How To Get Dressed by Alison Freer

   Fashion is a huge part of my life. It's with me everyday and is a great passion of mine. When I was given the opportunity to review "How to Get Dressed", I was thrilled! Unfortunately, that excitement was short lived.

   I barely made it through the first couple of pages with all of the eye rolling that was happening. I expected a very professional how-to guide, considering Alison Freer is a costume designer. This book is far from professional. "Clothes for Dummies" would have been a more appropriate name.

   Chapter 1 is titled Movie Magic and it's all about how to be a costume designer. If I had to sum it up in two words, I would choose braggy and unnecessary.

   Sadly, Chapter 2 wasn't much better. It's titled Fit. That is at least accurate considering there were two full pages explaining the definition of fit. I felt like I was reading a bitchy dictionary. This chapter is where Freer really lost me. While she explains fit, she also briefly explains how she views different body types. According to her, you're either curvy or you are a stick figure. I take offense to that. She speaks so kindly of bigger women, yet if you're skinny you are a stick figure. What?! That's a screwed up way of thinking, to be quite honest. I struggle with Anorexia, so I'm used to the negative comments about my weight in my day to day life. However, I wasn't expecting an insult from a book! The author writes in a way that basically says, "If you're not average weight or a celebrity then you're dirt. And you're stupid."

   Do yourself a favor, and stay away from this book. Save your money and your time, because it's worth neither. I'll spare you the rest of the condescending comments in this dreadful collection of unimportant details. I will say this though... if you are like me and you firmly believe that leggings are NOT pants, then do not even look at page 63. It will make you angry.

   Overall, I was extremely dissatisfied with the content in these 232 pages. I don't know if it's because I was expecting better tips than "Safety pins are holy," or if I just couldn't handle Freer's outrageous tone. Either way, this isn't even bookshelf worthy. I'm donating it to the thrift store with hope that maybe someone else might actually enjoy it. Perhaps they'll even learn something! Let's be real though, that probably will not happen.



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http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/221138/alison-freer/