Style Yourself: Inspired Advice from the World's Top Fashion Bloggers

In Style Yourself, Sea of Shoes blogger Jane Aldrich says that, “ personal style bloggers are sharing affordable, realistic ways for people to reinvent their wardrobes”.  There are several spreads of Jane Aldrich, but the book also features 94 other bloggers from all over the world, including Kelly Framel/ The Glamourai, Carolina Engman/Fashion Squad and Aimee Song/Song of Style.   

The highlights of the book show the different bloggers explaining how they "build a look ", and how they are inspired by travels, movies and fashion history, for each fashion element.   In the tops chapter, Karla Deras/Karla's Closet shows how she creates the "Sequin Safari" look, by pairing a vintage top with cargo trousers and Marc Jacob books, inspired by the Supremes and Morocco.

A remixed version of each fashion element shows different ways to wear a key item, for example, Aimee Song/Song of Style demonstrates 3 takes on the fedora.

   

It's not at all about luxury brands, although some designer items may be found. The bloggers feature their vintage finds, DIY projects, or scoring steals in outlet stores or during their travels.  Kelly Framel/ Glamourai, talks about how she put the Glamourai touch on a blue velvet vintage coat with repurposed accessories from ebay.  "I don't do outfits--I do costumes. For me, every day is a chance to wear something decadent but never over-the-top"

However, there is a lack of unifying point of view of an author. Pages that showed illustrations of different styles of tops or shoes or hats, or even the remixed versions were unnecessary and lacked the vibrance and vividness of the blogger pages.  


I love that all blogger images were taken by the bloggers themselves, and their voices sound authentic. This book is like a taking a visual fashion tour. It is quite different experiencing the bloggers' images on a two dimensional printed page rather than scrolling onscreen.  

Book Expo America 2011

This year's annual trek to New York City yielded fun sightings of celebrity authors and lots of free Advanced Reading Copies after joining many queues.  

Tyra Banks gave away signed chapter samplers of Modelland, a fantasy/fashion teen novel to be published in September.  Tookie de la Creme gets selected to attend the exclusive Modelland academy, the training ground of magical Intoxibellas, the world's best models.

My airplane seatmate was reading Shanghai Girls, and I made a mental note to pick up the book. At the fair was Lisa See signing "Dreams of Joy", a continuation. Hardcover out in May 2011. 

Charlaine Harris who I spotted at the Mystery Writers of America book has just published "Dead Reckoning" in C Format and has a mass market paperback "Dead to the World" being released this June.   "The Sookie Stackhhouse Companion" will be coming out end of August and will feature a guide to Sookie's world and includes an all-new novella called Small Town wedding. Also includes trivia, recipes, maps and interviews with Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball.  

 We can't wait to have the lovely and gracious Lauren Kate back in Manila for the launch of Passion, third installment of the Fallen series, where Luce goes back in time to witness her earlier romances with Daniel.  

 And here is Christopher Paolini, who signed posters.  Inheritance, the end of his bestselling series will be published in November.  

 I was thrilled to meet Melissa de la Cruz, the bestselling Filipino American author of the Blue Bloods series. After writing for vampires, what's next? Witches! She noticed that a lot of fans going to her signings were 18-22 years old so she wrote this book for them, so she is crossing over to adult fiction with the publication of Witches of East End (mid June).   She said she used to buy books at National Book Store.  

 We missed his party, but my cousins were happy to get signed copies of William Joyce's The Man in the Moon, out in September. It looks like the start of a big series.  With this story book, and a chapter book entitled Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King,  he is launching the Guardians of Childhood,a retelling of favorite childhood characters.  He is the creator of characters in Toy Story and A Bug's Life.  

 And finally at the end of the fair, we got to listen to Jane Fonda. She looked fabulous at 70-plus (she said it was lots of money and good genes). She was such an inspirational speaker as she talked about her book Prime Time: Love, Health, Sex, Fitness, Friendship, Spirit, making the most of all your life, to be published in August. It is part memoir, and partly a gathering of her learnings and insights from different disciplines that we should be reading even  if we are just turning 40.