How to Be a Hepburn in a Kardashian World: The Art of Living with Style, Class, and Grace

by Jordan Christy

Jordan Christy shares advice on how to be the most confident version of yourself, in this fully revised and updated edition derived from How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World .

Though fashions may change, certain things never go out of style -- like your favorite little black dress that can take you from a business meeting to a dinner party to a night on the town. But what makes it work is not the dress, it's how you present yourself while wearing it. A woman who is polite, well spoken, gracious, charming, and thoughtful is always welcome-though such women appear to be in short supply these days! Despite the headline-grabbing antics of certain flashy celebutantes, most of us would rather have respect -- for ourselves and from our family, friends, and colleagues.

In this fully revised and updated edition, you will learn how

With this insightful guide you'll be loving life with style, class, and grace in no time!

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Fashion, Personal Development, Womens, Lifestyle

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 4, 2017

Reviews

[Jessica Ilse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very obvious advice here, not much to do with Audrey Hepburn.

Also, the author pretty much lost me when she said to dress with other peoples' feelings in mind - particularly the married 40-something male coworker who might be uncomfortable seeing your skin. Fuck that.

[лейсан · Rating 1 out of 5]

she says she should have been born in 1870, and I agree with her

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

A load of sentimental tosh. The author confuses the strong character and bold elegance of the likes of Audrey Hepburn and her peers with conservative, stay-in-your-box attitudes which stifles women rather than pushes them to be classy and/or succeed. I think the author misses her own point big time.

[Ally A · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m still fuming after reading this. This book sends so many bad messages to women I’m hesitant to even give it the light of day on my read shelf. But, I will suck it up and write this review to warn any potential readers. While there is some good advice in this book, the absolutely terrible anti-feminist, self hating advice here is just too overpowering. “Don’t wear spaghetti straps because you might distract a coworker” what century are we living in??!?? “At risk of sounding like a hokey self help guru, I’m convinced that every person has a unique set of gifts...” “would grandma approve of your audition tape” and don’t get me started on the advice to hold off on polarizing views.😫 Basically don’t try to change the world, stay quiet and polite. What the heck. This book is contributing to the silencing and slut shaming of women. Don’t speak up, be quiet, don’t be yourself, cover yourself up so you don’t make your married coworker uncomfortable. Also, there was a note here about the “unattainable” Greek goddess body? I think that was a pretty bad description or maybe she was confused. If you see statues of Greek goddesses they all have pudgy bellies, big thighs, little boobs, basically all things that we are taught to hate about ourselves because celebrities don’t look like that. Maybe she didn’t know what a Greek goddess looked like when she wrote that? Just confused. Anyways, maybe if you’ve had a hyper religious Ivanka Trump-esque upbringing and current views, this is the book for you. She does comment about the class that Ivanka Trump exudes, so maybe those type of women are her target audience. All in all, this book is a giant step backward for women and perhaps belongs in a different century.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

How old is the target audience, 12?! I don't know who else would benefit from this.

[Gill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird book. I used to collect 'etiquette' books from the 1950s and 60's and presumed this would be an updated version of that. It isn't. Instead it seemed to be a religious based commentary which I had to stop when it compared Mother Theresa and Margaret Thatcher in the same praiseworthy sentence. That was my stopping point.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book received from NetGalley.

While the author had some good ideas in her book, it was written with a younger generation in mind and didn't really interest me that much. However, if you have people in your life who are mid-20's and younger this might be a great book to suggest if they are wanting something on etiquette and manners for the modern era. This is the second book the author has written on the subject and does admit that she was a bit snippy in her first book. I haven't read that one but she didn't seem to have an attitude about the reality stars and their faults in this book, she just gave basic facts and stated that non celebrities acting like that would not be tolerated by the general public.

[Fliss · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very obvious and generic advice. Also not fitting to be read in 2020, times have changed. Bits about dressing to be appropriate, for example “the spaghetti strap tank top you’re wearing might be distracting to the 40 year old married man”. I kid you not this was included in the book.

