Before You Put That On

by Lloyd Boston

Style guru Lloyd Boston is familiar to millions of viewers across the country as a fashion editor for NBC's Today show and a regular on E! Entertainment's Style Network. He's familiar to readers who made his style guides for men -- and the women who dress them -- bestselling books. Now with Before You Put That On, Boston delivers 365 expert fashion tips to help women create a wardrobe and a personal style they can be proud of every day of the year -- using much of what may already be in their closets! Lloyd Boston defines finding your style as "taking your world and giving it shape." That's what he's done for his individual and corporate clientele for years, and now with this beautifully designed book -- including his own original art -- he's offering his insider secrets to you. Boston's user-friendly references are filled with inspirational ideas for looking and feeling your most stylish.

Friendly, frank, and with a wealth of professional tips at his disposal, Boston guides readers through an entire year's worth of fashion choices, beginning with a new style resolution at the top of the year, through the fresh fashion possibilities of spring and barely dressed days of summer, and back through the glittering holidays.

Before You Put That On offers:

• Hints for choosing garments to flatter every body type

• Simple solutions for going from day to night in minutes

• Tailoring tricks that bring new life to items you already own

• Advice on adding accessories that turn a look from frumpy to fabulous

• Organizational tips for creating a user-friendly closet

Named one of Crain's magazine's "40 Under 40," he is also a national spokesperson for companies including Tommy Hilfiger, Jones New York, and LensCrafters. As Boston himself says, "Nothing makes me happier than helping real people look their absolute best." Whether the occasion is lunch with a new client, a catch-up drink with friends, or a special holiday gathering, Before You Put That On provides classic ideas that will usher readers through every event with confidence and panache.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2005

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow is this author out of touch with what I'd like to refer to as real world women. Some of his pieces of advice are ridiculously laughable for anyone not born or breed in the upper echelon of life. Some of the most ridiculous gems:

Women should ditch inexpensive ball point pens in favor of more expensive and stylish pens to treat themselves. Fine and dandy if you have gobs of disposable income but I'm just fine with my plain old papermate pen.

Investing in the little black dress. "Spend as close to $1000 as you can possibly afford...." and if that means "ONLY" $400 then so be it. Yeah....hi, real world woman here, problem a) I rarely have any place to wear a dress that fucking expensive and b) ONLY $400?!?!?! Have you lost your goddamn mind? That's a car payment and 1 month of utilites for me. If I have an excess $400 laying around I'm paying down my medical bills with it not going out to buy some fancy schmancy dress to wear to my company holiday party.

Apparently white jeans are for everyone. I guess I would think that too if the only women I came in contact with were never more than a size 8 and had the money/time to spend on gym, personal trainer and lipo-suction. I guarantee if he saw me in a pair of white jeans he would revise this statement.

The Glove Compartment Makeover advised women to keep a plethora of beauty items in it, lipstick - which if you aren't privileged enough to have underground parking melts in a Minnesota Minute. Earrings and costume jewelry you don't care if you lose or damage, sorry I'm not that excess driven that I buy shit I don't care about. I don't have that luxury. But the most maddening thing he wants you to keep in your glove box is $50.00!!!! What's worse it's kept there not for emergency towing, phone calls, gas etc. OHHHHHH NOOOOOO. This $50 is kept in there in case you don't have the accessory you need you can just whisk off and buy it. WTF is wrong with this guy? First of all, I don't have $50 of disposable income I can just allow to collect dust like a cheap papermate pen (!). No do I want to risk it getting stolen from my car, because you see I don't live in a gated community or a fucking secure penthouse. But more imporant that either of those issues is" fifty dollars means grocery funds for me, or gas money. And what the hell kind of accessory am I buying for $50 freaking dollars? I don't just willy nilly spend that on a bauble on a whim. A fifty dollar purchase for me is a well thought purchase, not pocket change to waste on whatever.

He offers the following advice for people who work from home: Use your downtime to really search out killer sales online. Oh I'm sorry, perhaps I didn't explain, real world women have more going on than trying to find that $1000 cocktail dress. Our lives don't revolve around that shit. HE also says if in doubt wear mono-chromatic dressing to keep professional. Ummm, yeah, when I work from home, one of the perks is I roll out of bed 1 minute before I start work and stay in my pajamas sans shower or deodorant like a dirty alcoholic.

I could go on, but I won't it's pointless, I would strongly caution anyone living in the "real world" against reading it.

[Gina Person · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I picked up this book for actual advice on how to dress better,and all I'm going to say is I shouldn't have relied on a man for style tips. at one part, the author writes, "Dress for men. Women who do, go further." Not only is the book dripping with men's opinions. it's out of date and full of non-fashion related advice.

[Eva Stover · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. Mediocre coffee table book, but it gave little real advice on development of personal style, but rather focused on trying new things everyday. Also some encouraged some possible cultural appropriation…

[Sara Kellogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is changing my life as I read it. No joke. I read October-January and I now have 25 stellar outfits lined up in my closet where before there was chaos. READ THIS BOOK!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would make a fun gift book for your favorite fashionista. It's a heavy, coffee-table type book, so you expect it to be filled with pictures as well as advice. For that, it's a no, but it does contain, among other things: interviews regarding fashion tips from beauty and fashion insiders, style quizzes, suggestions of seasonally appropriate variations on an outfit, vocabulary words (which if you're into fashion you may know, but not necessarily the word origins), wardrobe care, et cetera.

The two strange bits of content are: using 13 days as "Happy Birthdays" for each sun sign and biographies of interesting and mostly OBSCURE women, primarily from the revolutionary war period. Was Boston a women's studies major in college?

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read... it's supposed to be read on a daily basis, but I tore through it in a few sittings. Some good tips that I feel like I've generally heard elsewhere but needed the reminder. I liked the interspersed "women are awesome" entries celebrating influential women like Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt (they weren't all about political figures, but these two ladies came to mind).

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is written in a daily calendar format. Open to any day of the year and voila, you get appropriately themed style tips. Pretty good, except that it does not have enough visual aids. Some fashion ideas are just easier to see than to read about.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sort of like a page-a-day calendar. Lots of text; no photos. I don't really care what major fashion designers have to say about "If you could whisper a fail-safe style tip into the ears of women everywhere, what would it be?" Too few tips for the amount of text here.

[Susan Hildebrand · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess if you were really into keeping up with current styles and had the money to do it, it was ok. I went through it very quickly because I thought it was pretty boring. But I do need a break from all the heavy biographies I've been reading.

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't get to finish this book before I had to return it to the library. I really enjoyed the tips. It gives a style tip for each day of the year. I agree more pictures would have been nice but it was pretty lengthy without them.

[jocelyn43 · Rating 3 out of 5]

somewhat helpful style tips

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty useful book. I think Lloyd really knows what looks good. I just wish the book had pictures instead of sketches.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it so much that I bought a copy~!

[America]

ok

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

enjoyed this.

[Elizabeth Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book so much that I stole it from the donation box at the library.