Dress Your Best

by Clinton Kelly, Stacy London

The 8 million fans of TLC's hottest show, What Not to Wear, know it as the place to go for real-life fashion advice. Now the show's hosts, Clinton Kelly and Stacy London, offer spot-on fashion wisdom with an attitude in this fully illustrated, authoritative, and irreverent fashion guide to dressing your best for every occasion. Clinton and Stacy's surefire method for boosting appearance rests on their belief that we can all win admiring glances by selecting clothes that play up our positives and create a balanced body shape. In Dress Your Best, Clinton and Stacy match a wide range of female and male body types with the perfect work, casual, and evening attire, showing you exactly how to make your best parts work for you.

Dressing tips for 26 body types!
Features 18 women and 8 men: bigger on top, bigger on bottom, a little extra in the middle, not curvy, extra curvy, small-framed, athletic, and more!

Whether you're searching for a way to accentuate your assets, puzzling over the right print pattern for your frame, or just looking for a solution to the dilemma "What do I need to wear to look fabulous?" you'll find here the universal tips, dos and don'ts, seasonal alternatives, and must-haves that will deliver the answers. Dress Your Best is certain to become the standard by which all other fashion guides are measured.

Genres: Nonfiction, Fashion, Self Help, Reference, How To, Adult, Womens

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 2005

About the author

Clinton Kelly is an American fashion consultant and media personality known for his role as co-host on What Not to Wear, a reality program that features fashion makeovers. He shares on-air duties with Stacy London. Kelly started his career as a freelance writer for several fashion magazines. Although he still continues to write he has since expanded into fashion consulting and designing.

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shut up! This book is freakin' fabulous!

Ok. I had to say that... I have a small obsession with TLC's What Not To Wear and I always wondered what "the rules" would be for dressing my body. I noticed some jeans and t-shirts made me look 30 lbs overweight. Not all their participants (nominees if you will) have the same body type I do. Not to worry, this book covers my body type, my boyfriend's body type and everything in between (and outside of them).

The book covers 18 different women's body types (all feature tall, average height and petite) and 8 different men's body types. These types include bigger on top, bigger on bottom, a little extra in the middle, not curvy, curvy, extra curvy, small-framed, athletic, etc. At the beginning of each chapter it talks about must haves for your specific body type. (I "must have" a wrap dress. And I do - it's one of my favorite pieces of clothing!!!) The book also covers essentials everyone should have (men - pricey umbrella... come on!)Each body type is featured in a bathing suit first, then in 3 outfits: one for work, one for weekend and one for evening. Clinton and Stacy are also featured in the book which gave me an extra giggle of excitement.

Stacy and Clinton always say dress your body as it is. They want people to look great no matter what is going on in their lives (lose weight, gain weight, etc.). So, they want you to accentuate the best parts of your body. They explain how to get the best body image possible and how clothing is mostly smoke and mirrors. They explain how to ask a tailor for specific things to make your clothes look great. They also talk about having versatile pieces in your wardrobe and how to coordinate. While it is tempting to find what works for you and only read that portion, this book is meant to be read cover to cover. You'll want to know why certain clothes work well for you, or people you know and why certain clothes are cut differently for different bodies. (This also helps you to identify why a trend or specific outfit will not work on you.) They also give universal tips on the different pages so that is super helpful. The back even has a glossary if you don't know what a stance on a suit is or reglan sleeve looks like.

I absolutely love this book and I learned a lot from it for both men and women. I am even beginning to dress my son differently so that he looks a little more polished. I am now able to look at a shirt or pants and know if they will look good on me or not just by examining the cut. I am also encouraged to try more clothes on! I love this book.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not shallow trying to tell you that you have to look like a supermodel or spend a fortune to dress your best. Rather focuses upon multiple body shapes and PRINCIPLES that apply to that shape, encouraging each person to look his or her best TODAY because he or she is already valuable. I liked that. I also am generally clueless about how to shop for clothes (since I despise doing it) and was excited to get what many a gal might consider "obvious" pointers-- but which were invaluable to me. For example: Didn't know that I should be looking for jackets that had high buttons, thin lapels, and high shoulder arm holes to help diminish the weighty visual appearance of a rather large chest. Good to know. Lots of great tips for guys too. I think it will help me find appropriate clothes and ties that fit Eric and flatter his height without making him look like a beanpole.

