The Fashion Book

Looking to update your wardrobe for the new year, but not sure what direction to go stylistically? Look no further than The Fashion Book, dewey # T746.92B in the non-fiction section. 

This colorful and fun book is divided into short chapters which details fashion trends by decade and talks about the famous people who helped popularize them (everyone from Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette to Madonna and beyond). Following each chapter are tips on how to modernize these trends for today's world, because wearing a ginormous hoop skirt or 10-inch platforms are just not practical or comfortable (obviously)--unless, of course, it's Halloween. Either way, you'll find some awesome ideas in this book!

Other topics covered are fashion trends around the world, a day in the life of a runway model, and what's next for fashion. Would YOU wear a color-changing mood shirt, a skirt where you could change the pattern with only a few clicks of your Smart Phone, or accessories (or even entire outfits) printed on a 3-D printer? 

According to The Fashion Book, anything goes (and anything is possible) when it comes to crafting a signature look! Just have fun with it!

As for me? I'm totally going to hit up the thrift stores and vintage boutiques to hunt for some 60s & 70s-era styles! --AJB

Fearless Fashion, by Alison Bell

Hey Ladies (guys too): It's never too early to start planning your Back to School wardrobe--especially with all the stores having huge blowout sales (if they haven't started yet, they will soon). 

This in mind, a fun book to check out is What's Your Style: Fearless Fashion, by Alison Bell, which can be found in our nonfiction section under Dewey call # T391B. Take a quiz to determine your overall style, and learn about some of the various fashion trends out there and how to identify them in your friends and yourself (for example, I discovered that I'm sort of Hipster/Boho). There's even a chapter about health and beauty (hair & makeup). Plus, there's a ton of great ideas for enhancing your individual style or cultivating an entirely new look.

Overall, What's Your Style: Fearless Fashion is tons of fun. Another great book to check out is Popular: Vintage Wisdom from a Modern Geek, by Maya Van Wagenen. Pair it with it's companion book, Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide for the full experience. --AJB

Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide

On Monday this blog featured Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek, a memoir penned by Maya Van Wagenen about her year following the beauty and lifestyle advice written about in Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide.  This book changed Maya's life, helping her to become healthier, more confident, and, yes, popular.

The Miss Cornell's Guide, originally published in the early 1950s, has been re-issued in 2014 with a special forward by Maya. Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide has chapters on everything from beauty (hair, skin, figure, makeup), wardrobe, health (diet and exercise), attitude and personality, dating, and getting a first job (and how to keep it). Some of the advice is pretty dated. Like, would you really wear a girdle? Do you even know what a girdle is? And, lets face it: The only girl who really brushes her hair 100 strokes every night is Marcia Brady. But other tips, like taking care of your health and mastering the art of writing thank you notes (not texts), is timeless. It's easy to see how this book could've helped a girl like Maya. Or any girl, for that matter--whether she was a teen in 1951 or a teen today.

Did you enjoy Maya's book and now want to see what all the fuss over Betty Cornell's guide is about? Now's your chance to see for yourself...and see if any of Betty's advice works for you too! --AJB