by Kim Johnson Gross, Jeff Stone and Rachel Urquhart
Can people who lack style learn it from a book? The authors of this smartly designed coffee-table book on women's clothing clearly think so. And the kind of style they're pushing is easy enough to copy. It's the Junior League look: long camel coats, little black dresses, tidy sweater sets. Former undergrads who recognized themselves 16 years ago in The Official Preppy Handbook will find themselves in familiar company in Chic Simple. There's one problem: Those who want to dress like this already do—the authors are preaching to the converted.
True chic is unique, not copycat J. Crew. Vintage photographs of fashion leaders like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Diana Vreeland, perhaps with clever essays on style, would have livened up this oddly impersonal book. (Knopf, $30)
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