Stylebook Book Club - Book 1

How to Get Dressed - Alison Freer is an excellent place to start any fashion journey. It offers advice on finding clothes that fit well, how to wiggle out of any fashion emergency, shopping strategies and really good laundry tips that will actually help your clothes last longer. It doesn’t push any particular style and author Alison Freer is budget and time conscious.

If you ever wondered how actors looks so amazing in just jeans and a t-shirt, this book answers that question. Alison is a costume designer who has shopped for countless productions often on a shoe-string budget. I love the little tricks that make even a basic outfit look fantastic and the best part is everything is totally doable.

Each chapter is self contained so you can skip around. I marked mine up with post-its so I can easily find the the tips that I could relate to the most in the future!

- Jess Atkins, Stylebook Co-founder

Before and After: I used Alison's tips to improve my favorite jacket by shortening the sleeves and using fashion tape on the collar

Author Alison Freer shares so many easy - yet super practical - tips. While I had a rough understanding of some of these concepts before reading, her in-depth explanations helped me feel more in control of my wardrobe. She was funny and didn’t hold back on sharing her tricks of the trade. I’ll be keeping this book on my shelf as a reference for a long time!

Here are my favorite chapters and what I liked most about them. I know there are kind of a lot, but I really enjoyed this read!

Chapter 1 - It was really fun to read about the start of her career. It was surprising to me to hear that costume designers sometimes go to the mall for their characters’ wardrobes. Maybe it’s not a surprise to you, but it made me look at ordinary shopping destinations with fresh eyes. It’s really about how you shop, not where you shop.

Chapter 2 - The difference between on-screen wardrobes and the clothes that you or I might wear? It’s how they fit. This chapter really highlights the sometimes small changes that are made to on-camera wardrobes that make even ordinary clothes look amazing.

Chapter 4 - I loved her method for coming up with a signature style. I already make mood boards inside Stylebook with my inspiration images, but the idea of giving them a theme was brilliant.

Chapter 9 - I’ve never thought beyond Spanx, racerback, strapless and multi-way bras. It turns out there is a whole undergarment world out there that can help give structure to every outfit.

Chapter 12 - I never understood how some people find vintage gold when they go to consignment shops. I’ve been to thrift and vintage stores countless times and have found something good literally twice. I love that she outlines a plan of attack and talks about how to research ahead of time to find the perfect pieces.

Some surprising things I learned:

Treat yourself right when trying on clothes. Apparently, even celebrities go on an emotional roller coaster when trying on 20 pairs of jeans to find a good fit. This made me feel like I wasn’t alone and emphasized that the fitting room struggle is real. Next time I’m down on myself when trying on clothes, I’m going to remind myself it’s not me, it’s the clothes.

New uses for double-stick fashion tape Sure, everyone knows about the magical tape that helps keep your neckline modest, but I never thought about implementing it for the wide variety of uses Freer suggests. I have a belt that’s slightly too long - BAM - tape it! A shirt collar that just won’t lay correctly? Tape it! As you can probably tell, I’m very excited about this and will be adding this to my outfit styling notes inside Stylebook.

Next-level alterations may actually only be small tweaks Once again, I was aware that alterations are a good idea, but I usually only altered pieces that obviously needed it. In Chapter 3, Freer said, “I’ve personally never, ever put an actor on camera in any piece that didn’t have at least one alteration done to it.” That really changed my perspective. Of course, I can’t bring everything to the tailor, but it made me rethink clothes that seem to fit pretty well. For example, I bought a dress to wear to weddings and the saleswoman at the store thought it fit perfectly. It looked great, but it felt a little bottom-heavy to me. I had it hemmed just a couple of inches and suddenly it looked truly amazing. I had a jacket that fit great, but the sleeves were a little long. Sure, I could roll them up, but it looks much more polished hemmed.

On the other hand, be careful what you alter. Have you ever gone to the tailor and wound up paying an arm and a leg for what you thought was a simple change? Well, Freer explains what makes certain changes pricey in Chapter 3. This is helpful to keep in mind while out shopping and has even helped me while I was cleaning out my wardrobe.

Undergarments make a big difference and don’t need to be fancy Chapter 9 is full of so many great tips that made me rethink old-school underwear shops. The idea of wearing a slip changed my dress-wearing life. I usually reserved slips for pieces that are a little too sheer, but now I see that they prevent leg cling and also make the skirt move nicely. This made me think that I should add some significant undergarments to Stylebook so I can put them in appropriate outfits. Some outfits really look better with these pieces and I don’t want to forget it.

Discussion:

Comment on the Instagram post below to tell me the most helpful tip you learned from the book.

• Did you like the book?
• What was your favorite chapter?
• Did anything surprise you?
• Did anything sound nuts (…umm, buying your own dry cleaning liquid? That sounded pretty scary/dangerous. I’m definitely taking a hard pass on that! )

Extra Credit Reading:

If you’re interested in learning how to alter your clothes, I recommend this book:

Here’s how it works!

On the first of the month: I’ll share a new book on for everyone to read. Join our email list here to get notified about each month’s book.

The first week of the month: I’ll post on Instagram about what I got from the book and I hope you’ll share your thoughts with me there too!.