Whilst cleaning out my computer I found this review that I wrote of What Not To Wear by Trinny and Susannah. I decided to post it because it’s quite funny but also because this was the first book I read when I began this journey and its interesting to see where I was then.
13/2/2008: Trinny and Susannah have a very popular TV show, What Not To Wear, where they take some woefully dressed woman and make her over. I’ve seen one episode of the show and enjoyed it thoroughly. They emphasise dressing to your best right now, big bums, thunder thighs and saggy boobs included, and hopefully successfully disguised.
The book sets out the rules of clothes to wear to showcase your body to best advantage if you’re sadly afflicted with a fashion resistant area of your body such as an enormous arse or no breasts to speak of. As important it sets out what clothes to avoid which I found to be particularly useful, if only to enable me to condemn my entire wardrobe.
Chapters include big tits, no tits, big arms, big bum, no waist, short legs, flabby tummy, saddlebags, short neck and thick ankles and calves. Clearly the book is targeted at women who have issues with their bodies. However, it’s not done in a way that’s critical or judgemental, rather focusing on real women who have real issues and promoting the idea that despite that any woman can still look fabulous. The outfits are shown in full colour and it really is easy to see the difference the cut and shape of clothes can make to where the eye is drawn and the overall appeal of an outfit. The writing style is straight to the point and often funny as well as practical and always clearly explains why or why not to choose a particular style of clothing.
I loved this book. As someone who’s spent quite a considerable amount of her life with a crap wardrobe because I’ve been waiting until I lost ‘the weight’ its an absolute godsend to learn some guidelines on how to look good without shrouding myself in a caftan as some manufacturers of plus sized clothing seem to think is mandatory. Now I have a much clearer idea of what to buy and what to avoid.
On the downside the authors are English and so unfortunately are the clothes shown, which does me no good at all as I’m not likely to be able to pop down the high street and find what they’re wearing. This applies to type of clothing as well. England is miserably cold ten months of the year so their outfits include jackets, boots and sweaters which aren’t really practical wardrobe inclusions for someone who lives in Australia.
I also found that the book raised as many questions as it did provide answers. Firstly I wouldn’t know an empire line or bias cut if they jumped up and bit me. Secondly I found that, as someone with multiple afflictions, some of the clothes to avoid to disguise one area included clothes to use to disguise another, leaving me confused about what to do.
So, whilst I found the book very helpful, I also found it’s only a first step. I would certainly recommend it to any woman who, like me, is a little tentative about what suits them and what doesn’t.
Find a link to buy the book here.
