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The Pocket Stylist: Behind-the-Scenes Expertise from a Fashion Pro on Creating Your Own Look (Hardcover)
by Kendall Farr
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Author: Kendall Farr
Publisher: Gotham
Pub. in: January, 2004
ISBN: 1592400418
Pages: 208
Measurements: 9.2 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01108
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-1592400416
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- MSL Picks -
Perhaps the single most vital thing I learned from this book is the all important shoulder to hip ratio and definition of waist that determines what shape you are. I myself, and countless other women tend to be so obsessed with perceived huge hips that we all dress like pears and wonder why we look lopsided. As someone with shoulders in proportion to my hips and a very defined waist, I should have been dressing very differently.
What this book will tell you:
1. This book will tell you how to dress for your specific body type, including fabrics and lengths that will look best on you.
2. It will give you ideas on indispensibles, including where to buy them, where to splurge and where to skimp. It will also tell you how to go bargain hunting without looking like you did.
3. It will tell you how best to work with your tailor, what is possible, what is not.
4. I am not a plus sized woman, but if I was,this book would be a godsend in many ways. Since Farr was stylist for plus sized women as well, she does not focus on a `dress in all black ensembles to look your slimmest' as though every curvy woman is ashamed of her shape. She helps women make style choices that flatter her existing shape.
What this book won't tell you:
1. What accesories work best with what outfit- apart from the obvious that a low vamp, with a high heel and pants pegged to the heel will make your legs look longer and platforms look cheesy. It does not cover much ground with accesories except for vague generalities.
2. Most of the online resources it provides are no longer there (luxlook, americanfit etc)
3. It does not give you any detailed color advice for women. The colorsyou wear are an important part of your style quotient, and some women look sickly in black, not stylish.
Some people may find her insistence on tailoring a trifle difficult to execute, but the best dressed women are always those whose clothes fit perfectly, not the ones wearing the most expensive and luxe clothes.
(From quoting S. kannan , USA)
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Kendall Farr is a fashion stylist and a former fashion editor whose work has appeared in numerous publications from InStyle and People to editions of Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, and Marie Claire. She has dressed a number of celebrities including Sigourney Weaver and Diane Sawyer. Her work has appeared in ad campaigns and commercials for fashion and beauty clients including Revlon and Almay, among many others, and she has styled the clothing catalogues of upscale retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
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From Publisher
A celebrity fashion stylist reveals the tricks of her trade and shows women of all sizes how to pull together their own polished, individual look.
Whether she’s petite, average, or plus size, every woman has experienced the frustration of searching for flattering clothes. In The Pocket Stylist every reader can have a consultation with her own personal stylist and use the author’s behind-the-scenes wardrobe wisdom:
- Taking her true measurement - from eight different body zones - to ensure an attractive fit based on the reader’s unique silhouette and the proportions that will flatter it best
- Why ready-to-wear isn’t, and how and when to use a tailor for a custom fit
- The best fabrics for your unique silhouette
- How to balance trends with the classic, indispensable pieces that are the backbone of any well-conceived wardrobe
- What “closet archaeology” can unearth and reveal about your wardrobe needs
- Why the right lingerie makes a critical difference in the fit of your clothes
- Tips from other experts on the beauty principles that ground your everyday look - Bobbi Brown and Sonja Kashuk for makeup and Kevin Mancuso for hair—offer backstage access
- Accessories that give an outfit an individual look and that no versatile wardrobe should be without
Best of all, The Pocket Stylist features specifically edited shopping lists for various body types. Four “styled” looks for each silhouette - from jeans-casual to cocktails - illustrate ideal proportion and fit. The reader becomes Kendall Farr’s client and will learn to shop and dress herself like a pro. The Pocket Stylist delivers the behind the camera expertise of a veteran stylist in one purse-size indispensable guide.
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Few things are more seductive than fashionóthe transformative quality of clothes that really fit and flatter us. New clothes offer us the potential to reinvent ourselves a little bit each time we get dressed. Wearing a great outfit provides salvation on a lousy day, armor for the tough meeting, the courage to walk into a cocktail party full of strangers. Our choice of clothing can be one of our most creative forms of self-expression. The colors and shapes we wear telegraph how we see ourselves. Like it or not, in a rabidly visual, image-obsessed world weíre assessed in nanoseconds, dozens of times per day, based on what we are wearing.
I have been a fashion stylist for over fifteen years yet I often feel that when reading the top womenís fashion magazines, I have come in in the middle of a conversation. If I have this sensation (being familiar with all the references) itís no wonder that so many women are mystified by fashion coverage that seems to be aimed at ìItî girls, socialites, and actresses.
Somehow, good advice is not getting through to many women. I see evidence of this every day: women dressed in clothes that donít fit properly or donít suit the shapes of their bodies. A whopping disconnect exists between what women read in fashion magazines or see on celebrity style television and what they really need to know about dressing themselves well.
