What Not To Wear

What Not to Wear is based on Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine's BBC television programme of the same name. The show has given a whole new meaning to the phrase "fashion victim": each week a member of the public (kindly nominated by their "friends") is done up (or, perhaps more accurately, done over) by Trinny and Susannah--a couple of Sloane-style gurus who are spikier than a pair of Manolo Blahnik stilettos. The pair mercilessly ridicule each poor specimen's dress sense until, browbeaten into submission, the unfortunate victim is forced to see the error of their sartorial ways. Ready to accept the experts' advice, the subject is then given £2000 for a wardrobe refurbishment. Infuriatingly, the diabolical duo is usually right and an astonishing number of ugly ducklings are duly transformed into swans.

Nowhere near as much fun as watching the girls at work but infinitely preferable to acquiring their advice first hand, this book provides an invaluable guide to avoiding fashion faux pas. Separated into chapters themed by body shape--"big tits", "flabby tummy", "short legs" and so on--it provides step by step instructions on how to choose flattering, fashionable cuts and colours. "Looking stylish", they unsurprisingly declare, "is as much about knowing what not to wear as it is about knowing what suits you." With lists of golden rules and an index of boutiques, this volume, surely one of this season's essential purchases, will have you hot to trot in no time at all. --Travis Elborough

View other editions of What Not To Wear.
View books by Susannah Constantine, Trinny Woodall.

Very Disappointing - Rated
Look at the posture of the girls in some of these pictures, not to mention the look on their faces when their modeling. No wonder it looks bad.
The earring pic for a short neck. The lady is holding her head down and all of a sudden she is holding it up high to show the earring makes her neck look longer.
Looking great has a lot to do with fabric, style, color. Models with different body types would have been better examples.

Brutally honest but absolutely invaluable. - Rated
The title says it all really. This book made me have a good hard look at myself and have some eye-opening revelations about my wardrobe. Having used this guide to enlighten myself about what I was doing wrong, I found it much easier to pare my wardrobe down and stop kidding myself that I would ever wear those clothes again!

A miniturised version of What not to wear Vol I - Rated
All this is is a shrunk down version of the big hefty volume which as a T&S devotee and disciple I have.
I wish this was a free book attached to previous Volumes.I wish this was a Standard doled out to Women needing sartorial salvation.At it is it is another reason to make money at the Viewers expense.
I have great respect for Trinny and Suzzana and watch their programmes religiously, I have all their books. I love the way they take so called ordinary faulty flawed but beautiful 'real' women and bring out their sartorial potentiality. As a result I could preach the Gospel of T&S with confidence. But this is just a money spinner instead of a way to put T&S advice into much needed compact form.

The usefulness will depend on the reader - Rated
Confused about what to wear? This book aims to demystify the art of looking, and feeling, good. Does it succeed? Well, it certainly made a big difference to how I dressed, but that might say more about me than it does about the book itself...

And that's what it comes down to - the usefulness of this book really depends on the reader. When I first discovered it as a twenty year old computer geek who lived in jogging bottoms and baggy t-shirts and thought wearing bright pink lipstick was a good idea, its style advice was invaluable and really did transform how I dressed. For my more sartorially advanced friends, it would probably be a waste of time and money.

The book is based around various body shapes and what clothes to wear and avoid for each in order to look good. With the exception of a tiny and very fortunate few, most women will find at least one applies to them. Big tits, small tits, big arms, big bum, no waist, short legs, flabby tummy, saddlebags, short neck and thick ankles each have a chapter devoted to them.

For each 'problem area' there are pictures of the best and worst clothing items, the idea being that the best will hide the undesirable and draw attention to better places. The effect is somewhat spoiled by the fact that the authors slouch and pull miserable faces in the 'bad' outfits (a sure way to make even the best outfit look bad), whilst posing and smiling in the good. It would be better to let the clothes speak for themselves. There are explanatory notes (very brief) on why these clothes have the effect they do.

One problem with the approach is that most mere mortals will be afflicted by several of the problems covered here, and you can end up with conflicting advice as a result. For example, the tailored and fitted dress recommended to cover up my big bum is a no-no when it comes to disguising my short legs. It can leave you wondering if there's anything suitable out there for you at all.

The 'directories' at the end of the chapters are rather laughable. The shops are classifed according to the amount of guilt (presumably directly proportional to the amount of money spent) buying from each will give. Anyone who feels only slight guilt after buying from Karen Millen is on a very different budget to me, whilst surely the authors must realise that buying Dolce and Gabbana is an impossibility for most of us in the real world? Apparently not. It shows an irritating lack of understanding of the circumstances of most of the population.

In summary, this book is useful if you have no idea about clothes for whatever reason, if you have a particular problem body area that never seems to look good in anything, or if you've recently changed body shape and are struggling to find a new style that suits you. It's not without its down sides, but if nothing else, it makes you think just a bit more carefully when buying clothes, which can only be a good thing.

V. useful - Rated
I am a 'Trinny & Suzanna virgin' and I thought this book was great. Down to earth and relevant, I have taken it's advice on several occasions and now feel happier buying clothes without a second opinion. Having the book is like having a knowledgable friend with you. It's a great lighthearted read but wish they wouldn't use the word 'tits' so much as it is not very lady like......But it won't put me off buying their other books.