[alex]

i saw this on netgalley and i just came here to say YIKES lmao

[Bridget Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

It should not have been called ‘How to be a Hepburn in a Kardashian world’. The title is very misleading once I dived into the first chapter.
However I wanted to give it a second chance so I continued on. I put it down after she kept inserting Christianity into the mix. I think if you’re going to put bible verses in the mix, change the title to be more suited to the content inside the book.
For all you Audrey Hepburn lovers I’d highly recommend ‘How to be Lovely: The Audrey Hepburn Way of Life’ by Melissa Hellstern

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

not tailored to my age group, more for high school and college girls

[Morgan Myers (morgans_literary_life) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a sucker for little life advice books. Both the cover and subject drew me in. I agreed with much of the little advice bits in here. It's always good to know how to act with class, especially since many people these days don't think it's important. I also liked her Christianity references.

She lost me at "don't wear revealing things because it distracts guys." Um. It's not my fault I have a body. If a guy is so distracted or uncomfortable by what I wear they have a problem, and it's not me. I don't exist to please men on the street, and it's shameful that in the midst of teaching ladies to be classy, she implies that we are showpieces and distractions. I'm not usually the angry feminist type, but this struck me as very wrong.

And yes, the book does lose its focus a little bit. The chapters on jobs don't really have a lot to do with class, and neither do some of the others. Other than these little nitpicks, it's a fine little guide to life that works nicely as a birthday or graduation gift...though it's great for adults as well.

[Gabby · Rating 1 out of 5]

A few helpful nuggets of advice but i mostly felt like i was being given irrelevant advice by an estranged and patronizing relative. I have to allow the author her own opinion but i have to say i disagree with almost all of her points of view. Especially when she said woman should act desprate and that they should let the men have the thrill of the hunt, when it comes to dating.

Granted i am an art student so dressing boldly and experimenting with colorful makeup is a lot more acceptable than in other career paths. So her advice may still be salient.

Id also like to mention that i am in my early 20’s, although i am an old soul, and i found most of the refrences to be outdated (even for a book with the wonderful Ms. Hepburn in the title). Unlike most of the comments suggest i really wouldnt reccomend this to my peers who are my age or younger.

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book came about 20 years too late for me. I’m not sure what I expected when I check this out from the library, but I think it was more along the lines of a lifestyle book. That is definitely not what I got. Well, maybe it would have been a lifestyle book if I were still in college. This is the perfect graduation present for your niece, granddaughter, or good friend who is about to go out into the “real world “. She addresses issues like navigating social media professionally, interviewing 101,And office politics. Having been in the working world now for a combined total of over 12 years, it’s a little late for me. It is however well written and she maintains a light tone throughout, so if you’re looking for a good gift, this is it.

[Autumn Rybin]

So the title makes this book seem like it is going to be very divisive and us vs. them, but actually I didn’t feel like this book was like that at all. I would say the title is misleading. But I also think that came about because I think this author wrote a different book that was pretty mean and divisive and she felt bad about that. So this book was how she made amends.

Overall, I think this book was nice. I could see myself giving it to my daughters because the author has some great advice about dating and such. But I still just wish the title was different...

[Laura C · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I got this book as a gift for my bridal shower, which was Breakfast at Tiffany’s themed. I laughed when I opened it but didn’t read it until months after I had gotten married.

Easy read, so I finished it within 24 hours. Felt as if I would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it sometime between high school and my mid 20s. Most of the chapters of advice I had known/heard about from my friends/sisters/mother.

Not a bad book just not my cup of tea.

[Ivy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty generic advice about things I don’t care about at all. The sort of thing that would be in an SNL skit.

[Makaeyla Zamora · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought there would be a few negative parts that I could skip and ignore. But this whole book is about talking down and bashing women. I didn't make it past the introduction.

