How to Get Dressed: A Costume Designer's Secrets for Making Your Clothes Look, Fit, and Feel Amazing Paperback – April 14, 2015

Exactly as described, nicely wrapped and quickly sent.Thank you

I’m recommending this book to all of my friends—even for those who say they never have time to read a book! I just tell them that the glossaries and the index at the back are incredibly useful--the stain glossary alone makes this book an excellent purchase. Alison gives us remedies for fixing a long list of icky stains (cigarette ash? candle wax? blood??) and the details are specific and the methods practical. The fabric glossary abounds with details about fabric that allows you to take care of your fancy or expensive duds yourself with little risk to your investment whether it is financial or emotional.Who knew about the myriad uses of safety pins—and did you know they come in black?! I didn’t, but I’m going to buy some as soon as I can. Have you ever heard of a tool called a belt hole punch? Alison puts this versatile tool to uses even its inventor never dreamed of! Those are a couple of unusual examples, but her book is stuffed with advice about the simplest, most effective and fast remedy for any type of situation you and your clothing might encounter. She touts the cheap and easy method when it will serve, but when nothing else will do she gives you the skinny on the more demanding and/or expensive method. Since her bedrock is the sensible and inexpensive method (organize your tights and stockings using the cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels), when she does recommend something more expensive I believe it’s the best idea—I’m definitely adding a fabric steamer to my Wish List!When Alison talks about her experiences on set or prepping for a show, she is discreet and never mentions an actor’s name or show (which makes your brain spin trying to figure who did that thing she just described as an example of what not to do). I wish I could watch her in a reality series, or a behind-the-scenes kind of deal—I would definitely tune in! She has a dry funny way to illustrate her point, like the time she advises us on the dangers of including towels in the dryer with clothing because they produce “a special kind of lint that attaches itself to your wardrobe forever, like lice on a first grader.” I couldn’t stop laughing—Texas women have such a funny wry way of illustrating their point (think Molly Ivins or Ann Richards).Alison’s style is breezy, confident and practical even when she talks about caring for a luxurious fabric like peau de soie—I bet she even pronounces it correctly! Alison is like your best friend’s older sister—you put her on a pedestal and drink in the words, ready to try anything she advises because she obviously knows the very best way to do everything. This book is a gem, everyone should own a copy!

It jumps through topics a little faster than I'd prefer, and could use more text-illustrative-images (still trying to figure out what a "circle skirt" is), but it has answered questions I've held for years (do I really need to dry clean?), has so many specific fabric cleaning directions that I'll be adding flags and using it as a reference in my laundry room, and it inspired me to sort/ re-organize my closets, boosted by the truth of her argument that it's better to have some well-coordinated outfits than a huge collection of varied but poorly fitting items.So, as a result, I've bought a lot of multi-tiered hangers (slips, tank tops, petti pants, work out capris), replaced fat plastic hangers with felted space savers (35 for $10; thank you, CostCo!), and stored the majority of items as outfits in one hanger bundle (pants on clips, shirt and sweater layered atop; leggings on clips, tank and dress atop, belt on the hook). That helped me reduce from 2 to 1 closet, and helped me let go of items which aren't ever worn because they don't have a mate to be worn with.

I have bought eight style books over the past few months to refresh my own wardrobe and Ms Freer's book is in a class of its own. There are no prescriptions, no white-t-shirt-denims-ballet-flats advice and no do-this-to-look-slimmer hints. She shares her experience as a costume designer for film, tv, and music videos and writes with a delightfully irreverent style about all kinds of wardrobe mishaps and style rules.I learned something new on almost every page. I will store some of my stuff differently, get rid of some underthings and buy others, do my laundry better, deal with stains without despair, tailor my clothes to fit better (or get a ailor to do it), carry safety pins in all my handbags, and wear whatever the hell I want with confidence and a smile. Thank you Alison!

The Good : The substance of the book is witty, informative and useful. The nitty gritty pointers of how to recognize, buy, tailor, and maintain a quality wardrobe appeals to the environmentalist in me. Say goodbye to fast fashion and clothes you don't actually wear. The pages of the book are heavier weight which made taking notes in the margins easy because there was no bleed through and there was plenty of space.The Bad: I don't know if the book would be completely understandable to someone who doesn't have some sewing background. My background in live theatre also made the book exceptionally easy to read and follow. Some of the more technical sections on fit could be enhanced with pictures for those who don't have any history with a needle and thread.The Ugly: I've owned the book for 24 hours. I'm half way through and the binding is completely falling apart. I'm going to have to take it to an office supply store and have it spiral bound which will take up a huge portion of those lovely margins mentioned above.If the binding was well done it would probably have gotten a 5* review. Alas, it wasn't one of the multitude of things I learned how to fix with a safety pin in the book.