Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe by Deborah Blumenthal

Fancy Party Gowns is a story about African American fashion designer Ann Cole Lowe who is probably most remembered for the gorgeous wedding dress she designed for Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding to John F. Kennedy.

Ann Lowe was born in 1898 in Clayton, Alabama. She developed an interest sewing and designing because both her mother and grandmother were seamstresses. She received little schooling in the segregated schools in Alabama but her skill making gowns and fancy dresses was developed under the tutelage of her mother and grandmother.

In 1916 she moved to Florida where she gained a reputation for her gowns among the debutantes in the Tampa area. Springboarding off of this, Ann and her mother moved to New York City where she married. There her mother opened a small dress making shop. When her mother died, Ann finished all the dresses her mother was working on and kept the shop open.

Ann's clientele were high society, including the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts but she was fashion's best kept secret at this time. Jacqueline Bouvier was one of her clients and when she became engaged to marry John F. Kennedy in 1953, her mother, Janet Lee Bouvier employed Ann Lowe to create and sew her wedding dress as well as all the dresses for the entire wedding party! Lowe had designed Bouvier's wedding dress when she married her second husband, Hugh Dudley Auchincloss Jr.

Jaqueline's dress was made of ivory silk tafetta, had a large skirt and what is called a portrait neckline. The dress was partially destroyed along with nine of the bridesmaid's dressses when a pipe burst in her Lextington Avenue shop a little more than a week before the wedding. Ann had to remake these dresses but lost money on the order. She never received credit for the design which won world-wide praise.

Despite income tax issues and some health problems, Ann persisted and opened a boutique in the Saks Fifth Avenue store in 1961. She was awarded the Couturier of the Year in 1961. Ann soon was designing and sewing dresses for numerous high society ladies. She was never interested in dressing the average woman. "I love my clothes and I'm particular about who wears them. I am not interested in sewing for cafe society or social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the Social Register."

Several of Ann Lowe's gowns are now part of the holdings of the Museum of African American History. Ann Lowe passed away in 1981 at the age of eighty-three.

Fancy Party Gowns captures the essence of the Ann Lowe story. It is a remarkable story because Lowe was African-American and succeeded at a time when racism was still very much in evidence in American society. Blumenthal takes young readers from Ann's childhood in Alabama where she caught the love of sewing from her grandmother and mother to her taking over her mother's shop upon her death to Ann designing and sewing Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding dress. Eventually Ann's achievements were recognized. She received the Official Couturiere

Blumenthal lightly mentions some of the struggles Ann overcame. Although slavery had been abolished in the previous century, racial prejudice against African Americans still dominated much of American life in the early to mid-twentieth century. Ann often encountered this; she experienced the humiliations of segregation, she often did not receive the credit due to her. In spite of this, Ann persisted. She continued to design and sew fancy dresses, elaborate gowns and women loved and wore them.

Accompanying Blumenthal's biography are the bright illustrations of Laura Freeman. Freeman had her sister stand in as a model for some of her illustrations because she noticed that her sister shared the same sort of facial features as Lowe. The colourful illustrations in this picture book were done using photoshop.

Ultimately Fancy Party Gowns is about a young woman persevering to achieve her dream of doing what she loves - designing and sewing beautiful gowns and dresses.

The author has included a note at the back with more information about Ann Lowe and a For Further Reading list that includes books and blog posts about Lowe.

You can see some of Ann Lowe's designs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where five of her dresses are in their collection.

Book Details:

Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe by Deborah Blumenthal
New York: Little Bee Books        2017

Friends For Life by Andrew Norriss

Francis Meredith is sitting on a bench during lunch break when he first meets Jessica. He immediately knows something's not quite right when he sees her walking across the grass in Victoria Beckham's zebra dress on a very cold February day. She sits down on the end of the bench and is shocked when Francis offers her a sip of his hot tea. The girl tells Francis that she is dead and that no one is able to see her or hear her. Except Francis. The girl, who reveals herself to be Jessica Fry, has been dead for a year but she doesn't remember the circumstances of her death. Francis and Jessica agree to meet again after school.

They meet and decide to go to Francis's home on Alma Road. Jessica is now dressed for winter - she just has to think about what she wants to wear and it appears on her body. Francis takes Jessica to his special room upstairs at the top of his house. This room is filled with Francis's drawings of fashion designs as well as a sewing machine, bolts of material, a table covered in paper patterns, dressmaker's dummy and a couch. On a set of shelves are at least fifty dolls, each dressed in a different outfit that Francis has created. Francis explains to Jessica that he's doing a history of fashion.

Jessica tells Francis that she does not remember how she died but that she knows she is dead. She was in her third floor hospital room and saw her body covered by a sheet. Despite feeling calm, Jessica feels there is something missing. She has been returning every night for the past year to her hospital room to try to determine what that something is. Neither knows why Francis can see her while others cannot. Francis and Jessica discover they have several things in common including their love of fashion, they are the same age and are only children to single mothers.

As the days pass, Francis and Jessica spend all their days together. Jessica goes to school with Francis, helping him in each of his classes. They spend time after school in Francis's special room on the top floor of his home. To those who can't see Jessica, Francis appears to be a loner who doesn't talk to anyone. Francis begins to be bullied by Quentin Howard, a boy in his class who knows about Francis and the dolls.

Meanwhile Francis's mother, Grace becomes more and more concerned about the amount of time Francis is spending alone. Since his mother can't see Jessica, she believes he comes home every day and spends time alone in the attic. Worried after hearing Francis talking to himself, Grace suggests that Francis meet a new neighbour's son, Andy who will be starting at Francis's school, John Felton,  the following week. Andy doesn't want to attend school and Francis's mother is hoping he can help Andy.

It turns out Andy is a girl named Andi Campion, a stocky, redhead who called Thug by her mother. Andi's mother explains that it is short for "Thuglette", a name she gave her daughter because she was always getting into fights when she was younger. Francis takes Andi to his bedroom where Jessica is waiting. Both Francis and Jessica are shocked when Andi is able to see and talk to Jessica. They reveal Jessica's situation to Andi who thinks she's very cool. Andi is curious about Jessica, especially about her not remembering the circumstances of her death. Both Francis's mother and Mrs. Campion are astonished that Francis and Andi seem to get along.

Andi reluctantly agrees to go to school as long as Francis is with her. However, Francis warns her that he might not be the best person to hang with, telling her he is viewed as "different" and therefore is not popular. He takes Andi to his fashion room in the attic, showing her his creations. Andi tells Francis she has an uncle in the fashion industry who makes lots of money. At school the principal agrees to Francis's suggestion that Andi be placed in his class. With a little help from Jessica during math class, Andi is able to succeed. She also manages to save Francis from the bully whose been tormenting him.  The three friends spend many happy days together. Andi believes that Jessica should know how she died, so she arranges for her mother to take them to the village where Jessica lived. They locate her grave and convince Jessica to visit her home. When she does this, she does not return. Frances decides to visit Jessica's house and meets her aunt, Joanna Barfield who is a counsellor and tells him to call anytime.

