Showing posts with label Tim Gunn Guide to Style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tim Gunn Guide to Style. Show all posts

Monday, July 26, 2010

Fashion Guru Throw Down: Tim Gunn versus Simon Doonan

Tim Gunn (Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style (Tim Gunn's Guide to Style)) is nice, but Simon Doonan (Eccentric Glamour: Creating an Insanely More Fabulous You) is funny.

Tim Gunn has got to be one of the most pro-active professors in the United States. I can’t think of any other faculty member – outside of sports coaches’ promotion of college football, basketball, and other sports – who has brought his school to national attention with its very own hit TV show.

Parsons School of Design was never really off-the-map. But Gunn’s brainchild, Project Runway, created with model Heidi Klum, created a fun forum to showcase students’ work.

Gunn always has a kind word for hard-pressed students in the pressure cooker of the Project Runway deadlines.

His slogan, “Make it work” has achieve a degree of national fame.

Doonan is mostly unknown to TV audiences. He’s been a guest presenter on America’s Next Top Model.

Doonan can be caustic, but his fashion lessons strike to the heart of the fashionista who deplores following trends.

Doonan’s slogan, “Say no to ‘ho” perfectly captures a lesson I wish more of my female students would take to heart.

The line between Las Vegas showgirl and college girl has grown so perilously thin it barely exists when it comes to campus dress.

I’m also in love with Doonan’s pronouncement that jeans and denim are over. If only it were true. Meanwhile, Gunn, in his Guide to Style, counsels pairing various accoutrements – a good pair of leather boots, a blazer – with jeans for a casual look.

If I were going out for a cafĂ© lunch on a gray day when my spirits needed propping up, I’d choose Tim Gunn as my lunch companion.

The rest of the time I’d pick Simon Doonan. I’d laugh so much my face would hurt. I love that.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Knowing Your Style Is Step One in Basic Wardrobe Planning

Identifying your personal style is recommended for basic-wardrobe-planning.

Two books I’ve recently read that take this approach are Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Styleand The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style.

The Lucky Guide (Kim France, Andrea Linnett) is skewed young. The book is lavishly illustrated with photos.

There are two useful features.

Each section profiles a young woman who illustrates that fashion type. Some of her favorite pieces also are photographed.

Secondly, each section includes a feature that shows how one foundational wardrobe item may be used in versatile ways – such as transitioning through the seasons, or being teamed up for professional or party wear.

Tim Gunn’s Guide to Quality, Taste, and Style, written with Kate Maloney, is wittier and delves more deeply into what makes a woman chic.

Gunn, for example, lectures readers about the importance of posture.

The line drawings that serve as illustrations are a charming reminder of vintage illustrations from the 1920s through 1950s. They cannot compete with the usefulness of good, color photos, though.

Written like the academic Gunn fundamentally is, the chapter on fashion style types first defines the difference between a fashion icon and a mentor.

Gunn advises against slavishly copying a fashion icon and adapting fashion to one’s one figure and lifestyle.

My complaint with both books is that they focus too much of styles that are popular on the East or West coast. Suburban style and a professional look for older women get left out of these mixes. Scroll down to see table comparison.












LUCKY GUIDE TIM GUNN GUIDE
Euro Chic (Catherine Deneuve) Les Francaises (Deneuve)
The Bombshell (Sophia Loren) The Siren (Angelina Jolie)
American Classic (Katherine Hepburn) Masculin/Feminin (Hepburn)
Gamine (Sofia Cuppola) Les Gamines (Cuppola)
California Casual(Farrah Fawcett)bi-coastal opposites? The Risk Takers(Sarah Jessica Parker)
Rock and Roll (Patti SmithThe Rockers (Smith)
Bohemian (Stevie Nicks); Arty/Slick (Donna Karan) The Bohemians (Donna Karan)
Posh Electic (Debutantes who may someday become doyennes) Les Doyennes (Haute couture fashion leaders; a look too mature for Lucky readers
Mod (the youthful equivalent of?) Italian & Complicated (Fellini’s women)
Nothing equivalent Power Brokers (Oprah)