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This is a compensated post from BlogHer and Lucky.
I have a very small wardrobe; I have taken to heart all of the advice about ruthless editing, and have pared my closet down to ONLY things that fit me well and that I actually wear. This makes getting dressed a piece of cake, but it also means that I can wind up feeling like I'm in a rut sometimes, because there's just not a lot to choose from. And it means that every so often I find myself eyeing what some other woman is wearing and wondering if I could pull that look off, too.
Having a clearly defined style and a carefully edited wardrobe can be a mixed blessing; it makes life simpler, but it can also leave you feeling a little blah sometimes. But the solution to a rut isn't to toss out the baby with the bathwater -- instead, take a closer look at what you're wearing and see how you can can hone your current look. Need some help? Grab a copy of The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style, by Kim France and Andrea Linett. They've got answers to all your style questions.
Linett and France are the creative team behind Lucky magazine. This is their second book, and it is a beautiful and engaging handbook of style. Linett and France have identified ten iconic looks: Euro chic, California casual, rock and roll, posh eclectic, mod, American classic, bombshell, arty slick, bohemian, and gamine. Each chapter of the book focuses on one look, outlining what the essential pieces are and how to combine them for day and evening and everything in between. France and Linett offer celebrity inspirations for each look, but they also profile a series of "Lucky Girls," real women who are wearing these iconic looks every day. The book ends with a Mix- and-Match section, featuring photos of Lucky magazine staffers sporting pieces from each look, carefully blended together.
This is a great book because the premise -- that you can use established style categories to build your own individual look -- is so useful; it's also a great book because France and Linett assume that you already have some kind of basic style, which is probably true, even if you haven't given it a name. We all gravitate toward certain looks -- we want to look like Audrey Hepburn (gamine) or Grace Kelly (American classic) or Talitha Getty (bohemian). The Lucky Guilde to Mastering Any Style shows you how to do just that.
Lucky magazine is all about shopping; the Lucky style guide is all about creating a look. As with their first book, The Lucky Shopping Manual, France and Linett have chosen to steer clear of recommending specific brands or pieces that are currently for sale; instead, they offer guidance about how to curate your closet, and how to wear the pieces you own. That doesn't mean that there are no examples here -- in fact, the book is loaded with beautiful photographs of skirts and dresses and shoes and bags. But none are identified by label or designer; instead, they are representative of a category (pencil skirt, say, or sweater dress) and are there to inspire you.
The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style is a book for women who are already confident with their own look, or at least with their own closet; the premise is that you can look at what you own, determine which archetype your wardrobe most closely matches, and then hone your look from there. But France and Linett also offer ways to expand your horizons and branch out. The same pieces -- cardigan sweaters, for example, and shift dresses -- show up as must-have pieces in more than one place in this book, which means that you are never locked in to just one category. It's easy to see -- literally -- the similarities between, say, Euro chic and American classic, and to imagine ways you might tweak your own look to be more of one at some points and more of another at others.
Ever wonder what you would wear to the launch party of a book about what to wear? Or am I the only one who thinks about these things? Either way, Guest of a Guest has some great photos of the Bowery Hotel launch party. And FabSugar and StyleList Blog both point out that the book includes a Lucky Magazine-style deals section,
