What can a costume designer teach you about every day style? A lot! How To Get Dressed by Alison Freer is a clever collection of style and wardrobe hacks.
How to Get Dressed features “a costume designers secrets for making your clothes look, fit and feel amazing.” What more could I ask for in a style book?
I received a complimentary review copy through the publisher and Blogging For Books. All opinions are my own.
My first impression is that How To Get Dressed is a beautifully designed paperback with simple, stylish illustrations. I was hoping for more pictures of some of the styles on an actual body, but there are plenty of books that offer this.
This book is fun and full of practical tips on how to choose flattering clothing that expresses your style, maintaining and caring for these clothes, ways to organize your wardrobe, how to find your own signature style, and more.
I especially like that it includes a guide to shopping in vintage and thrift stores as I am a fan of upcycling and recycling. This gem of a book is a useful reference whether you are a fashionista or fashionably-challenged!
Some of my favorite things that I learned from How to Get Dressed:
- When is dry cleaning actually necessary? Apparently most of the time you can hand wash items labelled as dry clean only if you prefer. The book describes, when in Ms Freer’s professional opinion dry cleaning is necessary.
- Why you never accidentally see an actresses bra straps on TV, as someone plagued with this issue I enjoyed reading this wardrobe hack.
- How to gently stretch shoes that are just a little too tight.
- Tips for when you don’t have enough rail space in your closet.
- How to fix a protruding under wire in a bra! (hint–it involves moleskin)
- How to make skirts and wrap dresses behave and stay in place.
- Which “dumb fashion rules” are made to be broken!
Where to Purchase How to Get Dressed:
How to Get Dressed is available at book retailers including Amazon: Amazon product listing
About Allison Freer:
ALISON FREER is a costume designer from Texas living and working in Hollywood. With more than 150 TV shows, films, commercials, and music videos under her belt, she has reams of hard-won, practical wardrobe expertise at her fingertips. Alison is the clothes editor at xoJane.com, where her unique take on how to solve common fashion and style conundrums has won her a dedicated following. Alison is also a contributing editor to Racked.com, hosted TLC’s A Makeover Story during its fifth season, and appeared on Melissa River’s TV Candy on the TV Guide network as the show’s resident style expert. (Source How To Get Dressed press release)
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