(Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. However I was not compensated for writing a review and as always all opinions are my own.)
Refinery29: Style Stalking, by Piera Gelardi and Christene Barberich (paperback, 192 pages). Two out of five stars.
This book was kind of a big disappointment for me. It’s definitely aimed at twenty-something young women who really, really love fashion and fashion blogs. While I do like fashion and street style, I don’t get into such high-fashion labels and looks as this book seems to embrace, so a lot of the looks shown just weren’t “me”. If you really enjoy street style blogs like The Sartorialist or Man Repeller, this book might be a great fit for you. If you’ve ever read one of those blogs and scratched your head in confusion at something a blogger was wearing, then…it’s not.
With that said, if you’re new to dressing or are just in a wardrobe rut, this book does offer a lot of tips for creating your own look: how to re-wear pieces, how to mix prints, etc. Sprinkled throughout you’ll find advice from frequently snapped celebs like Solange Knowles on how to look fashionable and unique.
Unfortunately I felt like most of what was said, I’d already learned by reading Glamour and Lucky magazine. I also feel like this book is a little dated: obviously any fashion manual is going to appear slightly so, but some of the trends shown in the pages (flatform sandals, anyone?) make me think that future readers will not just be able to date this book’s decade–they’ll be able to pick out the exact year. I prefer a slightly less trendy approach to dressing, so that was just another point that made this book not the best fit for me.
Overall, like I said: perfect for the crowd that already reads this type of blog religiously. Not such a great fit for everyone else.
3 Comments
Katrin
Hmm, I do not really read blogs like that. Also I am not into labels at all. I do follow a cruelty free fashion blog which is a lot more my thing. I guess this book isn’t for me either. :)
writergirlm
I do find it kind of hard to get into regular fashion when it features too much fur and leather, and almost any fashion magazine or book features such…I’m not even into the fake stuff too much. It looks too real for my comfort. :/ I like more minimalist style I think, so this type of dressing just isn’t for me! :)
Katrin
I absolutely agree. I looked through a fashion magazine a while ago and all the stuff they showed there was either leather, fur, silk, wool or made my some horrible companies. Not my kind of stuff. I do not like fake fur etc either. It looks way too real and I do not want to promote that.