FIVE BOOKS ON STYLE

To be stylish and elegant requires not just the gift but the effort. Some persons begin to show that they will be stylish from when they are very young. Look back at your secondary school mates. I had stylish friends back then who wore their school uniform in such stylish ways that it was difficult to believe it was the same uniform we all got. Today they are still very stylish. Being stylish cannot be bought, for most it is ingrained but it can also be learnt. Style is the sum total of your personality, your carriage, your knowledge of colours and the combination, your swag, your knowledge of fabrics and your fashion appropriateness among others. Let us look at style appropriateness. I always use age to fashion appropriateness as a measure. Are you doing cleavage at 55 that is so inappropriate. It confers cheapness and tardiness on you. Are you doing sagging at 62 years, that is so inappropriate, you look silly and it confers thuggery on you. Stylish people wear their style effortlessly, they do not look overdone and they do not look like they are trying too hard. Stylish people can also be fashion rebels like wear a scarf on a suit and believe me in that disruptive look, they still look so put together. So let’s help with your style savvy in 2020.Please ditch that red cardigan you wear with everything and also throw away that navy blue tie you have had since you got that corporate job. You can be stylish without breaking a bank. Reinvent yourself, be a new fresh, stylish you. Invest in a few statement pieces. Thank you very much. So let’s help you with your style and fashion savvy in 2020. Here are books to get you on your way.

1.Gods and Kings, the rise and fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. This is a book about two of the most talented persons in the fashion industry in modern times. Both men were crazy talented, but were deeply flawed and totally crazy. Yet they delivered to fashion, gems that cannot be replicated. A book that will arouse your fashion sense and show you how two geniuses who dedicated their lives to fashion went from glory to a downfall. An amazing book about two iconic fashion influencers. While it is a book about two incredibly talented fashion designers, the fashion world, it is also a book about life. Highly recommended

2.How to be a family – The year I dragged my kids around the world to find a new way to be together by Dan Kois. I am a bit of a travel adventurer and this book spoke to me in more ways than one. So, I recommend it highly because we may all live in the same house but sometimes you and your family are hardly together. The author, a journalist and his lawyer wife suspended their day time jobs in Washington DC to spend four months each in New Zealand, Netherlands, Costa Rica and a small city in Kansas. This is practically a whole year of just travelling. This requires planning and saving. You can do two weeks not necessarily a whole year. Travel is Education and they returned from this trip better bonded than ever before as a family. His children were pre-teens and we all know how they can be. He got them to get to know neighbours and even help the community. He got them to understand terrains and transport by bicycle and while in Costa Rica, they learnt that there are mosquitoes and poor people. This you can even do in Nigeria or even in your village or a different village. The lessons, adventure and joy are the same.

3.How to plan a trip, the ultimate practical travel planning guide by Lia and Jeremy. This is an online resource that reads like a breeze in 25 minutes. Everyone should read this before they travel and get some good tips about how to manage all sorts of things associated with holiday travel.

4.For those who make budget plans for travelling outside the country, it is critical to pick up one or two travel guide books that have been around for a long time. But even if one travels within the country these guide books will sustain you through the travel including tips that can assist you, save you funds and keep you abreast of current trends. Some of my recommendations will be the ‘This is…’ series which describes some cities of the world and guides you through them, any travel guide book by National geographic which are always excellent, and Blue Guide books.

5.When travelling, it’s always good to carry an interesting fiction book or non-fiction book that would keep you engaged through the journey and in those lazy times which everyone needs when you are just lazing under a tree. For me this holiday, it is ‘Love with a chance of drowning by Torre de Rocher.’ Here Torre’s love interest, a handsome Argentinian guy takes her across the pacific in spite of her fear of water. An incredibly beautiful book for travellers this season.