Jessica does not return for days, leaving Francis and Andi upset. When she does finally show up she's wearing her hospital gown and can't remember exactly what happened. Every time the three teens discuss how Jessica might have died she fades.  Meanwhile, Francis's reputation for working wonders spreads because of Andi's transformation into a good student and a girl who has started to wear skirts. This leads to a request by Roland Boyle's mother to have Francis help talk her son into returning to school at St. Saviour's. Francis reluctantly agrees and when he visits Roland he discovers that he too can see Jessica. The group of four now sets out to discover what they might have in common that allows them to be able to see Jessica while others can not. Little do they know that what links them will help save the life of a girl in distress and free Jessica from being stuck as a ghost. 

Discussion

Friends For Life is a simple story about three teens who are considering suicide but are saved by an unexpected relationship with a ghost. That ghost who succeeded in killing herself, has been sent to save them as well as an unknown fourth person. The title of the novel has a double meaning - not only friends for life in the usual sense of being friends forever but also friends who save the lives of others contemplating suicide. Friends For Life explores the factors that often lead teens to consider suicide and what kinds of interventions might help in preventing suicide.

Francis, Andi and Roland do not fit in with their peers - each of them is very different. Francis loves clothing and fashion and dresses dolls. Andi has a body type that is different from the tall, slim, blonde type promoted as "beautiful" by the fashion industry, film and media. Roland, with his heavy-set large frame, also has a different body type considered unattractive for a boy.

In the novel's exploration of suicide, Jessica tells how she became very depressed after the death of her mother and then her grandmother. Although her aunt and uncle were, as she described it, "nice" this was not enough. It is the character Roland however who puts into words exactly how a suicidal teenager thinks. "It's funny, isn't it," said Roland, "how people being nice doesn't help when you feel like that. You know they want to help, you know they're trying to help, but it's like they're in another world. They have no idea how you're really feeling. Or what to do about it."

"You can act as if you think it matters whether you've done any schoolwork or what you eat or what you wear, but in the end...the pretending is such an effort, and you get so tired, that all you really want is for it to stop. For everything to stop."

Both Jessica and Roland state that once the idea of ending things takes hold, it becomes very difficult to ignore. Francis states that more than anything teens in this situation want to be like their friends, but find they cannot.  "And that's what gets to you in the end, isn't it?" It was Francis who was speaking now. "The being different. You want so much to be like everyone else but...He looked sympathetically across at Roland as he spoke. "You know it's never going to happen. You're always going to be different. With you it's your weight; with me it was all this."

The friendship between the three teens and Jessica changes their perspective on life and helps them to consider the things they might have done to help themselves. Francis and Jessica realize that not telling anyone how they were feeling, was a mistake. Francis wonders why he didn't try to tell Quentin Howard to stop teasing him. When Roland is teased at school by Dermot about his size, he finds that the support of his friends and the school administration changes how he views the teasing. It no longer matters and he wonders "why on earth he hadn't told Dermot to leave, or simply walked away.  The thing he had most feared would happen had happened, but for some reason it had been okay. Perhaps it was because there were people around him who said it was not okay; perhaps that was what made the difference. Or maybe it was simply the realization that someone telling him he was fat wasn't that important. It didn't mean anything."

Jessica the ghost helps Francis, Andi and Roland understand there were alternatives to the choice she made and to prevent them from making the same mistake. Roland determines that her continued presence as a ghost means there is someone else she is meant to help. Eventually Jessica discovers that person is another student at John Felton who is being bullied by fellow students. Like Jessica, it was a series of traumatic events that led to life becoming unbearable for this student.

At the end of the novel, Francis gains more insight about suicide and how people come to this point as he reads through the letters he receives after he and his friends intervened to help the student.  Many of the people were not starving or in chronic pain but instead felt they were "different" and that they felt alone. This leads Francis to wonder why being different is so painful. Jessica's Aunt Jo tells him that it may be that some people feel things more deeply than others and this combined with sometime traumatic in their lives leaves them vulnerable.

Friends For Life is a sensitive treatment of youth suicide filled with realistic characters who form a supportive, caring relationship with each other, demonstrating the power friendship can have on transforming the lives of those around us. The novel ends on a hopeful note with Francis feeling more positive about being different and coming to the conclusion that life can change very quickly. Francis discovers that he has learned to accept what makes him different and that has helped those around him accept him too. "And the strange thing was that, now that he didn't really care what other people thought, most them seemed quite happy to let him be as different as he liked."  He recognizes that his life has changed quickly over the span of a few months. Life could "appear so impossible at one moment, and so full of hope and possibilities the next."  That change can bring about opportunities for unexpected happiness. This is the lesson Francis's unexpected meeting with Jessica taught him - "how much fun there was to be had in life, how full of opportunities it was, how many chances it gave for enjoyment." 

 Friends For Life is highly recommended. Originally published in the United Kingdom as Jessica's Ghost. Andrew Norriss has stated he normally writes comedy and the story told in Friends For Life was not the usual stuff he writes. Over the course of ten years his story took shape. Norriss writes that he at times, like many of us, has experienced difficult times and is grateful to the "Jessicas" in his life "whose mere presence was a constant reminder that, even at its darkest, life if full of possibilities and that, yes, miracles can happen."

Book Details:

Friends For Life by Andrew Norriss
New York: Scholastic Books Inc.   2015
234 pp.

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline

In this revealing and thoughtful look at clothing and consumerism, author Elizabeth Cline sets out to reform how we look at fashion and how we shop for clothing. After purchasing SEVEN pairs of flats from KMart in 2009, Cline decided to take a hard look at why she, like so many other Americans (and Canadians), buys so many clothes. After gathering every single piece of clothing she owned and sorting through it all, she discovered that she had 354 pieces of clothing, excluding undergarments and socks. She owned more clothing than anything else AND she had no idea where the clothes were made or what brands they were. Cline found herself buying clothing simply because it was cheap and trendy. How had it come to this?

The United States makes only 2 percent of the clothing sold in the country; China makes 41 percent of clothing sold in the US. The trillion dollar fashion industry is now divided into two camps; high end expensive clothing and cheap, poorly made clothing. The latter is sold by stores such as H&M, Forever 21, WalMart and Target.

Chapter 1, "I Have Enough Clothing To Open A Store" explores the transition in fashion retail from the production of quality garments that are expensive to mass production of cheap, poor quality clothing.

It seems that GAP has done to the garment industry what McDonalds did to fast food production. GAP changed the way people shopped for clothing. Originally a Levi's shop in the 1960's, GAP changed how it operated and brought in designers to create its own cheap clothing line. This has been stunningly profitable for the company and is the industry standard now for how clothing is made, marketed and sold. Clothing discounters like H&M, Zara, and Forever 21 all produce poor quality clothing that sells cheap.

