entirely inspired and improved! I will share some trial-and-error ideas that have helped me become a smarter dresser and a more informed lover of fashion. So, feel free to comment or post some tips or tried and true dressing techniques that have helped you over the years! All input is welcome.