Iíve written The Pocket Stylist to be your style compass in a confusing fashion terrain. You can and will be a woman who knows how to shop for the best shapes and fit for her individual shape.
You can be the savvy girl who knows how to mix well-edited trends with your classic pieces. Real personal style often has little to do with what is considered fashionable in any season (or week). Style is a state in which a womanís own sense of what works for her body, and what does not, overrides the marketing hysteria that ushers in the newest, hottest, must-haves. Style is not only the province of iconic swans like Audrey Hepburn or Jacqueline Onassis, it is learned behavior and a simple and gradual process of training your eye to lock onto your best silhouettes and proportions in any season, any year. For now, however, letís start with three of womenís biggest misconceptions about fashion.
Big Fashion Misconception #1
To truly look great in your clothing you must maintain a modelís figure. Ludicrous, not to mention really unhealthy. High-fashion models, the anointed superstars of the runways and magazines, are the rarest of body types. Many are built straight up and down like boys, but with boobs and broad shoulders. Their preternatural shapes are one in several million, the genetic equivalent of winning the lottery. Rationally, we all know this, but we live in a culture that barrages us every day with the message that extreme thinness is the body ideal of any stylish woman. Your only fashion ideal should be you at your best, and that means well-dressed for your body as it is nowónot ten pounds from now, or six months of Pilates from now, but right now.
Big Fashion Misconception #2
Your style quotient is raised whenever you wear the must-haves of any seasonówearing the BIG LOOKS assures that you look like you have an insider view of fashion. Just not true. Hunting down the latest runway looksóoriginal or adaptedówith no regard for how theyíll look on your individual proportions is where style ends and fashion enslavement begins.
The woman without a realistic sense of what fashion can and cannot do for her wastes her money, drives herself crazy trying to get a look, and often still feels like nothing in her closet really works. Weíve all seen her: The logos are mixed and matched; sheís an unrestrained cowgirl; a new romantic; flouncy in folklorica; or a rock chick on the prowl in crotch-high leopard and platforms. Sheís a walking billboard for the sensibilities of a design house or has embraced, all too literally, what is promoted in fashion magazines, but she hasnít cracked the code of truly individual style.
Consider two characters from HBOís Sex and the City as examples. Carrie Bradshaw, whose wardrobe schizophrenia establishes her as the fashion risk taker of the group is, from a costume design perspective, a vividly drawn character and memorable in every scene. From a style perspective, sheís fashionís prisoner. In an early episode, one of Carrieís outfits consisted of a Salvation Army cape that swamped her small frame (yes, capes were spotted on the runway at that moment and yes, her thrift variation was meant to bestow a kind of insider credibility on this getup), and was accessorized with white gloves and a silk flower the size of a satellite dish on her lapel; she was teetering, as always, in skyscraping stilettos.
Charlotte, on the other hand, has figured out how to dress as a stylish individual. Her look is current, not slavish: a Prada skirt here, a ChloÈ top there, suggesting that she has an eye for trends, but wears them selectively. Her clothes fit her perfectly in part because they fit her proportions.
Donít get me wrong: Seasonal trends can be irresistible. They infuse excitement into an often monotonous landscape of basics and clothing that looks the same season after season. But a little bit of a good thing may be enough. Iíll show you how to choose what works for you.
Big Fashion Misconception #3
Ready-to-wear actually is ready to wear. In fact, an affordable perfect fit right off the rack is as impossible to find as a HermËs Birkin bag on sale. Great tailoring (and thus clothes that fit you perfectly) is the single most critical factor in raising your style profile. One universal truth about women with great personal style is that their clothes fitóreally fit. Iíll show you how to find a tailor wherever you live, and how to ask for the alterations that will transform the fit of your clothes from passable to perfect.
I love fashion magazines. They are visually exciting and can be great entertainment, but their mission is not to instruct you. Their job is to report what is new and whatís next. Their goal is to produce exciting fashion pagesóand to service their advertisers. Selling ads keeps them in business. When a designer spends a lot of money on advertising, implicit in the bargain are numerous editorial mentions. Entire stories may promote his or her newest designs, meaning that much of the information and advice you get will always be weighted in the direction of the designers with the deepest pockets (regardless of the appeal of their collections). Ever notice that those token runway-to-reality-clothes-for- your-figure charts include mostly advertisersí clothing? Thatís business, but it can be a problem if it misleads and confuses us into buying stuff that is flat-out wrong for our individual shapes and proportions.
Letís not shoot the messengers, however. Designers need to sell clothes. They need to create runway buzz every six months to capture the attention of an excruciatingly jaded fashion press, store buyers, and assorted tastemakers who they hope will photograph, buy, and wear their newsmaking riffs on the new season.
