Luella’s Guide to English Style

by Luella Bartley

Top young fashion designer Luella Bartley celebrates English style and explains how to acquire it. What makes English girls the coolest in the world? What is the English style which girls around the world try to emulate? In this book Luella Bartley - crowned Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2008 - sets out to capture what it is that makes English girls just a little bit special. First up are the clothes – Luella investigates the combination of smart and scruffy, classic and street-style, which ensures that English girls are always at the cutting edge of fashion. Then there are the icons – the English girl knows that Kate Moss and The Duchess of Devonshire both have a place in the style pantheon. Luella explains the style tribes vying for the English girl's allegiance, the social rituals she undergoes – from surfing in Cornwall to clubbing in Berlin – and the status symbols she marks herself out with. All this requires a lot of photographs, drawings, and, occasionally, diagrams. But Luella's Guide to English Style isn't simply a book about fashion and style, it's a work of social anthropology – delivered with a wink and a kiss on the cheek. Luella describes the English girl's approach to love and shows how the English girl gets better with age. With her background as London’s hippest designer and as an editor on Vogue and the London Evening Standard, Luella Bartley is brilliantly placed to map out English style and what it means for girls.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2010

Reviews

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a guide as in a how to, instead a guide as in an exploration of British style. What I love about this book is that it covers so much more than clothes. It talks about how we first become aware of fashion at school, rolling up our skirts, customising our ties etc. It shows how music and other aspects of pop culture have influenced fashion in Britain throughout the years. A really excellent book.

[Aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it but it did drag ever so slightly in places. Could have been half the size and just as effective. But I learned some good tidbits so I ain’t mad at it.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely an entertaining read for anyone interested in fashion, subcultural affectations and/or the English. I understand the sartorial decision making process of a lot of my favorite bands past and present so much better now. Luella Bartley goes a little overboard in claiming British people are the planet's foremost thought leaders in getting dressed, but as they are pretty darn good at it maybe she can be forgiven for an excess of national pride.

[Minna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completely English and lovely.

[Cody · Rating 1 out of 5]

Self indulgent drivel. Worst read of the year so far.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only a book about style, but also about music and English society and history.
Very interesting if you are an anglophile like me ;)

[Maryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expected it to be a lot worse. Fun and illustrated guide to British fashion subcultures.