One criticism from other readers was that the section for each body type is only 3 pages long and the rest of the book is not useful or applicable. I disagree. I read the entire thing; all the tips for other body types that DEFINITELY don't apply to me. I thought there were things I learned in those sections that applied to me as the opposite of what I should do. Useful. don't be too hasty to think it won't help you.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stacy & Clinton. There are way too many things I have to say about them and the way they "teach" people about what you shouldn't be wearing. I feel that they have failed to recognize something I feel strongly about- PERSONAL STYLE. They put everyone in the same pieces. In the book they repeat the importance of the illusion of long legs ("just like Barbie"), which is something I highly disagree with.

I believe in helping people look proportional. There were a lot of styled outfits that I felt only emphasized a mid section variation or what have you.

Frustrating, but fun because I love reading about clothes. Because I love clothes.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Clinton and Stacy! It's entertaining and there are some good outfit ideas/inspirations. Would have loved a follow up with just women. Sorry guys, but less interested in what works for you ;-)

[Maria K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book doesn't cover nearly the range of work-related situations as "Work It!", it has two huge advantages in its favor.

One, it has a section for women and a section for men. Considering how little there is out there to help men grow up sartorially, seeing a big "duds for dudes" chapter in "Dress Your Best" almost made me weep with joy.

Two, while Stacy and Clinton also drew on their circle of friends for their models, they made damn sure they covered as many body types as possible. This was one of my pet peeves with Trinny and Susannah's "What Not to Wear" books: fabulous advice, but hard to visualize, because they used themselves as models to demonstrate their points.

I applaud the brave men and women who ventured into the "Dress Your Best" project with the authors, because every one of them had to appear in a bathing suit at the beginning of each section. And you thought standing in front of a three-way mirror in a department store fitting room was bad! Seriously, these folks did an amazing job. "Short people do exist!" they say, "As do very tall people! As do chubby people! There are women with too much boob and no boob at all. There are men with more hip than Jenifer Lopez and there are men who have necks the size of an average tree. Let's get them all dressed - and make sure they all look good!"

And while readers might be tempted to just skip directly to the section that corresponds to their height and build, I wouldn't dismiss the other ones entirely. For example, while my figure fits most closely with the "petite curvy" section, I was able to borrow ideas from "petite bigger on the bottom" and "petite a little extra in the middle" sections as well.

Naturally, I was feeling very smug because style gurus such as Clinton and Stacy agree with me on some major fashion points: tapered pants are the root of all evil, pleated fronts can only be worn by very skinny people - they only make people with tummies look bigger, black is totally replaceable by gray and brown, color is your friend as long as it's the right one, there is no law against men wearing bright colors. So, there you have it - it's not just me telling you, I have some serious backup on the subject.

I truly, truly enjoyed this book and had a lot of fun with it, and will definitely go back to it soon, because I am going through a closet purge of my own and will be shopping for some new work duds. The only slight bit of discombobulation I felt was Stacy and Clinton's spin on "Evening wear". I suppose they should have specified a bit more clearly, that some of their evening suggestions would be more appropriate for a club outing or a more casual evening event, and some - for a black tie evening.

Other than that one hiccup, it was a profoundly delightful read I would seriously recommend to lads and ladies of all ages and sizes.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I caught an episode or two while on vacation and realized that beyond the smart quips there really was some value in identifying what styles accentuate your body and which ones are completely unflattering. I personally have no natural ability to dress myself, and often joke that I would benefit from Garanimals for adults. Lacking the budget to pay a personal shopper, I went looking for some self-help in the form of books. This one was greatly valuable. While some reviewers state that you only get 3 looks for your body type and that the rest of the pages are worthless - I totally disagree. I found the universal tips on the "other" pages to be helpful in re-evaluating my current wardrobe. Hey, I'm a novice. I need someone to erase the rules my mom taught me, such as "Never wear white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day." Now I'm ready to try more looks such as mixing my metals. I'm still not ready to tackle animal prints, however.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute clothes for many, many body types (divided up into petite, average, and tall!), but the fact that the "curvy" model (person on the cover actually) was 5'7 and wore a size 4 just got to me. I think they should have had someone who wears a size 8 or 10 for the sake of accuracy.