Cline gives a fascinating historical account of fashion in America - which of course also is mirrored in Canada. Clothing was initially made in the home until approximately 1900 when factory-made clothing became available. It was very expensive however, so people continued to make their own where possible. It wasn't until after World War II when incomes began to increase, that Americans began to follow fashion and purchase their clothing rather than make it. Clothing was produced by independent businesses that sold their clothing through the department stores.

In the 1970's malls opened in suburban areas and began offering cheaper clothing in competition with the big department stores. By the 1980's department stores continued to markdown prices, training the consumer to buy only when there were sales. The intense competition drove department stores to consolidate and others to close. Today, the retail landscape consists of clothing discounters such as H&M, Forever 21, Target (soon to open in Canada) and Walmart.

Chapter 2 How America Lost It's Shirts outlines the fate of the garment industry in America.

Chapter 3 High and Low Fashion Make Friends discusses the generally poor quality of  most mass produced clothing today. This is due in part, Cline says, to the ignorance on the part of the consumer about fabrics and the loss of seamstress skills. It is also due to manufacturers attempting to cut costs and raise profits. Making clothing is labour intensive since this product cannot be made by machine but requires specialized labour. The desire of manufacturers to cut costs and the consumer to only buy "on sale" has resulted in poorly crafted clothing that is made out of cheap fabrics. In contrast high end fashion has gotten more expensive as shoppers try to prove status through their purchases of expensive clothing. Cline explores some of the history of fabrics and how changes in income and society have led to the situation we have today of cheap, poor quality clothing.

Chapter 4 Fast Fashion focuses on a special retail method which places new merchandise out every few days or weeks, rather than by the season. Selling by this method drastically increases profits and creates a shopper who consumes continuously. Fast fashion stores like H&M, Forever 21, and Zara, "earn their profits...by taking a small sliver of profit on a large amount of goods."
Fashion is not only sold fast, it changes quickly too. This is in part due to the effect of the digital age, where information on styles is shared quickly and where no one style predominates now. Fast fashion and low price tells the consumer that clothes are a disposable commodity, one they can throw away after only a few wears.

Chapter 5 The Afterlife of Cheap Clothes is an exploration into the textile recycling industry. Most people donate their clothing once they no longer want it and assume that someone will use it. But less than 20 percent of donated clothing actually gets sold by charities. Most of it goes to textile recyclers, and much of it is sold overseas in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. However, people in these countries are also looking for stylish pieces of clothing and most of what is sent over from America is rejected.

Chapter 6 Sewing Is a God Job, a Great Job enlightens consumers on the job of sewing, which is a highly skilled job. Although some factories have raised the wages of workers who make clothes for the most part, these people are not paid a "living wage". Cline encourages the consumer to use their purchase power to help change conditions in factories in the developing world. She also suggests that the major clothing companies "could afford to raise wages significantly, without passing the cost on to consumers."

In Chapter 7 China and the End of Cheap Fashion, Cline considers the future of cheap, fast fashion. The quality of clothing made in China has been declining steadily. Although garments are made in countries such a Cambodia, Vietnam, Turkey, and the Philippines, China is the leader in clothing quality, having both the skilled workers and the technology. An interesting feature of this chapter is Cline's trip to China's factories as a the "owner" of an imaginary company. The author's experiences  of China's massive garment factories are eye-opening. Cities in China do not have two or three factories, but thousands. There are several factors which suggest that the era of fast fashion may be coming to a close, one of which is that China is running out of cheap labour in part due to its one child policy and subsequent dearth of younger workers. Those currently toiling in its massive factories are intent upon moving to better paying jobs. As these workers become consumers, the world is faced with the prospect of 1.3 billion people consuming at Western levels. This is likely not sustainable.

Chapter 8 Make, Alter, and Mend extols the virtues of sewing one's own clothing. Cline learned to sew basic items and makes some very good points about why this is a skill people should develop, while also recognizing that for some modern life means it might not be possible.  The art of sewing clothes has definitely not been passed onto the recent generations. This skills gap has resulted in several generations of young women who do not know how to repair their clothing nor how to create their own clothes. Sewing one's own clothing means having pieces that are unique. She also highlights the benefits of shopping vintage and attending clothing swaps.

Chapter 9 The Future of Fashion is somewhat anti-climatic and essentially recaps some of the more important points in the book. Cline encourages consumers to think wisely about their purchases, where they shop and to look at the quality of the clothing being sold in stores. She also wants shoppers to consider making their own clothes and to consider using seamstresses and tailors to repair or remake clothing.

Skirt made by blog author

The main thrust of Cline's Overdressed is to help consumers realize that clothing, now made fast and cheaply, has become a disposable commodity. We have gone from well- made pieces which displayed exquisite craftsmanship and lasted a lifetime, to cheap, fast fashion which encourages the consumer to buy and buy, wasting vast amounts of the world's resources. This over-consumption will ultimately place severe stress on some of our valuable commodities. We have only begun to feel this stress as the rest of the world catches up to the consumption levels of developed countries. Because clothing is made by human beings we should have some connection to the clothing we wear, and we should like what we wear. Cline asks us to consider our relationship with the clothes we wear, and to rethink our shopping habits. We can change the way clothes are made today and we can have an effect on the quality of clothing by choosing our purchases carefully. Although Cline presents statistics and describes situations chronicling the experience of the American textile industry, the same can be said for Canada.

For example, in 2008 (the latest figure on Industry Canada's website, Canada imported $4 BILLION of clothing made in China.The small city I work in had its origins in the textile industry with the founding of several mills that produced clothing and fabrics. Those mills have long since closed, and several of the buildings that once housed fabric shops are now condos. For those who love to sew, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a fabric store. Walmart stopped selling fabric about four years ago. We need to revitalize the art of making our own clothing.

For anyone interested in fashion, Overdressed is an eye-opening must read!

Book Details:
Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline
Toronto: Penguin Group 2012
243 pp.

Canadian retailers that sell made in Canada clothing include:

Le Chateau (up to 40% of their clothing is made in Quebec.)
Danier Leather
Stanfields
Roots (check the label as only some are made in Canada)

The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky

Bianca Turetsky's The Time-traveling Fashionista is a nice change from the usual young adult novels of vampires, zombies, and strife-filled future worlds. Twelve year old Louise Lambert is a "fashionista" with a flare for vintage. She lives with her mother and father in a "large rambling Tudor home" in Fairview, Connecticut, has braces, and a best friend named Brooke.