[Amber Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for all girls and young women. It’s something I would give to my daughters to read - touching on things from how to look nice and how to honor yourself to online etiquette and how to handle bullying. The title makes it sound like it’s a drag on some people, but it is actually a very good book filled with good advice for so many situations, even into adulthood.

[Mikaila]

I am just going to start off by saying that this is my first time reading a “self-help” book. I have always passed them off as something you only read if you are not happy or want to make drastic changes in your life, I have never been in a situation like this so I just waved them off. Now that the new year has come I am at the point of wanting to make myself better, to accentuate the features I already love and to try and help some of my bad habits. I will be honest that when I first picked this book up I did not think that it was going to be a “self-help” book, but more of a biography of Audrey Hepburn. Turns out it is just a “self-help” book, but let's call it a suggestion book instead, I personally think that it sounds better. In this suggestion book, there are 10 chapters (it’s a pretty short book) covering everything from social media etiquette to friends, dating, confidence, respect and putting in hard work. I was raised by my very English mother, so many of the English etiquette that I learned from her and from that one class I took, were topics covered in the book, so it was repetitive for me. The advice in the book it seems a little obvious to me as well, like the fact that you should be aware not to put too many parting pictures of you on your social media or how not to act at an interview. It seemed to be written for someone younger, late elementary school or early high school, who are still figuring out what the semi-adult world is like.
It did have some fun reading it, the last 2 chapters were very well written. I also liked the length of the book, if it was any longer I don’t think I would have been able to finish. I don’t think that I would recommend this book to anyone, just because it was to bland for me, but the cover is very pretty and has made a good addition to my shelf.
RATING: 67%

[Claudia Blanton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free in return for an honest review

From the moment I started reading How To Be A Hepburn In A Kardashian World, I was left a little confused. First of all, the Author mentioned a book she had written before with a very similar title – this is supposed to be the updated version. She made it sound like an awfully distasteful book, which left me curious enough to consider trying to find a copy after I finished reading this one. But I chose against it, after reading this book.
Which brings me to the second confusing point: What exactly was the target audience in mind? The info presented in the book – however useful was packaged for the older teenager, maybe young twenties, but contained information that should be directed toward a young teen – who really needs to hear the message of self-respect, courteous behavior, and social media self-discipline. By the time someone reaches the age of an older teen or a woman of just 20, they will either not care about this type of info, or have (hopefully) already heard all of that from home.
The last point I want to make is, that I doubt that many teens and young adults know who she is referencing when choosing a title mentioning Kathrine Hepburn (unless they are a movie buff), or in some cases even Princess Diana. It makes the book sound dated and out of touch.
Keep in mind, I am a good 20 years older than the Author, she could be my daughter, in fact, I have a daughter that would fall intended audiences age range, which is what interested me in this book in the first place, so I am familiar with their mindset.
This book would bore her.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a world where today's fashion was yesterday's gossip, do you ever find yourself asking the question where to do I fit in? Am I enough? Is it okay just to me? Of course the answer is always , "yes." But in a world where we are bombarded with media, images and being told we aren't good enough, we often wonder if we should stand apart. If you've ever struggled to be who you are, you've found the right book. "How to be a Hepburn in a Kardashian World" by Jordan Christy is about having respect where often women throw it away like yesterday's fashion. This isn't one of those books about women standing up for themselves and they saying they are better than men, this about women understanding that they are precious, they should not throw themselves away on the culture of today's society because that is the image the world is throwing our way. Jordan gives advice on how to have grace in modest attire, social media etiquette, how to work hard, being modest in beauty and having wonderful friendships. This book is tasteful like a big sister talking to her younger sisters in a graceful way and is perfect for anyone entering the workforce. It would be a great gift for a teenager or a woman of any age looking to having a little more style and class in their life. Not all patterns are in ladies and not all friends are in either, so choose wisely! This book was great and I will refer to it from time to time. I really enjoyed this book. I give this book 5/5 stars and a favorable review was not required. Thank you to Center Street for providing me a complimentary copy.

