How to Get Dressed by Alison Freer

How to Get Dressed: A Costume Designer's Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing by Alison Freer ISBN-13: 9781607747062 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Ten Speed Press Released: April 14, 2015

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Costume designer Alison Freer’s styling kit is a magical bag of tricks, built to solve every single wardrobe malfunction on earth. TV and film productions wait for nothing, so her solutions have to work fast. In How to Get Dressed, Alison distills her secrets into a fun, comprehensive style guide focused on rethinking your wardrobe like a fashion expert and making what’s in your closet work for you. She provides real-world advice about everything style-related, including:

Making every garment you own fit better
Mastering closet organization
The undergarments you actually need
The scoop on tailors and which alterations are worth it
Shopping thrift and vintage like a rockstar

Instead of repeating boring style “rules,” Alison breaks the rules and gets real about everything from bras to how to deal with inevitable fashion disasters. Including helpful information such as how to skip ironing and the dry cleaners, remove every stain under the sun, and help clueless men get their acts together, How to Get Dressed has hundreds of insider tips from Alison’s arsenal of tools and expertise.


My Review:
How to Get Dressed is about finding your unique style and making your clothing fit well. I love that she genuinely thinks that your body type is great--and it doesn't matter which body type you have. Instead of telling women to mimic the current fashion or her favorite style, the author encourages you to discover your own, unique style. Instead of telling you to buy expensive, uncomfortable clothes and underclothes to match the currently fashionable "look," she encourages you to get clothes that fit well and a tailor who can do some cheap alterations so that your clothes look great on you and you feel great in them. I love her general attitude and mindset.

The author discusses "fashion rules" and when they can be broken. She gives tips on how to deal with clothing emergencies (safety pins and toupee tape to the rescue! Plus how to get out any stain), how to find clothes that fit, what clothes can be cheaply altered to fit well if you like the style, and how to find good vintage clothing. She discusses proper care and washing of clothing, including when do you really need to use a dry cleaner. She tells how you can organize your clothing (including underclothes, shoes, etc.) in a way so that you can easily see everything you own. There's only one chapter on how men's clothing should fit, and the rest is focused on women.

Basically, she covered a little bit of everything clothing-related in an upbeat way. If you don't feel comfortable shopping for or in your clothing and don't know much about clothing care, this may be the book to help you.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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