This is no mystery to me. Iíve styled many stories for fashion magazines and been a part of this very cycle, so I realize just how confusing fashion can be. As often as not, the gulf between what makes exciting images and what youíll want to wearóand invest your money inócan be wide indeed. Add to that the celebrity factor: The media (entertainment television in particular) that covers the fashion beat has transformed getting dressed (as it relates to Oscar nominees and pop stars) into high drama. Why? Because fashion draws in women and we read, we watch, we listen, and we buy thingsó to the tune of billions of dollars annually.
This showbiz view of fashion as consisting of red-carpet clothes, tour wardrobes, and sitcom costumes, has established the actress as arbiter of style. Most actresses Iíve worked with have enough pressure just performing their jobs. That the media focuses on them as de facto runway models every time they walk a press line or attend a party has produced an over-the-top, near hysterical take on fashion that couldnít be less relevant to real personal style. Style doesnít come with proximity to celebrityóit comes from knowing yourself. Thatís where I come in.
What is a stylist?
In my career as a fashion stylist Iíve spent years learning about womenís bodies, and the fabrics, styles, and fit that will create gorgeous images in front of the camera. Iím hired for my eyeóan ability to distill what I see on the runways, on the street, in films, in magazines, and to translate trends into clothing and accessory options for my clients. I spend time with private clients helping women figure out their personal style and choosing clothes that complement their body types and lifestyles. Whether youíre a size 2 or 22, you can use a simple formula for finding the best possible proportion and fit to build a wardrobe that enhances your appearance.
Within my job description, I wear many hats. As a freelance fashion editor, who has produced stories for magazines here and in Europe, I conceive of a story idea (using a trend of the season) and choose the best clothes and accessories to illustrate the idea. I then choose the photographer, the hair-and-makeup team, and the model who will make it all come alive on the page. For print and television advertising, I choose the wardrobe that creates a stylish image of the woman who uses a product. Even when all you see on your screen is a flash of a neckline or a quick glimpse of an outfit, it is the result of racks of clothing options that have been considered by the teamóthe photographer- director of the ad or commercial, the art director from the ad agency, and the clientóto arrive at just the right look. Iíve dressed actresses for all kinds of magazine shoots (both as models for fashion stories and for glammed-up portraits to promote their latest films) and as private clients for the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Can... |
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Publishers Weekly, USA
<2008-01-04 00:00>
With its text-heavy layout and somewhat confusing "body type" divisions, this fashion guidebook is somewhat more complicated than many of the other style books on the market. Dedicated readers, however, will learn a lot from Farr, a former fashion editor who's written for InStyle, People, Harper's Bazaar and other publications. Drawing upon her years of experience as a personal stylist, Farr teaches readers what to look for and what to avoid when clothes shopping, how to evaluate their wardrobes and why certain heel heights and shapes work better for different body types. She also gives tips on finding a good tailor, measuring bra size, wearing makeup and accessorizing. Farr is funny, down to earth and savvy, and her guide exudes authority and experience.
Although involved, it is comprehensive and trend-resistant, meant to help women of any shape and size find clothes that flatter no matter what the runway season suggests.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Jenkins (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-04 00:00>
I thought this book was great, it offered great and easy read and follow suggestions for properly dressing one's frame as it is right now, rather than ten pounds ago, or five pounds from now. I liked that it touched on all garments for women, rather than finding pants that fit, but not blouses that flatter, dresses that work, but ignores t-shirts. Overall I thought this was a good, basic, book, especially for those who are learning to dress all over again, or those who never quite learned. If you're one who considers yourself to be a fashionista, then you may find it full of things you already know. |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-04 00:00>
I am no stylist, but I do love fashion. I have owned a few fashion books and endless style and fashion magazines. This little compact book is actually useful and the advice within is timeless. Some of my favorite topics included dressing for your body type, taking proper care of what you own, finding and using a tailor, and how to shop.
The author emphasizes buying a few classic, quality pieces over buying trendy and often poorly-constructed pieces. She is not against trends, but feels you should buy things that fit and flatter first and then add in trendy clothing and accessories that go with what you already have.
A definite must-have for fashion fans, this is an easy to read book for everyone. |
Tran (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-04 00:00>
I loved this book for its simplicty and seasonless advice on how to dress for my particular body type. Free of the by-the-minute fashion trends that come and go faster than I can keep track of, this book provides solid information on what is flattering on you and what is not. Farr breaks it down for you to a few simple body types and then walks you through the general things to look for when searching for clothes. She provides simple guidelines that allow you to go to the store and just looking at something on the hanger, be able to tell if it's going to help create that ever flattering vertical line. Though I would have appreciated more pictures to illustrate some of her advice, I found her book immensely helpful in re-working my own closet. I also purchased the Lucky Shopping Manual which was a great visual resource and really got my fashion-imagination going. |
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