One day Louise receives an unusual invitation to a vintage sale called The Time Traveling Fashionista vintage sale. When Louise arrives at the location of the sale she finds a decrepit, musty store run by two odd ladies; tall, red-haired Glenda and small, mousy Marla. Searching through the racks of clothing Louise locates a powdery pink gown which smells like fish. Although Glenda and Marla attempt to dissuade her, Louise insists that this is the dress for her. When Louise tries it on, she blacks out only to awake on the deck of a steamship traveling from England to America. The date, according to a newspaper, is April 12, 1912.

On board the steamer, Louise is known to everyone as Alice Baxter, an accomplished 17 year old actress. Louise doesn't ask what the name of the ship is and perhaps that is in part due to her being only 12 years old and her not being attentive to her history teacher's lesson about a special event in 1912. To everyone on the ship, she looks like Alice, but when Louise sees herself in the wardrobe mirror in her stateroom, she sees her real self - a twelve year old girl with braces.

At first she tries to enjoy herself, reveling in the beautiful dresses, the delicious food, and the handsome gentlemen. Louise meets the famous Lady Madeleine Astor, the young wife of millionaire, John Jacob Astor,  and Lady Duff-Gordon, who, in 1912, was a well known English fashion couture designer . But when she learns that she is on the ill-fated Titanic, Louise is no longer interested in having fun. She alone knows the fate of Titanic and she is panic-stricken. She must warn Captain Smith to change course. When she attempts to do so, the Captain becomes angry, telling her he will not have her alarm the ship's passengers. She is forced by Miss Baxter's personal physician to her room where she is sedated.

Glenda and Marla appear to her in a dream and tell her that she cannot change history and that the key to saving herself is the dress. When Louise awakes, she reveals her true identity to her maid, Anna and they seek to try to either change the course of the Titanic or escape. They are unsuccessful.

Glenda and Marla finally tell Louise that she must find the dress, which has been sent to the Titanic's laundry. Without the dress, Louise will remain trapped in 1912 and on the sinking Titanic. Desperate to help people on the ill-fated ship as well as to find her dress, Louise enlists the aid of her maid, Anna. Will Louise succeed in saving herself? Is it really possible she cannot change the course of history and save thousands of lives?

Discussion

The concept behind The Time-Traveling Fashionista was an interesting and unique mashup of fashion, history and time travel, but it seems to never reach its full potential. 

There are a more than a few weaknesses in the storyline. For example, when Louise finds herself on the steamship she seems to take forever to discover that it's the ill-fated Titanic she's on. It's a well known fact that many of furnishings, the menu, china and other items were labelled with the name of the Titanic and the White Star line that owned the ship. It's likely a twelve-year-old would quickly discover the name of the ship. It is possible that she might not know the history behind the Titanic. To help her readers along just in case, the author has Louise's teacher, Miss Morris present a history lesson to the class. Of course, Louise doesn't pay attention, a plot device leaving the main character clueless about her situation, while the reader knows the truth.

Another plot hole is Louise on the Titanic not as herself but as Alice Baxter.  The question of where Alice went while Louise was Alice, was never answered. Alice's maid, Anna seems remarkably self-possessed when Louise tells her who she is and proves her identity.  It was also puzzling as to why the author made her main character so young. Even in 1912, it would be very difficult for a 12 year old to pass as a mature 17 year old one hundred years ago. The author utilizes Louise's fainting as an explanation for her inability to recognize people and remember names of close associates.

There is plenty of foreshadowing in the novel. For example when Louise has a dream one night before she goes to the vintage sale, she dreams she is in a grand ballroom rather than the gymnasium at school - a foreshadowing of the Titanic ballroom. She awakens at 2:20am - the time the Titanic sank. The dress she picks out from the sale smells fishy, suggesting that it had been soaked in sea water, also another foreshadowing of being near water and boats.

There's not really much characterization in the novel, as the story is mostly action driven. We know Louise fairly well, but her parents are just shadows in the background and even Brooke and Anna are mostly just one dimensional characters who support Louise and her obsession with clothing. Glenda and Marla could have been interesting characters in the novel, but they were never fully developed. Again early hints suggest what the reader later learns; they are witches. The large number of cultural references will likely date this novel. The characters which Louise meets onboard the Titanic are all real people who were on the ill-fated boat in 1912.

The strongest aspect of this novel is the lovely drawings done by fashion illustrator, Sandra Suy. Few young adult novels are illustrated and it's one thing publishers should take a second look at considering media is predominately visual. Suy's drawings are detailed and very elegant, giving readers a good idea of how each beautiful article of clothing looks. Illustrator, Sandra Suy lives in Barcelona, Spain, where she was born and where she studied art at La Llotja. Unfortunately, there is no information given on the illustrations for the novel.

This book should appeal to younger teens and is part of a series. Turetsky has already written a second book, At The Palace of Marie-Antoinette.

Book Details:
The Time Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky
New York:  Hachette Book Group       2011
263 pp.

The Truth About Style by Stacy London

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people."

                                                                                                      Virginia Woolf

Those who love Stacy London will once again enjoy reading her latest book about finding your style niche and how style can heal your inner self. The Truth About Style is a more personal go-around this time, part-bio and part style health care. Style is something personal, a reflection of our intimate selves. The clothes we wear are a statement of who we are and comprise our "style".

"Trust me when I way that it is always better to wear what works, what feels organic to you, than to force yourself into a current trend that simply feels wrong. Dress for yourself and what suits your lifestyle, and you will always look good."

In an interesting few pages at the beginning of the book, Stacy London defines what she believes style is and why it is important for women (and men) to develop their own style. Style, as she notes, ends with an E, for emotion. Emotion is what we feel about ourselves and how we feel about ourselves often determines how we dress. This sort of interplay became very evident in the show she co-hosts, What Not to Wear. It was easy to see that many people who dressed terribly had body issues or self-esteem issues. For some, clothing was a way to blend in or hide themselves. And this is precisely what London does in this book; she takes a close look at a few specifically chosen women to see what might be causing their style problems. 

When Stacy was doing poorly in grade 10 trigonometry, her father told her "You limit your options every time you don't try your best." Applying this to style, London says that poor style limits our choices and control. It's a rather obvious connection, yet one that is often missed (as is evidenced repeatedly on What Not To Wear). Because when we don't present ourselves well, what we offer are poor first impressions. We influence all the other possibilities in our lives by the image we project -- something many people either ignore or don't understand.

"Style is about creating possibility. It's taking passionate, strategic control of your image -- not just to dress for a job you may not even have known your were going to want but for oodles of other things you can't predict for your future."

As a result of this, London chose nine women from the stories she received on social media with whom to work with on their style disconnect, as she terms it. She chose these nine women because their issues were common to many women and because she could identify with them. The women came to New York for "start-overs" which are a sort of style reboot based on what each woman wants/needs for her life.