[Vicky]

This book was set up well to help the reader find their body type and has suggestions how to dress that type to look it's best. Each type is divided by height, petit, average, and tall. This really helps break things down and make it more applicable. Many suggestions overlap for different groups, but there are tips for all types. The pictures included are often funny and very helpful.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite fashion/what to wear book I have read so far. I loved it! In fact, I spent 45 minutes changing outfits and trying new styles out on Sunday morning before church last week. I didn't even finish preparing a lesson for my Sunbeams, but I am sure that didn't matter because I looked great. In fact, TWO people stopped me and said, "Oh, you look so cute today. You always look so cute." Score!

As many other reviews have mentioned, this book goes through many different body types and how to dress them well, but the mistake that many of them made were to only read the sections that they thought applied to their body. Don't do that! Read the whole book, from cover to cover. Then read it again! You will find tips for your body on pages you never thought would apply to you. For example, I am petite. On the tall pages, I would find comments like "You can put these embellishments here because you are tall and thin, because it will make you look like you have more curves, the opposite of when you are petite and curvy on bottom, where you want to avoid them like the plague." Oh! I should be avoiding those embellishments like the plague! And I found that out on the tall women's pages.

Also, reading everything about every body type made me much, much more clothing/body type educated in general. By understanding what works on all body types, things click into place why they work on MY body type.

Plus, there are "universal tips" on every single page, such as color ideas and fashion tips. AND, once you tell people you're been reading about how to dress, your tall and curvy friend who cuts your hair will ask you what SHE should wear, and if you don't have an answer you'll feel like you were bragging about your new knowledge for nothing.

I can't begin to recommend enough that everyone read some books (especially this one, my favorite) about how to dress. It's opened up a whole new world to me! You don't even need to go shopping. I have been recreating look after look from my own closet, stuff I have had for years and years. It's so easy to be boring and safe. Be fun and daring! And shopping... shopping will be a thousand million times easier. One, I will never go clothes shopping again without a list of what I want to buy. I will go straight into stores, looking specifically for what I need and not wasting time on anything else. I will not even have to try on half of what I may have tried in the past, because I can look at it think "pleats in front - no way!" I will try on clothes and keep in mind that spending a little bit more on a nicer item that I love, and that will last forever, is way better than wasting twice as much buying random clothing that I will never love and end up getting rid of in a few years after hanging unloved in my closet. I also believe in getting things tailored. Again, buy one nice jacket and get it tailored so that it fits perfectly and looks fantastic on you, rather than several cheaper jackets, none of which you love or will last forever. Quality, not quantity!

Someone else read these books so that we can talk about them! I love them!!

[Tamara Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite shows is TLC's What Not to Wear and I was excited when I heard that a book based on the show was coming out. When I first saw the book, I thought that it would provide the type of in depth information which was done on the show.However, after reading the book, I was both wrong and right.
While the book does a great job in reflecting the different types of body types, it falls short in reference to fully describing the different types of clothes when in different situations. Although it does mention what you should wear to work, on the weekend, and evening wear, I feel it would be more helpful to the reader if there was more examples provided like maybe swimsuits for women for example. Although the book provided lots of advice and fashion terms, it may have confused someone who doesn't know much about fashion. With that being said,I really appreciated the fact that there was a glossary in the back with pictures to help the reader.
Overall, it was a very good book but for the amount of attention given to each body type, you might be better off going to the library, checking out the book, and making a copy rather than actually buying the book.

