Best Style Books for Fashion Lovers

One of my favorite things to do is curl up with a good book and if it’s a good fashion and style book, all the better. Here are my top 10 picks for the best fashion and style books to give your girlfriend (or yourself) this year.

1. Style Clinic: How to Look Fabulous All the Time, at Any Age, for Any Occasion by Paula Reed Style Clinic falls smack-dab in the middle of the ‘oldie but goodie’ category and is one of those books you’ll turn to again and again for tips and tricks for styling your clothes and looking great in them. Strategies like Five Ways for Anybody to Add Height or how to use color to make dark classics look modern abound. It also includes a section on age and dressing in your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond. Don’t worry – it’s not prescriptive, just practical

2.  The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe by Anuschka Rees Know someone who has a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear? The Curated Closet may be the book for them. One of the things I like about this book is the realistic approach it takes to building a wardrobe that is right for you. It takes you through a series of exercises to help you understand your style preferences as well as identify what you really need for your lifestyle. (If you have a thing for suits and can’t stop buying them, even though you long ago gave up your office job and now work from home, you’ll know what I’m talking about.)
3. Parisian Chic Look Book: What Should I Wear Today? by Ines de la Fressange and Sophie Gachet For a lot of women, it’s not as much about knowing what to buy as it is about how to put it together. If that’s the case, the Parisian Chic Look Book can help. I think of this book as the fashion version of a cookbook, full of outfit recipes that cover most occasions in your life. Wondering what to wear when you’re going out to dinner at a hip restaurant? It’s in there. Likewise what to wear on New Year’s eve and when you’re meeting your new boyfriend’s children. It’s all in there. These outfit ideas serve as templates that you can fill in with items from your own closet.
4. How To Get Dressed: A Costume Designer’s Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing by Alison Freer Alison Freer has written what could be loosely described as the bible of style hacks in How To Get Dressed. A costume designer who has worked in both TV and film, Freer shares tons of tips for how to look fantastic in your clothes. (You will be amazed by how many things a safety pin comes in hand for!)
5.  Bobbi Brown Living Beauty by Bobbi Brown Like a lot of women, I’m a huge fan of Bobbi Brown. I love her authentic, down-to-earth approach to beauty and makeup. Even when she’s giving advice for a glam evening look, her ideas are 100% classy, not trashy. She’s written several books over the years but this particular one, Living Beauty, was written when she was just entering her 50s and she has chocked it full of information and advice specifically for us gals of a certain age.
6. Style Forever: The Grown-Up Guide To Looking Fabulous By Alyson Walsh Style Forever by British fashion journalist and blogger Alyson Walsh offers expert advice for women no matter what their age, budget, or lifestyle. The focus of this book is firmly on us over 40 gals and  Walsh offers realistic advice with us in mind. I love her list of clothing basics that include Shoes You Can Actually Walk In, the Go Everywhere Tunic Dress, and the Big Girl’s Silk Blouse.
7.  The Wardrobe Wakeup: Your Guide To Looking Fabulous At Any Age by Lois Joy Johnson The Wardrobe Wakeup is a fantastic book for over 40 gals whose bodies and sensibilities have ‘evolved’. Want to know the best way to dress, so you fit in at a mostly-young workplace? Wondering how you can look sexy but still age-appropriate? Looking for ways to keep your edge without looking like you’re trying too hard? You’ll find it all here.
8.  Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design by Carrie McCarthy & Danielle LaPorte Fashion is easy (well, easy-ish) but finding your personal style, one that reflects the true you, is a much bigger challenge. Style Statement is an excellent book that will take you on a journey to discover who you uniquely are and how that can make a huge impact on your style choices. This is a great book to start the new year with when one of your goals is to take charge of your style.
9. I Love Your Style: How To Define and Refine Your Personal Style By Amanda Brooks One of the secrets of truly stylish women is that they have cracked their personal style code; they know who they are and they express it in how they dress. While there is no shortage of advice on how to figure it out and find your personal style, I Love Your Style is one of the best roadmaps out there. Amanda Brooks explains the concept, provides an in-depth description of style types and explains in detail how to achieve yours.
10. Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange with Sophie Gachet French style and Parisian chic have been having a bit of a heyday in recent years. Parisian Chic by French style icon Inès de la Fressange (who just turned 60 this year and looks amazing!) does an excellent, excellent job of dissecting the French Je ne c’est quoi when it comes to style and showing readers of any age how they too can achieve it.