The first person Stacy tackles is herself because as she writes, she too has gone through this process. With plenty of cute and interesting pictures of herself way back when, Stacy tells about her struggle with psoriasis, a skin condition that can make life truly miserable. Stacy's battle with psoriasis continued until she was in grade seven at which point she found a cream that worked. From this point on, Stacy started to heal from the emotional and physical scars of dealing with a condition that made her want to hide her body. Stacy could wear the clothes she really wanted to - she could choose the skin she wanted to present to the world. She could finally be herself.

Woven between the rest of her personal story which includes anorexia and self-esteem issues are the stories and "start-overs" of the nine women. For each there is a picture of the outfit they wore to New York, followed by some commentary on each woman's story and how Stacy can relate their particular situation to her own life. It's a personal encounter both ways and the end result for each woman Stacy meets are, not surprisingly, fantastic. For fans of her show, The Truth About Style offers a wonderful opportunity to get to know Stacy London on a more personal level and to see how she sleuths out the style disconnect for each woman. At the end of all this, as London writes, "Style is a form of self-expression and aspiration."

Discussion

The Truth About Style is engaging, well written and is organized in such a way as to allow readers to choose where to start. The chapters on the individual women are engaging, but Stacy's story is no less interesting. Fans may not know that Stacy worked at Vogue and her anecdote about catching an elevator with Anna Wintour was quite humorous. 

Stacy London's direct manner, her obvious gift for style and her ability to uncover a person's style disconnect with compassion and humour shine through in The Truth About Style. She offers an empathetic and revealing opportunity to people, allowing them to understand why they dress the way they do and then offering them a way to be true to themselves.

Book Review:
The Truth About Style by Stacy London
Viking Penguin:   2012
216pp.

DVD Documentary: The September Issue (2009)

This documentary follows editor in chief, Anna Wintour, in 2007, as she and her staff prepare for the largest-ever edition of the September issue of Vogue magazine. Typically over 13 million women buy the September magazine, mainly for it's unique approach at presenting upcoming fashion trends.

The September Issue provides brief sketches of Anna Wintour and her fashion editor, Grace Coddington, who joined her at American vogue in 1988. Anna's father was a newspaper editor who had a very Victorian upbringing. Anna became interested in fashion during her teens and it was her father who decided she should work in fashion. She stated during the documentary that her two brothers and sisters are amused by what she does and don't view her job as a serious one. Anna has two children, a daughter and a son, neither of whom has any interest in working in the business.

Grace Coddington came to Vogue via a different route. While a teenager on the small Welsh island of Anglesey, Grace also became interested in fashion. She was entered in a modeling contest and won, and this is how she began modeling for Vogue. Unfortunately, her face was damaged in a serious car accident and she left modeling to become an editor with British Vogue. She eventually came to American Vogue after working for designer, Calvin Klein, in the late 1980's.

The September Issue follows Anna as she attends fashions shows in Paris and views new collections all towards deciding on which trends to feature in the magazine. During this time, they also look at up-and-coming designers such as Thakoon Panichgul, a designer who was working on a line for Gap after being mentored and promoted by Wintour.

The cover face for the September 2007 issue is to be actress, Sienna Miller. Anna realized early on that celebrity culture was becoming a more important part of fashion and that it could be used to sell magazines. People were interested in what celebrities wore as well as their personal lives. At one time, models such as Cheryl Tieg and Cindy Crawford were the face of fashion covers. Not so anymore. Actresses and singers such as Lady Gaga have now largely replaced them.

Parts of The September Issue focus on Anna Wintour's famous aloof and reticent personality. In truth, we see a more little of who she really is and what she is really like. Although she certainly doesn't exude warmth, Anna is seen as a serious, intense person, who in fact does sometimes smile and who definitely knows her work. There are shots of her meeting with staff in her office, viewing Polaroids of photo spreads in her typical critical manner, but often the camera is kept at a distance.The scenes of her discussing her work with daughter, Bea, provide a human perspective to woman once nicknamed, "Nuclear Wintour". Wintour is of course, largely believed to be the inspiration for the cold fashion director in the book, The Devil Wears Prada, written by her former assistant, Lauren Weisberger. The book was made into a movie of the same name, which did well at the box office.

The documentary also offers a much more intimate view of the work that Grace Coddington does. Grace exudes a warmth that extends to even the cameraman shooting the documentary. She puts together the fashion shoots, which try to tell a story, often in a whimsical way, while featuring the latest fashion trends. To her dismay, some shoots are almost completely withdrawn, other times, she wins and her creations make it into the magazine. Grace's work remade Vogue Magazine, changing its focus to be more on fashion as an art rather then on a somewhat voyeuristic approach taken by Helmut Newton, mentioned in the documentary as being a photographer who often demanded his models make love to the camera. The September 2012 issue demonstrates Grace Coddington's incredible craftmanship. Her unique photographic spreads, which are now the standard for fashion magazines, are definitely a form of art. Vogue Magazine is more like a giant fashion picture book than anything else.

If you like fashion, and if you like Vogue Magazine, you will enjoy The September Issue, directed by R.J. Cutler. An interesting side note was that Anna did make the decision to photoshop Sienna Miller's smile for the cover because it was deemed too large!

Where I Belong by Gillian Cross

In Where I Belong, the story is told in alternating voices of four teenagers whose lives come together in a very unexpected manner. 

Adbi

Fourteen-year-old Adbi  (Abdirahman) Ahmed Mussa, an ethnic Somali, was born in the Netherlands, where his mother fled to when things turned ugly. His mother Maamo was pregnant with him and his father, Ahmed Mussa Ali, was desperate to get her out of the country. He stayed behind because his parents were sick, but he promised to come get them when the country became safe again. It never did. So Adbi and Maamo, his mother lived alone, with his father sometimes visiting. After Adbi, there was Fowsia, Maryan, and Sahra. When Adbi was ten, his father sent them to England, to a place called Battle Hill where his friend Suliman Osman and his family along with many other Somalis lived. Adbi and his father kept in touch through the internet which he accessed from one of  the internet cafes run by Uncle Osman Hersi's son, Suliman Osman. His mother told Adbi that they had to save money to bring Abbo to England. When Adbi was thirteen-years-old, they finally had enough money to bring Abbo over but after the money was sent, they never heard from him. His mother asked other Somalis to find out what happened to Ahmed Mussa Ali and eventually Adbi and his family learned that his father was dead.

One day Adbi arrives home to see his Uncle Suliman Osman and his wife, Auntie Safia visiting their flat. His uncle tells him that his sisters need an older sister to watch over them and to that end they want to bring over the daughter of a man in Somalia. They tell Abdi that her name is Khadija and that she is fourteen-years-old. He agrees for her to come to England to live with his family.

