Book Review: "Style" by Kate Spade

A recent addition to my book collection is "Style" by Kate Spade, edited by Ruth Peltason and Julia Leach with illustrations by Virginia Johnson. It's a small book that is divided into three main sections: Style & the World, Style Start to Finish, and Maintaining Style. It also has a cute section at the very beginning that is titled "Have You Ever Wondered...?" and provides you with some brief responses to typical style questions you may have been asking yourself over the years. For example, there's the one about wearing white after Labor Day, but also a few answers to questions such as mixing fine jewelry with costume pieces and how to pack your finer tops to avoid that wrinkled look. Overall it's a nice take on Kate Spade's take on style and her own personal experiences mixed in with beautiful watercolor images and relevant quotes from other designers, authors, and more.

I've always loved Kate Spade items. The brand is colorful, mixes prints, and offers fun accessories such as quirky purses shaped like animals. One of my favorite bits about this book is how personal it seems. While reading it a lot of the writing makes you feel as though you're simply having a conversation over tea with Kate Spade. A lot of style related books tend to be more "How To Wear This" and offer tips and tricks to curating your closet. Unlike those types, this little book takes you on a journey through how Kate Spade finds inspiration in books, art, movies, and everywhere around her and then how she dresses by her own rules and standards. 

One of the quotes that most resonates with me is early on in the book, on page 28, "I don't buy a lot of basics. When I shop for black pants, I'm likely to come home with a scarf and pink shoes." This is 100% me when I'm shopping. Everything you read about fashion is always trying to instill in you that you need all of these basics. Black pants, a simple pair of black heels, nude shoes, white button down, a solid color sweater, plain pencil skirt, a little black dress, etc. The list goes on and on with all of these must have basics. I was trying to add a pencil skirt to my work closet and I could just not get excited about a plain black skirt. Sure I could wear fun printed tops with it, or pair it with funky heels and colorful jewelry, but it just wasn't for me. Instead I opted for a vibrant berry color and I absolutely adore it. This book is Kate Spade's journey to her own style but filled with helpful tips like the correct names for different styles of hats, measurement conversions, fabric descriptions, stain remover tips, and other useful tidbits to help you figure out your own personal style and how to take care of it.

If you're in the process of figuring out your style and want someone else's take and journey, then I recommend this book to you. If you adore Kate Spade the brand and would just like to add something colorful and cute to your bookshelf, then I recommend this book to you. Despite being published in 2004, this book is still relevant. I found this book for $4 at a used bookstore and I am absolutely thrilled for it to be on my bookcase nestled among books about Coco Chanel, the history of shoes, and other fashion related research books.