The question of fashion is not a fashionable one among intellectuals.
Gilles Lipovetsky, The Empire of Fashion, Dressing Modern Society
There are ten plagues of Egypt, and yet Poland seems to have invented the eleventh one, namely books about fashion. We are a nation of experts on literally everything, depending on current trends. So when our national team in ski jumping is not doing well, everyone in Poland has their own solution to the problem (which is absolutely the bestest, no doubt). When there's a major political event happening, we all have our own opinion. The only one that is right. No wonder, we also have many people (but apparently not professional writers) who write books. About everything you may ever dream of. And since fashion blogs and fashion itself have become quite popular, people write about fashion. It's a nice subject matter to write about after all: sophisticated yet not really demanding. But don't believe the hype and don't get easily deceived! In other words: don't judge a book by it's minimalistic cover which is the result of deeply thought out PR strategy. On the other hand, if I was to judge Dress code for Women by it's cover (for all the shrewdies: it's Pernille Teisbæk), I'd still still have to say it's one of those good reads.
As I said, Polish book market suffers from some sort of overproduction. There are way too many books compared to the people who want to buy them (not to mention reading). We have many books about personal style and how to find it, some can't decide if they have something to wear or not, some encourage to buy less, some just pamper us with nice photography with little content beneath the pages. So why on earth did I even decide to get my hands on another book with a pretty nice cover and minimalist fonts?
At first I thought it's just one of the books written to bring money and look good on Instagram (to give the credit where it's needed: it really does, indeed). Having been laid among other books, it only caught my attention because of its title. Still, I can remember my expectations hadn't been high. Until my eyes moved to the top of the cover to see the authors: Irena Kamińska-Radomska (known from the Polish edition of Ladette to Lady) and Agata Tanter (CEO of Lamode.info, one of Poland's best fashion websites). This is when I knew I was holding something really good in my hands. And something every woman should read.
Why? Simply because dress code per se is still in its infancy and there are few public figures deserving to be appointed real style icons (regardless of annual galas and competitions and teenage fans voting for their favourite bloggers). I get to live in a place surrounded by glass office blocks and every day I get to see all those white collar workers breaking most basic dress code rules. No kidding. Ladies wearing wedges, florals, sneakers, nails puking rainbows, false eyelashes, red lipsticks and way too many bags all at once are something I can call my daily routine in terms of playing my inner Sherlock and guessing who's trying too hard and who's a basic office whore. Sorry to be rude (never said I was nice either) but this is just the way things are. Of course, I've seen worse things in life but still, proper clothing is an important part of corporate culture.
Again, sincere apologies for the rant but I just had to.
Coming back to the book, it features description of all styles from black tie, through business casual to casual (with their Polish equivalents and in some cases also the names in French - a real zest for translators). To make this easier, the Authors provide us with a detailed table with illustrative garments, female and male alike (a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse! to everyone who can memorise what goes together in every of these styles just after reading the description). What I found really useful, was the 4 seasons colour analysis which had finally proven once and for all that I''m a real winter (and made My Boy laugh at me cause, according to Him, now I should introduce myself by mentioning the season that I am). And to make it even more plausible that everyone deserves good colour analysis, I can already tell you that I applied the rules for winters in my everyday outfits and shopping habits and it does work. I also understood why I'd never been into browns and dark beiges (not my colours).
Contrary to the slow fashion trend, Dress Code for Women is the book stressing that sometimes you just have to invest in your closet. Silk, cashmere and wool may be expensive but still, it's better to own one silk scarf that ten being a portable periodic table. This hasn't been any big discovery to me but maybe some people who get to read this book will understand that quality goes with style and nobility. And if big words don't speak to you, the book is stuffed with stylish pictures (just check the last photo in this post, I'm head over heels in love with this coat) and if you more or less have an ear to the ground (or the catwalk maybe?), you'll easily recognise renowned high street brands.
As I already said, Dress Code has loads of tidbits and details that it's probably hard to keep everything in mind. That's why the end of the book has a little Q&A part, which sums up all the things every stylish woman should remember. Anyway, it's actually an exact repetition of what's been written several dozen pages earlier and I found it a bit useless. I also wasn't quite fond of some pages left intentionally blank. This was probably meant to look minimal and chic but only made the book thicker. Anyway, it'd be nice to use these pages to show sample outfits, or at least clothes which would represent a given style, because in many cases I was a bit confused in terms of my clothes being suitable for a given occasion.
Being properly dressed is the ultimate luxury for me. But what completes the outfit are the accessories. That's why I absolutely loved those few sentences pointing out the quality of office supplies, such as pens or journals. There comes a point in your life, when a Hello Kitty pen is (unfortunately!) no longer proper and a calendar with quotes by your favourite traveller looks far from being professional. Again, quality, quality, quality. You may say it's boring as there are so many cheap yet beautiful clothes almost screaming at your face buy me pleeeeeease! and your 20s are the time of discovering your style, experimenting with fashion and being a little fashion vitctim under peer pressure. All I can tell you is that you can be fashionable indeed and still obey all the rules of not so boring dress code. Dress Code for Women will show you how.
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