Khadija

Khadija Ahmed Moussa is a thirteen-year-old native Somalian who lives in a remote village with her younger brother Mahmoud and her siblings, Zainab and Sagal. When she was younger, her father was a rich man who owned many camels, sheep and goats, as well as having businesses in Mogadishu and Beledweyne. Her father had a second wife, but Khadija never saw her as she and her brothers and her mother travelled from one pasture to the next. Then things changed. The rains stopped, her father came and took three of the camels away to sell. He returned briefly a second time, with a camera and took pictures of Khadija. The third time he came, her mother told her that she would be going to her father's house in Mogadishu. At first Khadija believes she is being taken away to be married, however, on the way, Khadija's father reveals that she is going to England where she will get an education. Khadija argues with her father because she wants to stay with her family. 

They meet a smuggler who tells Khadija that he is her Uncle Guleed Mussa Ali and he will take her to England. She is given a plastic suitcase by her father with a few items of clothing in it. When Khadija tells her father that she didn't ask to go he tells her that life is getting harder in Somalia, and that if she goes to England eventually she will be able to help the family and maybe someday, even Somalia. Her journey begins with a boat that takes her to Kenya. From there she travels by road and then by plane to England. Once in England, Khadija travels by train and then is left at a telephone box where she is met by Adbi. She will live with Adbi, his mother Maamo and his sisters. 

Freya Dexter

Freya is the daughter of iconic fashion designer, Sandy Dexter and former war photographer David. Her father who has photographed the wars in Darfur, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Somalia, now teaches photography and does photography portraits. Her parents are separated but remain on friendly terms with each other. Freya spends most of her time with her dad who is more reliable and grounded than her flighty mom who is always trying to create a new avant-garde collection.

Freya first learns about Somalia after her mother comes to pick her up from her father's flat. While there Sandy selects a bunch of books on Somalia, which puzzles both Freya and her father David. The next morning at breakfast, Sandy shows Freya pictures in one of the books of a woman in a beautiful patterned headscarf, and raves about the design. She doesn't seem to notice the buildings in the background with bullet holes  or the ruin and devastation. Her mother believes fashion "...is a way of understanding the world...". Freya knows her mother will be immersed in this for hours so she meets up with her friend Ruby for lunch. When she returns she finds the flat empty, her mother gone, and a message from her mother's apprentice, Stefan that she will be away for a few days and directs  her to stay with her dad. Having picked up a few groceries, Freya is annoyed but goes to her father's flat.

Mahmoud

Back in Somalia, Khadija's younger brother remembers her smile, as she left in the car. In Somalia the drought has dried out their pastures, and the sheep were sold to buy food for the camels. The wells dried up and Mahmoud and his family set out to walk to the last well they hope might have water. They are beginning to realize that unless it rains, they will have to walk to the camp to ask for food. This is what happens and so Mahmoud and his sisters and mother walk to the camp. 

As they walk, one by one their camels begin to die and this means that Mahmoud much carry more of their bundles. When the arrive at the camp they find hundreds and hundreds of "makeshift shelters" with many children playing in the dust. The conditions in the camp are shocking to Mahmoud and his little sisters. They are eventually alloted a space to set up a shelter. A fight by young men in the camp destroys both their shelter and all the food they have saved. As they work to rebuild their shelter of poles and mats, Mahmoud's only hope is his sister Geri in England.

With all the major characters now introduced the story moves forward in alternating voices. Six months after arriving in England, Adbi, Khadija and the Somali community learn that Somalia has been hit by severe drought. They know this not from the English news but from the Somali news sites that the older men in the Somali community read. At first Adbi doesn't really understand the implications of the drought because he believes most of Somalia is desert. When he accompanies Khadija to Suliman's internet cafe, Adbi sees pictures of the drought in Somalia. For Khadija the images are heartbreaking and troubling. She wants to help her family but the only way is to send money. She sends Mahmoud an email asking him how they are and Khadija decides she needs to get a job.

Noticing that Auntie Safia is struggling in her store, Khadija offers to help out and she is hired to work two evenings a week. Khadija intends on sending the money back to her family in Somalia. But when Maamo learns of her job, she is furious because it means Khadija must walk home late at night and also because of the low pay. Adbi reluctantly agrees to walk Khadija to and from her job.

Meanwhile Sandy Dexter has returned from Paris and is busy researching Somalia for her next collection. While making breakfast, Sandy asks Freya how a picture of a woman wearing a burka makes her feel. Sandy believes that Freya felt curiosity about what it would be like to wear a burka and she brings out two black burkas. Sandy wants both of them to wear the burkas and walk around Battle Hill, but Freya refuses. She feels this is disrespectful and rude because they are not Somalian. So Sandy goes by herself. However, after her mother leaves, Freya changes her mind, dresses in the burka and takes the bus to Battle Hill. When she puts on the burkha Freya notes "Veils are all about hiding...." but she comes to feel that it might be a source of power. 

Freya manages to find her mother in Battle Hill where she is watching a heated discussion between a boy and a girl, whom Freya notes is not only beautiful but graceful. Her mother has a knack for spotting the next runway model. The two people arguing are Adbi and Khadija because Adbi doesn't want to accompany her to her job. His friend Rageh is being sent back to Somalia to teach him better behaviour and Adbi wants to see him before he leaves. Sandy approaches Khadija with a potential offer of work and gives Khadija her business card with the name of a modelling agency on the back. Adbi is suspicious of this entire encounter especially since Sandy reveals herself to be a white Western woman. But Khadija isn't so dismissive. 

Together they check out Sandy Dexter on the computer at school. They discover that she is a famous fashion designer who designs clothes for a great deal of money. Khadija realizes that woth this job she might be able to bring her entire family out of Somalia. Abdi tells Khadija that Maamo and Auntie Safia will never agree to her working in this job, but Khadija asks him to keep this a secret until they find out more about the job.

A week later, Adbi and Khadija skip school to show up at the Meredith (Merry) Fox agency. When they cannot locate Sandy, Merry calls Freya at school and asks her to come to the agency. Eventually Sandy shows up and Khadija is made to walk up and down. Sandy pretends that she doesn't like Khadija and tells Merry she will put them in a taxi. However, once on the street Sandy and Freya get into the taxi with Khadija and Adbi. Unknown to Sandy, Merry Fox sees them get into the taxi. In Sandy's workshop, when Khadija sees Sandy's "mood board" she realizes that this strange woman has fallen in love with Somalia. To Freya, the items on the mood board are "...a bunch of feathers, and cheap jewelry, and some garish secondhand fabric that wasn't even cleaned."  When Sandy asks that they bring Khadija's parents to talk about money, both Adbi and Khadija hesitate. Sandy tells them that the show isn't until September but that they mustn't tell anyone else because it is to be a secret and she needs the permission of Khadija's parents.

However, Freya isn't impressed with her mother. At home with her father she rants about how her mother seems unconcerned with the reality of what is happening in Somalia and is using it to create her next collection. So she sends her mother an email suggesting she take a risk and go to Somalia. 

