So most fashion books have me going yawn. I recently read Harper’s Bazaar’s Style at Any Age, and while the monthly column amuses me, the book fell flat. Most books on fashion, though, are like that for me. Thus, I was completely taken aback by Isaac Mizrahi’s How to Have Style ($19.80), which I tore through in a single afternoon. The book takes twelve women who recognize that they are in a style rut and gives them new techniques for developing their own personal style. Isaac asks them to use a corkboard to record what inspires them and gives them a questionnaire (provided in the book). I love the idea of collecting images and fabric swatches for inspiration and the questionnaire was surprisingly insightful.
Some will argue that this book is not very useful because there are no hard and fast rules for having style. But this is the point Isaac is trying to make. There are no hard and fast rules for having your own personal style. When I read Victoria Beckham’s book a while back, I was disappointed because it wasn’t a book on style, it was a book on her style, which is all you’re going to get when someone attempts to give strict style definitions. If that’s what you’re looking for, by all means, go and read that kind of a book, but I have a greater appreciation for what Isaac was trying to accomplish.
As I read the book, over and over I kept saying to myself, “Oh my gosh! He gets it! He actually gets it!” If you are in a style rut and/or are looking for a way to develop your own unique style signature, this is definitely the book for you. I took the book out of the library, but I can’t wait to buy myself a copy because it’s something I want to hold onto and be able to lend to everyone I know.
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