Anastacia Plastinina

In the past year or two I've been really focused on the concept of "dominion" and bringing all areas of life into line with God's design, and fashion design is one of my side hobbies, so I was really excited to pick up this book because it sounded like a blend of those two topics.

The introduction was really promising. The introduction further cemented my expectations of bringing the idea of "dominion" to bear on the fashion industry, and it got me really excited to read the book.

The remainder of the book was... underwhelming.

I don't fully agree with all of Plastinina's theology, which does have an impact. She leans more Charismatic than I do, and while I appreciated the importance she placed on the spiritual truth behind physical realities--that's something that I often find neglected among Christians who are more like-minded with me in a lot of their theology--it seemed to go a little extreme in some points.
I also found that her use of Scripture was rather sparing and selective. She uses at least four different translations over the course of the book, with no explanation as to why (including one passage that she quotes in full in TPT and then references a piece of in NIV), and some of the passages she references are only loosely related to the points she tries to make.
Another peeve I had with the Scripture references was that she inserted quite a few brackets as she went to "clarify" the passages she used. As just one example, her quote of James 1:5 looked thusly:

If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him.

I have no problem with authors expanding on a passage or seeking to clarify it as it relates to their point, but I do prefer to have just the plain ol' Scripture in the quote so that I can interpret it on my own, from my own knowledge of Scripture, before someone else seeks to explain it. And most of Plastinina's clarification seemed extraneous, anyway; the passages she quoted are not particularly hard to follow.

Beyond the theological issues I had with the book... it needed an editor. Starting early on, Plastinina has a habit of going on mini-tangents to make completely unrelated points within the text before resuming with the core of what she was trying to communicate. For example, she includes a quote condemning yoga... and yes, it's in a section about taking physical care of your body, but there's no attempt to make any connection with yoga specifically; it's just a random quote because I guess Plastinina wanted to make a point about yoga. But the tangents continue throughout the book, to varying degrees of relevance. An editor would have been able to help her trim down to only what points were relevant to her purpose for the book, or else to help her flesh out the tangential points so that they had more relevant bearing on the larger point.
Though most of the book was fine where grammar and spelling are concerned, there were a few places where the wording was awkward and even resulted in a completely different point being communicated than I think was intended. Another issue easily remedied by an editor.

As far as the actual point of the book--bringing God's word and design to bear on the fashion industry... I guess it was okay. It was really more focused on how consumers ought to relate to the fashion industry in a biblical manner than on how the fashion industry itself can be brought into submission to God's design, which was disappointing.
There was a little bit in one of the early chapters on how creativity should be purposeful (though, come to think of it, it didn't say much on the importance of creativity reflecting the design that God Himself created, i.e. what came about from His creativity, or the fact that we are creative because He is creative, both important points to my mind), but there's little in the entire book about how fashion design, the fashion industry, etc. could be improved from a biblical worldview and more holistic biblical design, which is really what I was looking for from this book.
The book primarily covers why the way we care for and clothe ourselves is important from a spiritual standpoint, how the fashion industry is spiritually corrupt, and how we ought to express ourselves through clothing in a God-honoring manner (and that last point wasn't even particularly detailed, even though it seems to have been the main point of the book).

I can say a couple of good things for this book. There were a couple of thought-provoking and/or solid paragraphs to be found. I saved one as a quote, though I didn't wholly agree with it; and another was a point about businesses being commercially-driven by nature, which is applicable to more than just the fashion industry. And through reading this book I learned what I would really like to read about the intersection of faith/worldview and the fashion industry.

Overall, this book just really wasn't what I was hoping it would be, and now I'm seeking someone who will write the book I wish this one had been, lol.… (altro)