Meanwhile, when Maamo and old Uncle Osman discover that Khadija and Adbi have been absent from school they question the two. At first they lie in an attempt to keep Khadija's secret but then she decides to tell them that she's been offered a job that could make her enough money to bring her family to England. When they refuse to reveal what the job is, Uncle Osman takes Adbi's phone. He promises to help Khadija's family but Adbi wonders how Sandy Dexter will now contact him. To keep a watch on Khadija, Auntie Safia has her work every night and pays her thirty pounds a week.  But Khadija hasn't forgotten Sandy Dexter's offer. Things become even stranger when Auntie Safia offers Khadiija five hundred pounds and then asks her what she really wants. Khadija tells her that she wants to get an education so she can help her family back in Somalia.  And Khadija, desperate to reach out to her brother Mahmoud, sends him an email from Suliman's cafe, revealing that she's received a job offer that will provide her with enough money to really help them.

After several months, Sandy discovers Freya's heated email and decides that to put her Somalia collection into context she is going to do the catwalk in Somalia and will stream it live into London Fashion Week. Freya's dad is horrified and angry at what Sandy is planning telling her she doesn't understand what the country is like. Eventually Sandy does connect again with Adbi who inexplicably finds his phone in his backpack and arranges to meet with him and Khadija and their parents. However, things turn ugly when Adbi gets a second phone call from an unknown man in Somalia who tells him they have Khadija's brother, Mahmoud and that she needs to pay them ten thousand dollars in ransom. A second phone call this time tells Khadija to have her friend Sandy Dexter help her get the money. Khadija believes that her email to Mahmoud was intercepted and is responsible for what has happened to him. 

For Adbi, there are two questions: How will Khadija get the money to save her brother? Who will help her and Adbi save Mahmoud? Because Khadija and Abdi feel that Maamo will never allow Khadija to display herself on the runway they seek the help of Abdi's uncle, Uncle Osman Hersi and the imam. When Uncle Osman tells them he cannot pay the ransom, Khadija seeks the help of his son, Suliman. He reveals that it was him who returned Adbi's phone and they decide to reveal Khadija's modelling offer.  It is Suliman who poses as Khadija's father, meets Sandy, David and Freya and agrees to make all of the arrangements for Sandy's show and for Khadija to travel to Somalia. It is Suliman who accompanies Khadija and Abdi over to Somalia for the fashion show. But once in Somalia, things take a mysterious turn as the kidnappers learn of the location of the fashion show, threaten Sandy and come to the village with Mahmoud demanding that his ransom be paid. When Sandy refuses to pay the money, things move swiftly to a final, strange resolution, and the revelation of who is behind the kidnapping.

Discussion

The novel, Where I Belong attempts to explore the theme of belonging in what is a somewhat bizarre and frankly, probably highly unlikely series of events. The story might have been more believable and been able to more thoroughly explore this issue if it had been simplified.

The novel has two storylines, told by four narrators: Adbi Mussa, Khadija and her brother Mahmoud, and Freya. The main story is that of a two young Somalis, Adbi Mussa and Khadija Mussa the Somali girl his family takes in to help her family. Adbi has never been to Somalia, having been born in the Netherlands and emigrated to England. He lives with his mother  and his three sisters in Battle Hill with many other Somalis.  His father is supposed to have died a few years earlier in Somalia. The young Somali girl they take in, who is called Geri by her family, is given the name of Khadija Mussa by the human smuggler. Khadija has left behind her parents and her younger brother Mahmoud in the hopes of getting an education and then helping her family. That possiblity comes in the form of an opportunity to model a new collection for a fashion designer named Sandy Dexter.

A second story involves Freya Dexter and her fashion designer mother Sandy Dexter and her photographer father, David who are separated. Sandy becomes interested in Somalia and the fabrics she sees in books. On a walk through Battle Hill dressed in a niqaab, Sandy spies Khadija and Adbi having an argument and eventually convinces her to model her new collection for Paris fashion week. Sandy also decides that she will live stream her collection from the desert in Somalia. 

The two stories gradually weave together when Adbi and Khadija learn that her brother Mahmoud has been kidnapped and that a ransom of ten thousand dollars is being demanded. Since her modelling job was a secret, the two cannot understand how the kidnappers in Somali learned of it. This is gradually revealed during the fashion show, when Adbi comes face to face with the father he believed was long dead but is now a Somali pirate and the uncle he believed was actually helping Khadija. 

Although the novel's title, Where I Belong suggests an exploration of the theme of belonging, this is given a somewhat superficial treatment mainly becuase it is eclipsed by a story driven by action rather than by the characters. The idea that a Western white woman could travel into Somalia, a country in the depths of a civil and humanitariou crisis and hold a fashion show in the middle of the desert seems highly improbable. The show is held within a village where the people are very poor: they live in houses made of "branches and mats", some of which are dismantled to make a "dressing room" for the models. One can only imagine what the villagers, whose culture is so different, would think and how they would feel at the intrusion of Westerners with a great deal of money in such a poor country. Gross attempts to get around this by having a Muslim man, Suliman Osman make all of the arrangements, from afar, in England. The risk of a wealthy, famous Western woman being kidnapped and extorted or worse would just make this extremely dangerous.

The theme of belonging is briefly treated in the character of Khadija who is struggling with life in England. She is given a fake name, Khadija, which feels like her identity is stripped away. In England, Adbi's mother Maamo won't talk about Somalia, and neither will the Somali girls at school. She wishes she had spent more time watching the desert on her drive with her father, because that was where she felt like she belonged. "I wish I'd kept quiet and looked at the country instead...I shall never travel through the desert like that again -- as someone who belongs there. That journey was the end of everything I knew before." That feeling is lost in England.  "Ever since I arrived in England, I'd been like a frozen girl. When my father handed me over to the hambaar man, he sent me into a world where no one knew me and no one cared who I was."  When she encounters Sandy Dexter, Khadija is recognized as a Somali and this makes her feel seen.

When Khadija first meets Sandy on the street in Battle Hill, her recognition of Khadija as Somalian make her feel "seen". However when Khadija arrives at Sandy's wearing a niqab she learns her name is now to be Qarsoon. "Qarsoon. Hidden. Another new name, to cover up the one the hambaar man told me to use. " Once again Khadija feels hidden. When she returns to Somalia for Sandy's fashion show, Khadija remembers the smell, 

Khadija begins to suspect that something isn't quite right from the very beginning. She wonders if anyone read her email to Mahmoud about being offered serious work? She is also suspicious of Suliman Osman's involvement - he seems to have an solution for everything. Before they leave to meet Sandy Dexter at David's flat, she discovers that Suliman has a gun under his car seat. She begins to question if they can trust him and asks Adbi if it's possible that Suliman listened to the message from Sandy on his phone. In Somalia, when Khadija learns that images can show up on several computers that she really begins to understand what may have happened - that in an internet cafe, someone may have seen her email she sent to Mahmoud in Somalia about her possible job. 

