Style Reads – What’s Been on My Bedside Table

I have a fairly large library of image, style and colour related titles on my bookshelf and I add to it reasonably frequently (though there is just so much out there that I can’t keep up with it all sadly). Some books I think are worth the read… others less so.

So what are some of my favourites?

Here are a few books that I’ve read in the past that I’ve enjoyed and think could hold some useful tips and thoughts for many of you if you feel like reading more than just Inside Out Style.

You Are What You Wear by Jennifer Baumgartner

This book really delves deep into the psychological reasons for how and why we choose the clothes that we do. Jennifer Baumgartner is a psychologist and has some great insights into the link between how we think and what we wear.

Change Your clothes, Change Your Life by George Brescia

Some great tips on why you should take control of your wardrobe and image (not only because you can’t go naked) and how you can align your true self with your wardrobe.

Staging Your Comeback by Christopher Hopkins

I love this book for the makeover photos. Christopher Hopkins is known as “the Makeover Guy” and is a hairdresser and makeup artist as well. He does some great transformations and has plenty of sane advice for women to help them rediscover their style if it’s gotten lost over the years of looking after everyone else but themselves.

Brenda’s Wardrobe Companion by Brenda Kinsel

This is one of my all time favourites – so many techniques to think about and work through to help you understand more about what you do and don’t like. What you want to wear, how you want to express your style. It’s a must have for every personal stylist and image consultant (and everyone else interested in discovering their style). This is a book I re-read every now and again (and that’s something for me, as I really don’t re-read much as there is too much new to read).

Presence by Amy Cuddy

Not an image or style book per se, but all the research compiled by a Harvard Professor on how to have presence (which really does improve your style in its own way as your confidence improves).

Now what I’m reading next:

Tim Gunn’s Fashion Bible by Tim Gunn with Ada Calhoun

As he states on the first page “It’s rare that pepole think about what their own clothes signify about their place in the world or their priorities. Clothes are self-expression. If you have a limited range of outfits – say, only capri pants and t-shirts – it’s as though you have a limited range of words in your vocabulary.”

So tell me, which image/style/colour/fashion books have you found most enlightening?