Working wardrobe: Affordable clothes that work for you

by Janet Wallach

Book Overview

Working wardrobe: Affordable clothes that work for you This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446372536
• ISBN13: 9780446372534
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Warner Books Inc
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Not Just for the Working Woman!

I have had this book for some time and I have found it very useful. I purchased it to help me expand my working wardrobe as a teacher. It did indeed do that. But the concept completely changed my ideas about clothing. Now when I purchase or sew something, I make sure that it fit in to what I already own. That expands its usefulness to me. The color pictures of the wardrobe combinations are excellent and help you to understand what needs to be done. YOU choose the colors, YOU choose the styles, YOU make your wardrobe reflect your own tastes. The book helps you organize the changes you need to make and gives you confidence that you can succeed. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a nice wardrobe. In fact, I used the ideas in this book to help some divorced/widowed women create some outfits to wear when they interviewed for jobs. We shopped at thrift stores and used pieces from their own closets. Most of them were successful at getting back to work. You have to look appropriate during those interviews! But I am retired now and I still use this book to make changes in my wardrobe. I wear more casual clothes and as the years have gone by, I've chosen some different styles, but it all still works for me. If you sew for yourself, you can make some remarkable savings as you re-work your wardroble. As the authors note, you don't have to sew everything (although you certainly could!) But blouses and skirts are so easy to make and SO expensive to buy! Spend your time and your money where it benefits you the most. Excellent book.

A solid guidebook to building a wardrobe

This book may be a bit out of date (using women such as Nancy Reagan and Nancy Kissinger as examples) but it still offers some very useful and easy to follow guidelines for building a wardrobe around two core colors. I have to admit I've never been able to totally follow these guidelines. But I reread this book every so often to refresh my memory and it has helped me weed out pieces the just don't work with anything I own. Wallach offers a number of suggested capsule color combinations to help you create your core wardrobe. There are several worksheets which allow you to actually go through your closet, once a core capsule has been selected, and see what would work with these colors. She provides a checklist so you can keep track of what you still need to complete your capsule wardrobe. And she offers numerous success stories of women from various background,s social levels and style preferences so you can see how this concept can work for you no matter what your style. It's also written in a friendly, approachable and easy to understand style. But it is a very focused book. Anyone looking for tips to flatter their particular body type or seasonal color theme will be disappointed. But I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for the basics of building a wardrobe that will carry you from business to evening to whatever with a minimal amount of stress.

Contents:

Affordable clothes that work for you. Introducing the Capsule Concept...where you choose 12 clothing pieces in 2 colors and get 40 different outfits every day for 8 weeks.

Working Wardrobe Works!!!!!

I have owned two (2) copies of this fabulous book since the early 80's and have lived the capsule life. I can only tell you that it works. You pick your "core" color and build on it. Over the years I have had many capsules - but always using my core color which is "winter white." I put my core outfits on index cards and just pull a card daily - and there is my outfit from jacket, skirt, shirt, etc., complete with accessories. I hardly ever wear the same outfit once in two or three months and people assume I have a huge wardrobe! It's great and it works for me! I highly recommend this book to all working women!