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Front Roe: How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life

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Louise Roe-internationally renowned fashion journalist, TV host, and makeover guru-knows style. It's not about trends but about being your own person and sharing the things you love in your appearance, your home, and your personality. In Front Roe , Louise shares her expertise on cultivating personal style and feeling like a confident leading lady in your own life.

In her first book, Louise has compiled the practical tips and secret tricks that she's picked up through years of working in the fashion industry with magazine editors, stylists, celebrities, and most importantly, real women. Front Roe helps a woman discover her personal style through looks she loves-images in magazines that speak to her, quotes that inspire her, fashion or styles she is taken with, and family photos. Once the foundation is laid, Louise expands into the specifics of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, offering helpful advice from today and yesteryear on everything from finding the right underwear and buying vintage clothing, to picking the best perfume for you, and making your home a sanctuary.

As Louise says, "With a little nudging and direction, everybody can develop their own personal style, no matter their shape, age, or wallet size. In my view, fashion should be aspirational, but attainable and definitely something to have a sense of humor about. It's worth living every single day as the most confident, happy, and glamorous version of yourself. Here's how!" Front Roe is the perfect distillation of this philosophy. Louise shares stories, information, and ideas from around the world to help women feel educated, uplifted, inspired, and considerably more positive about their mind, body, closet, and home.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2015

23 people are currently reading
371 people want to read

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Louise Roe

3 books2 followers

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5 stars
42 (18%)
4 stars
68 (29%)
3 stars
82 (35%)
2 stars
36 (15%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Shannon.
277 reviews16 followers
May 24, 2015
I had no idea who Louise Roe was until I saw a feature on her in Hello magazine which prompted me to pick up her book at the library. Apparently she is a stylist who decided to write a book answering every fashion and lifestyle question she's ever been asked. As a result the book is a jumble of too many topics on everything from how to dress for work to antique shopping, from party hosting to smoothie making, from storage solutions to bathroom decorating. Not much of anything new here, get a subscription to Glamour and Good Housekeeping instead.
112 reviews
June 7, 2019
Not your average 'style guide' full of pretty pictures and little else, this actually featured a lot of writing and useful tips on a wide varity of lifestyle topics.
Profile Image for Diane.
467 reviews2 followers
June 24, 2015
More for the 20/30 year olds, not the 50 plus crowd. Good information, but much I either already knew or felt it did not pertain to me. A bit of repetition in spots. But the author's passion for the topic shone throughout.
Profile Image for Angie Niles.
Author 1 book24 followers
December 21, 2015
I love Louise Roe's writing. So many great tips on style, beauty and home decor. It's fun and very attainable in your day to day life.
24 reviews
October 10, 2017
Started out really food. Some good overall fashion tips that i much needed, all in one place, along with recommendations of brands etc. Liked that it begins with fashion tips and ends with a tip to be kind to yourself. Fashion section was good but the lifestyle section was just ok, nothing very enlightening in my opinion. I was expecting it to be a lot more specific hoping for advice from the fashion knowing author, may be a lot more visuals. But I will be coming back to some of the good sections for area-specific reminders for sure.
541 reviews3 followers
February 10, 2020
I liked the layout of this book and the photos where helpful, but it was a little lite on specific info
Profile Image for Tia.
32 reviews
June 14, 2020
Got some really good tips and I've learn't a lot of new things.
Profile Image for Nikki.
2,205 reviews8 followers
January 1, 2022
I think the good esthetics of this book would be lost in kindle version. Great jumping off point to getting yourself and surroundings on track.
Profile Image for Keesa.
228 reviews17 followers
August 15, 2022
A good book, but not great. I felt like it tried to do too much with the lifestyle stuff at the end... If it had been all about style I probably would have liked it more.
Profile Image for Joan.
155 reviews
December 13, 2018
A great summary of ‘how to’ for the young ladies out there! Good on Fiona for putting this together.
14 reviews
January 14, 2024
Don't think I will finish this book. She has good style, but unlike the fashion bloggers I follow, I don't see a principled approach. THere's no formula. And keeps prompting me to purchase new pieces. I don't think it's for me.
Profile Image for lady cherise.
71 reviews3 followers
April 3, 2015
“My granny was never rich, but boy was she glamorous,” says Louise Roe in the introduction to her book, Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life. “Elegant, ladylike, impeccably mannered, and dressed to the nines at all times…”

