In 1959, Ann Fogarty’s book “Wife Dressing: The Fine Art of Being a Well-Dressed Wife”, was released for the first time in New York. Now, nearly 50 years later, it has been re-released the use and entertainment of us younger wives. The age of this book becomes extra clear with the “provocative notes for the patient husband who pays the bills“.

Since I got married this summer, I have sometimes found it amusing to play my role to the full. Get dressed up in some 50’s housewife dress and apron and bake cookies for our guests. In this case the book is an excellent source for how to stay stylish and fashion conscious in a 50’s kind of way. But it is also so much more than that…

Even though the initial release of this book was so long ago, much of it’s content is just as useful today. Like the chapter on how to care for your wardrobe. “Uniformity of hangers gives your wardrobe cohesion. It’s good for your morale to open your closet door and see everything looking nice.” It couldn’t be more true.

Or the chapter on taste and money. “A clothes budget is like Einstein’s theory. It’s based on relativity. The relative value of perhaps one very expensive coat against two less costly; of one good fur against a couple of fake furs; of an extreme high-fashion item against a classic.” And she also brings to the attention how good taste and money don’t necessarily depend on each other. A good starting point on the subject.

And lets not forget about the husband in all of this, after all he pays the bills. He’s for example mentioned when it comes to personal grooming: “When your husband’s eyes light up as he comes at in at night, you’re in sad shape if it’s only because he smells dinner cooking.”

The fun thing is that when you expect the book to be all about silly fashion rules or just to be very conservative in general, it’s actually quite open to experimenting with clothes (although within certain limits) and quite funny, something that becomes clear on the chapter on breaking the rules as well as the fashion IQ test at the end of the book. And I guess that these days, with all kinds of synthetic materials and bad tailoring, that it is a useful source for how to care for (and wear) tweeds and furs like they used in the old days. But while it does contain useful advice and helpful ideas, I would rather recommend it as a sweet gift to a newly married (or engaged) girlfriend, or perhaps just a little something to amuse yourself with. You can find it at Amazon.

My collection of books on fashion is limited to books on photography, magazines, history and so on. In fact, the selection available doesn´t go much further than that. While the stylist is an important part of the fashion industry, there are few books on the subject. So when Style.com decided to fill the gap it was well overdue. The book is called Stylist, the foreword is written by Anna Wintour and it covers stylists like Polly Mellen, Carine Roitfeld, Joe Zee and many others. It is the perfect coffee table book. On 250 pages in hard cover and a decent size you get a book packed with photos. In fact, there´s nearly no text. Good thing cause I usually skip the text in fashion magazines as is. It is so much fun to look through and recognize old editorials and draw lines between looks I earlier had no idea was connected to each other. You can get it for $75 at Rizzoli and it is so worth the money. Amazon is of course also an option, where it´s actually cheaper than the publisher. When moving to a new place I´ll have to pack a lot of my books away, there are just too many of them, but this is one of the few that is secured a place in the living room.

…and one of the most fashion related gifts I have received so far is the book Spectacles and Sunglasses. It´s kind of an historic view on shades, from anything to the ordinary ones to the craziest ones you could ever imagine. It´s absolutely worth checking out!

I did collage a couple a months ago for a different purpose than the blog. Since then it´s just been sitting there. I hope you can enjoy it as a little winter inspiration in stead.

Since the links above aren´t clickable:

Coat: Net A Porter
Beanie: La Redoute
Necklace: Laurel Denise

Yesterday I received the book By Hand in the mail and I must say I was positively surprised.

In a response to the sleek forms and perfect angles of most late twentieth century design objects, many of today’s artists and designers are returning to handmade work such as hand lettering, hand drawing, and hand sewing. By Hand features an international collection of the most noteworthy artists and shows their work in detailed photography and insightful texts.