[Oak · Rating 3 out of 5]

How to Be a Hepburn in a Kardashian World by Jordan Christy is an upbeat etiquette book for young women. The book covers the topics of social media etiquette, self-respect, using words wisely, working hard, choosing friends well, dating, choosing clothes and make-up, having a positive self-image, and making changes in the world.

What does it mean to be classy? Audrey Hepburn was classy in many regards, but she was also a chain-smoker. It seems like this book would be a better fit for a woman who already has a firm idea of what is classy and what is not, rather than an impressionable young girl. Christy’s chapter on dating holds to a very John Eldredge type of philosophy, and I hope that young girls will not read this chapter and feel like all relationships should look this way; classy relationships come in many different forms.

I enjoyed reading this book, and found Christy’s advice to be positive and thoughtful. The book would be a fun beach read. In each chapter, Christy even includes a cute quiz, such as “What Kind of Bookworm Are You?”

*I received this book for review*

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing ground breaking but an ok read.

I think I only purchased this book as I needed something to get my Amazon order to qualify for free delivery - after that it just sat on the shelf for ages, until I decided to read it one eve when I wanted to read but didn't actually fancy reading fiction. I am not sure what I expected this book to be - maybe some kind of etiquette guide??? The advice in it is fairly simple and common sense, however, I did like it as there was a couple of bits where I did feel it was saying 'You know what, its okay!'.
I've finished and while at the moment I am not sure I will read it again I have yet to donate it to charity so maybe I will re-read.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. I'd never heard of this author before - probably because...
2. With no cable TV and no social media connections, I was unable to identify her and half the celebrities mentioned. And...
3. I was expecting Katherine Hepburn, not Audrey Hepburn. (Although both had Style, Class and Grace)

However this still was a fun read and certainly a book I'd recommend to my 13 year old niece to accompany the "Madam Chic" titles that cover some of the same fashion-like topics, but no social media centered topics. This is a good primer on social media situations and the need for personal restraint.

[Aimee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. This book would be perfect for someone in their early 20's or younger. I, however, am a little older...well quite a bit older. I felt that the beginning was excellent and motivating. However shortly in there was a lot of advice on boys, dating, clothes, shopping ,work, interviewing, eating, etc. It was just grating in those parts to get through. There were also a lot of cute little personality tests, that younger people may find entertaining.

In short, I can see how some people would really enjoy but it was not for me.

[Bianca · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to be honest, I didn't like this. I went into this book thinking it would be about how to live with the grace and class of Audrey Hepburn and how to overcome the challenges of todays society. I don't know who the target audience is supposed to be but it felt like I was reading a book for young teenagers while at the same time half of the content was about pleasing other people, not a good piece of advice for any age. It was a presumptuous attempt to be a self help book with out actually providing any helpful advice.

[Tara Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an appropriate book for a woman fresh out of college ready to conquer the world. I do not recommend this book for women who are pretty established. I thought this book was a reflection on my inspiration Audrey Hepburn. Sadly it was not. She was mentioned too few times. Don’t let the title deceive you. There’s some good advice, but skip it if you were looking to learn more about Audrey Hepburn.

[Maya Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even if you did agree with her advice (such as to cater your wardrobe to the comfort level of your married, 40-year-old male coworker), this is full of the most lukewarm takes out there. Reading the chapter titles gives you the same amount of information as does slogging through the whole thing. Also, if you thought this was going to be an etiquette book like I did, which are interesting in their own right (it could be fun to learn how to set a table, I don't know), this is not it.

[Tram Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and quick read. However, most of the stuff mentioned in the book is not new and quite repeated with other books. Props for the author's writing. It feels genuine and light-hearted, just like having a girl talk between sisters. The book overall is great for 19 yrs old and younger. I'm just a little outgrown from it. 3.5*/5*