[Annie]

gotta love what not to wear! but really, the book wasn't that good. but it does have a picture of clinton in his boxers!!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Clinton & Stacy's first book, written back in 2005 when their show was still on tv. Fond memories of that show. :-)

The book format takes various body types, which you initially see "naked" in a leotard, and dresses them for work, weekend and evening. There is a large image of the person on each left page, while the right page has jumbled advice for that body type. I loved the many images and it was really helpful to see the "naked" body types. However, the text was hard for me to connect with because it didn't seem to have any consistent format or structure. It was just the random comments that they would make on the show when dressing that body type.

When I finally got to the few pages relating to my body, I didn't actually like the "after" pictures very much. It didn't inspire me. Actually, about half of the "after" pictures didn't inspire me and looked a bit sad (in my opinion). The authors pointedly used average women as models, so it might be that or maybe their individual style tastes just didn't align with mine.

The advice was so jumbled, I still felt like I needed a personal stylist to guide me through my personal body dressing after reading the book.

I couldn't hear Clinton's distinct voice or personality in this book. I'm not sure if it was Stacy's voice or some weird early (first book) voice meant to represent both of them.

This was not the intent of the book, but it inspired me to exercise and diet. After seeing all those body shapes, the lean ones really looked significantly better when dressed!

Loved the men's section at the end. I offered to pass the book along to my husband. There aren't many fashion books that offer advice on dressing men.

I discovered that Clinton Kelly has the same height and measurements as my husband! I also loved the section Stacy did of herself dressed in different styles. She is a couple inches taller than me and a size 4!

What I took away from this book: Fit is one of the most important elements of dressing elegantly. Every body is different and 99% of the time a "good fitting" piece of clothing will still require tailoring to look great. This isn't a big deal and goes with the territory of dressing well. There are a lot of different body shapes out there! The thin ones looked best, so I'm motivated to lose weight rather than just rely on dressing tricks. However, the authors also stressed that you should dress the body you currently have. Don't wait until you lose weight. So true, but I never want to invest in clothing at bigger sizes. I need to get over that so that I can look my best every day at every size. And quality over quantity of clothes.

[Ligaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third or fourth Clinton Kelly book I've read and this is much less hilarious but more straightforward in explaining what clothing works on which body type. It's very helpful to have photographs of real life bodies in different clothing, although nothing is exactly me... I'm wondering if lots of the tips in here are still relevant given the era of body acceptance. Anyway, I was able to skip through some sections of the book (the Men's section) and skim through others. It made for quick reading.

[Cold Cream 'n' Roses · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better styling guides that I've read. It shows how to dress different body types, for both men and women.

I agree with the advice for women's jackets, but don't agree with the advice to wear pointy shoes (in order to not break the line).

As I looked at the body types, the traditional men's suit can be tailored to many body types. It's become a uniform. Women should be so lucky.

[synequeen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the pieces/photos or how they styled their clients are outdated, mostly from mid/late 2000s, but the concept of proportions, types of materials, color palettes, and some items are worth investing in are timeless.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I adore the show. This book barely scratches the surface on tips how to dress--that is if you can figure out which body type you may fit into first. Depending on your body type, you may fit into many categories.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing revolutionary here. I used to love their show. Their science isn't terrible, but it's not explained explicitly. I appreciate the variety of body shapes covered, but everyone kind of looks the same in the end... I would have preferred more explanation of why rather than just description.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know, chicks don't divide into 4-12 categories too well....
But it's a good book, just...maybe I'm too old to care?

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ideas for dressing to make your body type work for you. It covers a HUGE range of body types, both men and women, with an acceptable amount of detail.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the show so had to buy the book! I didn’t agree with all the outfits ( not modest enough) but the book is more conservative. It is a good guide for those of us need some guidance.

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, not enough information on each "body type."

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently heard Stacy London being interviewed and I wanted to revisit WNTW because I used to love that show and wondered if the advice held up all these years later. I think it does.