This book works as an excellent coffee table book, it contains useful and interesting information along with beautiful photos, and last but not least, it´s a great source of inspiration for all of us crafters. You´ll find DIY designer bags, embroidered pictures, crocheted lampshades, vinyl cars and so much more. It´s art I can relate to in a whole different level because it´s closer to what I do. I can recommend it to all of you interested in art or crafts in any way. Buy it here for $34.95.

Finals, family dinners, apartment cleaning and all that made me finish the book a little late. I guess it’s better late than never. How to Be a Budget Fashionista by Kathryn Finney is a book for all of those, like me, that are forced to concider budget when building up a wardrobe. The first chapter of the book starts on just that - budgeting. This chapter alone makes the book worth it’s money. In the following chapters you can read about how to dress to fit your figure and fidning your personals style. Quizes and useful information help guide you to do less of those impulse buys that end up in the back of your closet. One of my favorite chapters is the one on beauty where you find many good tips on how you can improve your looks with what you find in your kitchen.

It’s difficult summarize this book in just a few words cause these 222 pages contain so much. You learn about internet shopping, how to haggle in a store, how to raise money for more shopping, how to get stains out of garments… It’s an unbelievable source of useful information that will truly live up to it’s promise of being “The ultimate guide to looking fabulous for less”. It’s all written with humor and warmth where the writer shares many of her own experiences. I highly recommend getting this book and I know I will get great use of it in the future.

Today I received the book How to Be a Budget Fashionista in the mail. It’s written by the owner of The Budget Fashionista, a site I have turned to many times for great tips, Kathryn Finney. As soon as I have finished it I’ll give a proper review, but for now I must say that this looks very interesting and perfect for a poor student like myself. It’s avaliable at Amazon for about $10.

My boyfriend gave me Fashion Now 2 for Christmas. I never told him I wanted it, but he already has fashion books in his own collection, so I guess it came naturally to him. I never got the first edition, so I was of course very pleased to recieve this. The book is great to learn more about the big designers. It’s not always easy to keep track of everything, but this book is loaded with interviews, pictures and background information. It works well as a book to flip through when you’re bored or to read from cover to cover. Even though I love the book in many ways, there are some designers missing that I would love to know more about. I guess at this price you can’t get it all. Still, all fashionistas should have this book. It’s $39.99 on Amazon.

It’s fun to play around with different styles, and to get the right 50’s housewife look it’s a good idea to have some sourcebooks lying around. Fashion recycles all the time, and I often find that turning to the real deal gives a more unique style, even though it’s still within the limits. The best thing would be to have stacks of vintage Vouge, but for all of us living in small apartments, a few good books will do the trick.

Decades of Beauty (Mulvey & Richards)
This is one of the most complete books I’ve ever come across. It explains the fashion from the 1890’s to the 1990’s, including celebrities, politics, cosmetics, designers and so on. It has lots of pictures, and is a real inspiration to flip through.

The 1970’s (Peacock)
Sometimes it’s needed to go more in debth, and then Peacock’s sourcebooks on different decades can be a good idea. These books contain drawings of different outfits for every year of each decade, including close ups on shoes, hats and other accessories. The downside about these books are that the drawings are in only one color. Luckily every picture has an explaination of fabric, colour and so on. But even though these are complete books, they are a bit hard to use.

Fruits (Phaidon)
If you are looking for even crazier looks, this book gives tons of photos of the japanese street fashion. Even though most of it is too wild for most people, there are many smart details you can steel and still look chic.

Wearing Vintage (Bardey) and Secondhand Chic (Weil)
These two books are nice for all you secondhand shoppers. They tell you how to shop smart, what to look for, how to get a good price and so on. The books are maybe more suited for beginners, cause most of these things you learn your self after a little expirience. But it still has some good tricks that I have used, like ways of checking if the garment is of good quality or not.

For the right look to go with the outfit, check out books like 1940s Hairstyles (Turudich) and Vintage Face (Turudich). Even though a good rule is to not look like you came directly out of a certain decade (so be a bit modest), it’s fun to once in a while let go of all those fashion rules and just play around.