Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Book review: Yes, You can Look Slimmer (by Sheila Wong)

I was curious on dressing right for my body shapes and looking for tips in books. Hence, I thought I'll give a local writer a chance.

This book: Yes, You can look slimmer, by Sheila Wong caught my eye.

Price-wise
Personally, for a thin book of 1 cm, half an A4 sized, I think RM39.90 is a tad pricey. Perhaps it needed more cost for the glossy pages.

Content
1. Body Shape
Body shape explanation was rather brief and diagrammatic. This make it more like a quick reference than understanding your body shape.

2. Body proportion
Very brief one page explanation and a diagram which most art student would have learnt. Interesting enough, there was further few pages to give suggestion on the type of top or bottom to wear based on proportion. (This is something I have not seen described in books like Trinny and Suzannah)

However, it would have been better with more examples to suit to the current trends.

Shoes selection was pathetic: merely a few sentences. I would have suggested if this was not mentioned at all. It showed no substance and research. Mere common observation which can be done by anyone.
Additional info was a 2 pages face symmetry description.

3. Accessories for different face shapes
Again, a pathetic 2 page explanation without any examples/diagrams. Perhaps the author should have just focused on body shapes instead of trying to cover everything without substance.

4. Clothings in types
Good to point out are parts of clothing like:
i. Collars, necklines and sleeves
ii. Skirts
iii. Tops and blouses
iv. Jackets & coats
v. Sheath dresses
vi. Ensemble
(Disappointingly, 2 pages minimum of diagrams for each topic shows a very rough summary; which applies for the rest of the topics)

5. Accessories
i. Shoes
ii. Bags
iii. Styling scarf (including scarf for Muslim ladies)

6. Special occassion clothings
i. Special characteristics
ii. Pattern & print
iii. Capsule Grouping (matching of clothings with accessories)
iv. Business Formal (typical old style matching - should be modernised)
v. Business Casual
vi. Business Evening
vii. Party dresses
viii. Formal Evening Wear
ix. Tudung (head wear for Muslim ladies)

7. Subjective topics
i. Psychological Language of Style
- Quite meaningless 2 pages which reminds me more of a feng shui description i.e. vertical line means alert, stately, stable, poised, strong, upright, commanding. Yes, she wrote ALL those description. No offense to the author.

ii. Body Image Personality Type
- Another meaningless topic such as: Quester means you are always searching, always buying and never satisfied or Clueless: you want to work with what you already have in your wardrobe. ? ? ?

iii. Your Business Wardrobe
- This is an interesting general topic which highlights the basic item you should have in your wardobe like the white blouse and a few advise on clothing care

Again, all these are 2-pages description.

Conclusion
IMHO, I think it's not worth paying RM39.90 for a general description of things most people know. There are a few pages of interesting points to note but after reading this book, I felt cheated. Hence, I don't really recommend getting this book unless as a simple reference or a nice glossy book for a gift.

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