[Heather Pagano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A warm-hearted and practical guide that teaches how to select clothes that bring out your best. I loved the fact that this book included men and women (I have a handsome husband to help dress, too!). I also really liked that the book didn't hinge on assigning yourself to a unique body type category. Dress Your Best wasn't meant to be used by glowering at yourself in the mirror, choosing the one type that applies to you, then memorizing the rules. Instead, each reader is meant to read through all the body types, learning universal tips that apply to everyone, and learning the principal of emphasizing and deemphasizing so that you are in control of making choices that work for you as a multifaceted individual. My main criticism would be that the fashion choices seemed too dressy- at least, it seemed so to me, living in a very laid-back fashion zone. The work outfits suggested were laughably formal for Silicon Valley! But they'd probably be spot on for an East Coaster or UK office worker. And I found the authors' reluctance to allow any bra to show so funny- people in CA spend so much on strappy shirts that show off their decorative, strappy bras! Despite these slight cultural disconnects, a really helpful guide.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the show and was happy to get my hands on a copy of this book. To those of you trying to figure out if you should buy this book or not, don't buy it. Go to the library and check it out.

The book does a good job of highlighting different body types, and each body type is broken down into 3 categories of petite, average and tall, but you only get three "looks" for each body type. I would have preferred to see a little bit more variety.

With that said, I still learned what will look best on me and what to avoid. Men are also featured in the book so this isn't just helpful to the ladies. They also include a list of items that everyone should have in their closet for both females and males. I wish Stacy and Clinton could jump out of the book and come shopping with me!

[Adrienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The co-hosts of TLC's What Not to Wear offer up advice on how to find clothes that will look best with your body type. With eighteen different body types for women and eight for men, there's a lot of advice dispensed. Each body type is shown three different looks: work, weekend, and evening. They focus on general principles, rather than things that would date the book quickly, such as what colors are in for a particular season. Readers will find a lot of information by turning to their body shape, but browsing other types, too, will round out their understanding of fashion principles.

This book isn't quite as fun as watching Stacy and Clinton on TV, and sometimes the writing style was a little choppy (perhaps because they took turns writing), but still, it's a fun and informative resource for those of us who are fashion-challenged.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's very well laid out and super helpful for all body types. I liked that they also included men in the book and that they (Stacy & Clinton) used their own body types for the book. It seemed fair for the other brave people having to be photographed in their bathing suits! ;) If you watch the show you can see their sense of humor in this book, which I find hilarious and made the book more interesting to me. I read every word in this book (even the "thank yous")

Would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn how to dress themselves. Once you get the basics of what fit and shapes work best on your body you can totally customize it to your own personal style!

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been the best book on clothing I've seen. They are NOT here to tell you your style like "classic," "bohemian," "Victorian"... What they do is tell you how to deal with your body shape. They steer you toward the best style clothing for your body shape.

There are women and men of every shape in three heights: petite, average and tall and everyone is dressed in a black swimsuit (for women) and boxers (for men).
You determine where you fit in the shape category and height and then read the advise to look your best.

It is very straight forward and concise which is a huge help for just getting the facts.

You can glean from the other body shapes as well but clothing for your shape is right there in a nutshell.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book was informative, fun, interesting and I loved the cheeky tone they used (similar to their show), I can't give the book 5 stars. I mean, how can I give it the best rating available when only a few pages of the book were relevant to me?

The guide is broken down into two main sections - male and female - then by body types and then once more by height and finally by "style" (i.e. day look, work and evening). So even though the book had quite a few pages, only a few fit my body's description. That said, the advice offered in those few pages was fantastic and really hit home for me. I've already utilized what I learned when shopping recently; the advice certainly sticks!

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've seen the show "What Not To Wear" (starring the authors) and when I heard about this book I thought it would be a fun and informative read - and it was. I got it from the library rather than investing in it - it's not a book I'll use as a reference. It's more like an extended magazine article, almost a guilty pleasure though I justified reading it as research. Lots of helpful information on basic do's and don'ts to make the most of your best assets by choosing the cut, style, length, color, etc. Samples of 26(!) different body types (both men and women), with a variety of occasions: work, weekend, evening.