If you're looking for some "inspiration"
This book does NOT give advice on:
1) what to wear for your particular body shape (e.g. double or single breasted coat; above, at or below knee length hem; straight leg or flared pants); or
2) how to work the reveal and conceal tricks (e.g. emphasis your small waist; make your legs appear longer, your breasts smaller or bigger etc...); or
3) what colour suits you best, i.e. cool or warm tone; or
4) what are the fundamental pieces in every woman's wardrobe.

The book does give some ideas on:
1) how to dress for different occasions (e.g. weddings, cocktail party, interviews etc...), only very briefly;
2) where to look for style inspirations. It gives you lists of movies to watch (e.g. Pulp Fiction for the white shirt; Breakfast at Tiffany's for the LBD), what musicians/singers to research (e.g. Modonna).

Personally, I do not find the lists very inspiring, and since this is very much what the book is all about, I find it almost useless.

I will recommmend The Science of Sexy by Bradley Bayou if you want advice on how to dress for your particular body shape (this book is absolutely the best on this subject), and Nina Garcia's other book The One Hundred for wardrobe inspirations. The Pocket Stylist by Kendall Farr is also pretty good.

Lucy Chen

The Little Black Book of Stale Advice
I am interested in style, I enjoy reading about it. Indeed, style is (and should be) something one can learn. This book will not teach you style or anything else for that matter. It is very light on original text and ideas. Mostly it is *sound bites* from famous and semi-famous people about what makes style etc. I estimate that a full half of this small book is these quips. The rest of the book is about how wonderful the author is and how her mother is the epitome of chic (to me she sounds self-absorbed and foolish, she moved her seamstress into their home so she had constant access to alterations). I do not think Elle Maxcpherson talking about lingerie to be style advice and do not desire to emulate Madonna in her conical bra stage. There is a section on fashion decade by decade, 1920 to now. A section on women's style by country ( and how does one sum up a continent's sytle in a paragraph or 2?) and a section telling us which movies were iconic to fashion and why. I am not kidding here, this is this books contents. To finish off, the drawings of women in this book are ultra elongated and porportioned oddly not to mention thin, thin, thin. Plus the drawings are badly dressed. Again, I kid you not.

Good!
If you are planning getting involved with fashion and style and those things, this book is a good start. Also, is easy to read.

Great book written by a great personality!
Nina Garcia is my favorite Project Runway judge because of her no-nonsense, straight to the point critique style. I loved this book. What I loved most about this book were the anecdotes about her family and her Columbian roots. I wish she would have included more. The rest of the book is pretty much basic for anyone who studies fashion, but the writing style, which incorporates her off-beat sense of humor makes this a good read. I would have appreciated some pictures in addition to Mr. Toledo's beautiful drawings, but nevertheless this book is well worth the $14.00 price tag.

To the reviewer who said this book is only for skinny women -- you are so wrong. Fashion has nothing to do with size, it has everything do to with proportions and perception. The moral of any fashion story is that A 200+ pound woman (such as myself) can look as good as and even better than a size 2 woman as long as she has the right outfit...

" you are either in or you 're out(of style)."
The book was interesting but didn't keep me interested. I gave it to my sister who is studying Fashion design and she thought it had very usefull info on the subject.