Louise Roe, fashion journalist and television host of makeover shows such as Plain Jane, Style by Jury, and Fit for Fashion, shares her style smarts with working women in Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life. Front Roe offers lifestyle advice to women on how to live stylishly and to their fullest potential.

While the book focuses a lot on style, there is also a lot of great advice on etiquette and navigating tricky situations at work. I found this book inspirational, with its beautiful photos and down-to-earth advice. The wisdom shared in Front Roe reads like advice from a street-smart and well-dressed older sister--relatable, practical, and kind. Along with more advanced tips for the sophisticated reader, Front Roe also contains practical knowledge on life that is quite handy to the clueless folks (like me) who are interested in learning how to present themselves better in order to further their career and social lives.

I’ve read a lot of lifestyle books on living the chic life, and Front Roe stands out because of its breadth and depth in the topics that covers, as well as its delivery. The layout is easy to navigate: Front Roe is organized beautifully into sections and subsections of topics regarding style, fashion, work, beauty, lifestyle, and more. Louise Roe goes over the basics of each topic first (wardrobe basics, beauty regimen basics, etc) before going in-depth into related topics.

There’s a lot of advice in here, and you don’t have to read it all in one sitting. It’s fun to flip through. Front Roe is the sort of book that you can come back to anytime for a specific piece of advice. Louise is gorgeous, and the photos make her beauty and lifestyle shine. One of my fave photos from the book is the one with her bright tangerine lipstick.

Some of my favorite tidbits in this book are the parts about how to network and be successful in the workplace under “How to Dress for Work”. I also appreciated and applied Louise Roe’s tips on washing one’s face with a towel. Throughout high school, I was using a horrid technique with my towel and sans cleanser. No wonder my skin broke out so much despite me “washing” it. Now I know!

Front Roe - How to Be the Leading Lady in Your Own Life by Louise Roe is arranged beautifully and gives a lot of straightforward and useful advice to women in terms of channeling their “inner style goddess” into multiple aspects of their lives. Real-life wisdom on navigating through social and work situations makes this book so much more relatable to the everyday working woman.

Glam Book Lounge
Profile Image for Laura.
79 reviews9 followers
June 1, 2015
I'm a huge fan of Louise Roe and I love her blog and her TV shows. I think she has excellent personal style and always gives great advice.
My only issue is that the book did not seem to contain much new information. It was full of great tips, handy things to know and great ideas, but it was all stuff I've heard before. I don't think the book is anything special.
I did however enjoy the lifestyle section a lot, particularly the interior decorating section and found that Louise had lots of interesting and cool tips on how to keep your home cool but classy.
Overall, it's nothing ground breaking but would make a lovely coffee table book due to the gorgeous photos included.
Profile Image for Alyse.
75 reviews21 followers
June 26, 2015
I would love to know my style better and be able look and feel great in what I wear. this book actually didn't help me tons with that, but I did like learning that yogurt/apple cider is good for skin and her recipe for salt hair spray.
Profile Image for Ashley.
593 reviews41 followers
Want to read
May 28, 2015
Skimmed this briefly before having to return it to the library and it looks like there's probably nothing really new in there, but there are a few sections I'd like to read properly.
Profile Image for Farrell.
506 reviews
December 15, 2015
I was under the impression this was more of a memior/novel, but it was fine.
204 reviews
April 27, 2017
I've been reading a few fashion books and this is one of the better ones! Lots of fun ideas and inspiration to live a happier life, not just dress better. I found a lot of this actually applicable to life, which is why I gave it 4 stars.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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