Hands down the best book for gaining a clear understanding of how your clothes should fit. Lots of helpful tips for the average female. Learn to always accentuate the positive and how to dress by body type, not trend. ( )

This one is a wee bit too amerocentric in parts and I really didn't completely agree with the entire what you should wear bit (another writer who believes that women should wear low slung trousers - something that makes me uncomfortable) she divides women into 3 body types and then 2 variations of each (little and large). Now it possibly didn't help my opinion of the book that I don't really fit into her neat categories by being 5'1", weigh around 14stone, have shoulders that are man-sized (no really I used to buy men sized shirts and jumpers and they often fit better than womens), shoulder pads in anything other than jackets are just something to remove, I have calf muscles that look permanently swollen and a waist. But that's not everything in the book. The more useful bit is the shopping chapters, where she advises on capsule wardrobes, how to assess fabrics and seaming and what can be fixed if it isn't exactly right. It even has a useful piece on how to assess jackets for a proper fit. ( )