The Truth About Style

This book is fantastic! It's personal, visually rich and emotionally satisfying. The author, Stacy London, takes nine women of different ages, sizes and ethnicities and radically transforms their appearances. However, they don't just dress better; they all seem to glow - as if they'd discovered something amazing about themselves.The most striking transformation is that of a 57-year-old executive from Silicon Valley who looks like a mature tech nerd. Initially, she is wearing mom jeans, a saggy cardigan and has a platinum mullet. By the end of her chapter, though, she is drop-dead gorgeous! She looks so chic in a velvet suit, bold jewelry and a modern short haircut. (She also looks about forty pounds lighter just by dressing differently.)The author works with all different clothing budgets, too. The Silicon Valley womn is steered toward designer suits while in the 19-year-old UT student's makeover shot, she's wearing straight-leg jeans, a fitted blazer and edgy boots. There's also a plus-size African American woman who goes from frumpy to chic. Then, a breast cancer survivor has a whole different set of specific body issues, so she comes to look sexy, feminine and comfortable. There's also a tiny (4'11") 26-year-old who goes from wispy and faded to having a real presence, a zing; her hair color also changes to a deeper, richer tone which really brings out her facial features.One chapter transforms a plus-size 39-year-old who is trapped in Mommy Syndrome - subsuming herself in her family - and dressing only in black. The author pulls her from her black clothing doldrums into a tailored career mom look. Another participant has issues with her extreme height. She's 5'11" and curvy, yet she almost fades into her "before" photo background. She absolutely comes alive with fitted, colorful clothing and a good haircut. Then, there's the Missouri redhead who also retreats into all black. The author styled her, so her delicate features shined. Finally, there's a cute 48-year-old divorcee who is ready to jump back into the dating pool, but first must overcome her addiction to blah-black and wrap herself in colors that really flatter her and make her look about fifteen years younger.While the tone of this book is similar to Stacy London's approach on her TV show, "What Not to Wear," this book adds something more. There's a gentleness and a depth. Stacy shares her own early struggles with psoriasis, a visible chronic skin condition, which makes it easy to understand how she oozes empathy for so many other women and their struggles with self-perception and style. This book feels luxurious; the pages are glossy, the pictures abound, there's so much depth and careful analysis that one can reread at will so as to understand the approach to each style situation. The actual layout - fonts, insets - are so visually pleasing, too.This is a must-have book for any woman who wants to be true to herself and her style!

At 25, I've been shifting my style to crossover more between home and the office - I like to think of my style as "polished casual" but I was feeling a little lost in terms of finding things that flatter my shape while still being stylish and not busting my budget. I have watched WNTW for years and love it so I didn't hesitate in buying Stacy's book. What surprised me most about this was the insight Stacy gave into her own style journey and life. She shares some very personal things here and I really enjoyed learning more about her back story. You'll find everything you love about Stacy in this book and then some. The writing style is fun and authentic and there are great visuals to go along with each story. While I couldn't relate to each and every woman in the book, I did find several I really identified with and picked up some great tid bits from the other. This is a book I'll always keep around to go back to when I'm feeling lost style wise. A great purchase!

I love Stacey London and have seen all the What Not To Wear Shows (!) at least once. She has excellent fashion/clothing advice. I was sorely disappointed by this book. The autobiographical part was interesting I guess, but the individual subjects didn't yield useful information, it was all a "one-note" type of makeover, and although good fashion advice shouldn't be subject to being dated, this one oddly enough, was, It was kind of like put them in a dress and heels and you are happy and good to go. Mostly. I was too embarrassed to put this in the neighborhood free library box. Oh well, I gave it a try.

Watching WNTW since it began, the series seems to me to be a documentary about how sartorial dysfuntion affects people's lives. Clothes maketh the woman as well as the man. So, I had to read this book.Stacy London shares her own story and weaves this in among the stories of women who are chosen for makeovers in the book. Here London is a champion for these women and for herself. It is a book about perception and self-respect. I recognized that on this level the world would truly be a better place if we could all have access to this type of empathic sartorial guidance.Perhaps two of the memorable disclosures London makes are Yes.. And..? As well as a work-related revelation of "What the xxxx am I doing here?" Had Stacy London remained at that job, we would not have the benefit of her sage advice on television or in this book. Thank you for writing this. It is worth the read.One nagging doubt: will this book help me as much as a real shopping trip with Stacy?

I was looking for a book to recommend to my coaching clients, that reflected the message in my book Work-Life Brilliance, specifically the chapter about transforming your outer self to match your most brilliant inner self. This is it. She had me from the first page with this quote:“I think that young men and women are so caught up by the way they see themselves. Now mind you, when a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”~ Maya AngelouAnd then…she writes about neuroplasticity! So much heartfelt wisdom. And the transformations are insane! (Not to mention truly reflective of the inner person!) This is a book about transformation from the inside out, and how clothes can facilitate you becoming who you were meant to be. And it’s really funny. Enjoy!

In a similar vein to Isaac Mizrahi's book (also very good) this takes a case study/makeover approach. It looks at the reasons for each person's style blockage and helps both the person involved and anyone reading the book who is facing similar issues to work through them.I would have preferred more 'after' photos of each person, as you only get to see one outfit so sometimes it's hard to see what their key lesson to learn is (is it the colour? skirt shape? etc.).In general it has a very positive feel to it and really helps you think about your own style goals without setting rules such as 'busty women should always wear collarless jackets' (this is a rule I read in a different style book!).

I'm so impressed by how heartfelt and vulnerable Stacy is in this book. I wasn't expecting that, but I found it so impactful and personally inspiring.

Stacy London writes from the heart and a vast experience of the fashion industry. This is nor a shallow book full of images of impossibly thin women. Each of her 'subjects' is treated with respect and a great deal of style savvy. I would definitely recommend this book.

Good book read in 4 days, I could identify with some of the women, some lovely transformations.

I miss the TV show she did with that other stylist. I liked their chemistry and thought this book might be a book version of their show What Not to Wear. It's not. Mostly it's about her life and a few issues she has had.