The One Hundred - are you a stylish woman?

The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own by Nina Garcia and illustrated by Ruben Toledo.

You may remember I thoroughly enjoyed The Little Black Book of Style. So, when HarperCollins Canada told me about Nina Garcia’s latest book, The One Hundred: A Guide to the Pieces Every Stylish Woman Must Own, I wasn’t shy and asked for a copy right away.

(I guess I owe them a huge apology. It took me a while to get around to reading the book and even longer to write this post, which is not to say I didn’t enjoy it – I did. I enjoyed it very much in fact. I’ve just been focusing on other things. What can I say… such is life for a hobbyist blogger. )

Unlike Garcia’s first book, there wasn’t any empowering message this time around but I found it just as valuable, if not more so.

I own a mere 36 of the one-hundred-must-have pieces. I’m not sure whether I should be disappointed because according to Garcia, I’m nowhere near being a stylish woman; or, whether I should be happy because it means I have a lot of shopping to do in order to get all the necessary classics into my closet.

Garcia’s list is wide-ranging and includes:
• Blackberry (with a list of links to er favourite websites)
• black opaque tights (one of my fave s and on this season’s “must-have” list)
• classic pearls
• little black dress
• little white dress (I can do without one of those, can you?)
• safari jackets (I didn’t know YSL made them a high fashion item 50 years ago, did you?); and,
• yoga gear (unfortunately she asks us to promise not to wear yoga pants on an airplane – was she spying on me?).

I also liked the way she organized her list – alphabetically – shares the history of specific styles via “fashion 101” sidebars and enlightens us about the designer and/or celebrity who made them famous.

Garcia does a great job of sharing where you can buy specific items, when to invest the big bucks and when you can save your hard-earned cash. If I have one criticism it’s that she could have done a better job of telling you where to buy things for less.

As always, part of the charm of her books is the wonderful illustrations throughout by Ruben Toledo. The One Hundred is a quick read and one book you’ll want to keep on hand. It also makes a perfect gift for someone who needs a new wardrobe whether she’s recently lost a lot of weight, needs an intervention from the folks at What Not to Wear or a bit of both.