In Somalia, Khadija is focused on her brother Mahmoud after photograph the kidnappers provide of Mahmoud with his broken teeth and learning from Adbi that Sandy is not certain if paying the ransom is the right thing to do. "I felt like I was in the kind of dream where real things are unimportant and tiny details shake the earth. My brother had been captured by violent, ruthless men, but no one seemed to care whether he lived or died. The only thing that matter was how my eyes were painted.... So much money being spent on such trivial, frivolous things. What did these people think they were doing?"

Adbi is also beginning to explore where he belongs. Unlike Khadija, he doesn't have a connection to Somalia, having been born in Europe and raised in England. Meeting Sandy Dexter and seeing her world changes his perspective on his tight-knit Somali community. When his Uncle Osman confiscates Adbi's phone and tells him that what he does can affect the entire community and that he will try to help Khadija's family, Adbi notes, " A few days ago I would have believed him. Until then, I'd thought he was a really powerful, important man who could make big things happen. But that was before I'd stuck my nose into Sandy Dexter's world. Now I knew I'd spent my whole life inside a narrow box. All the real power and money were outside -- and that was where I wanted to be."

.

In Somalia, Adbi struggles to connect with what is supposed to be his homeland even though he has never lived there. They drive through villages with small houses, children driving scrawny goats and women carrying heavy bundles. "I kept struggling to connect.This is your country, I kept telling myself. This is where you belong. But I didn't even know what that meant...What was it like living here all the time? Looking after goats like those boys we'd passed on the road? It was impossible to imagine. What did they do for music? Where did they meet their friends?"  He doesn't understand life in Somalia as it is so different from his own experience.

Adbi helps to thwart the kidnapping when he recognizes the "...battered leather sheath" with a distinct "deep, jagged scratch" that one of the men has attached to his belt as belonging to his father. Initially he believes he is confronting his father's murderer but in fact, it is his father. He also has the courage to confront Suliman Osman who he claims organized the kidnapping. 

After the resolution of the kidnapping, Khadija goes on to model and is able to help her family. She belongs in England, but Mahmoud wants to remain in Somalia, living the quiet life of a nomad as his family has done for years. She is able to help her family stay in Somalia and to replenish their herd of camels.  Adbi feels drawn to becoming a photographer so he can show people the truth. He comes to realize that he doesn't belong in Somalia, a country he's never lived in. After exposing his father as one of the kidnappers, Adbi doesn't follow his father as he leaves. As Khadija states, "He could have chosen to go with his father....Have you thought of that? He could have stayed in Somalia forever. But he didn't. " Freya undestands that Adbi "knows where he belongs".

Freya also struggles with where she belongs within her own broken family: does she belong with her father, or her mother, or both? Freya is supposed to be living with her mother but this does not seem to be working out. Sandy is an eccentric, self-absorbed woman, whose single-minded focus on her work leaves Freya feeling abandoned by her mother. Sandy is often absent both physically and emotionally. When Freya returns from her mother's workshop after they first meet Khadija and Adbi, she expresses her outrage over what her mother is doing. She tells her father, "Look at all this Somalia stuff of hers. There's a whole country there -- a whole culture-- but she doesn't care about that. She's just ransakcing it for design ideas."  Freya continues, "She hasn't been to Somalia and seen the children with no legs and the towns that are shelled to bits. That's what she ought to do if she wants to be cutting edge.If she wants to explore the interface with reality."

She sends her mother, whom she calls by her first name, a heated email challenging her over what she is doing regarding Somalia. Later when her mother announces that she is in fact going to go to Somalia and do the show there, Freya tells her father " 'It's got to be serious, ' I said, 'Otherwise, why have I spent my life taking second place?' "  This emotional abandonment continues as Sandy becomes focused on creating her collection and setting up the show in Somalia. Sandy schedules a meeting with Khadija and Adbi and their "father" who is really Suliman Osman on Freya's birthday, cutting short her daughter's party and angering Freya. But Freya is also as ruthless as her mother, manipulating her parents to get what she wants. And she wants to go to Somalia so she threatens to reveal the identity of "Qarsoon" to a photographer named Tony Morales.

When Khadija reveals the truth of what is happening, Freya thinks, "I knew what it was like to have all your hopes hanging on Sandy. On what she might do. If she felt like it. I wanted to say something comforting, but there was only one thing I knew for certain...Sandy won't think about anything now until the show is over. She's totally focused on that. If it goes well then --yes, she might do something for you. She can be very generous sometimes."

Surprisingly, Sandy has the show continue even as the kidnappers show up with a badly beaten Mahmoud, Freya is horrified. "What was Sandy doing? How could she let the show carry on? It was monstrous --outrageous--for girls to be parading up and down out there when someone's life was at risk." Sandy confronts the kidnappers, ordering them to let the boy go, indicating that she will not give in to their demands. Not surprisingly, the kidnappers are undeterred. After the show, with the kidnappers having left, Freya asks her parents to get back together, a wish many children from broken families harbour. Her father, in telling a Somali folktale attempts to show Freya that they both love her and that she belongs to both of them. 

Overall, Where I Belong is a novel that attempts to explore the important theme of belonging but does so in an overly complicated way through the eyes of Somalian refugees caught up in kidnapping and extortion. This book may be of interest to those wanting to read something a little different.

Book Details:
Where I Belong by Gillian Cross
Maple Vail, York PA: Holiday House 2011
245 pp.

OH NO She Didn't by Clinton Kelly

Straight-shooting Clinton Kelly, cohost of the American version of What Not To Wear (officially my favourite TV show of all time!), sets out to rid America (and the Western world) of the worst 100 fashion faux pas' imaginable. In his book, OH NO, She didn't, Clinton takes on (among other things)

• tattoos and evening wear - they don't mix
• gnarly feet (hide them)
• tracksuits (forget them unless you're in the mob)
• hairy legs under hose (ewwwww)

Clinton is irreverent, funny and desperate to eliminate these and much, much more! He's also quite insightful:

"Animal print wearers, based on my vast experience, have strong opinions, enjoy their feminity and usually like to have a good time." 


This certainly applies to the one person I know who wears alot of animal prints. She even went skinny dipping which is quite risque for my crowd.....

Although Clinton's attack is hiliarious he really does believe that all women can and should dress properly. Most of the mistakes here are simply from a lack of common sense.


A great book, with great fashion tips and lots of sage advice!


Book Details:
OH NO She Didn't, The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How To Avoid Them by Clinton Kelly
New York: Gallery Books  2010

202pp.

Fashion, fashion, fashion

Thought I'd post something a little different on here. A little something to get me into thoughts of spring!

Ever wonder what clothes you should wear for your body type? Ever wonder what basics you need for a good wardrobe? Have you ever gone shopping for a day only to leave the mall after an hour thinking "hopeless". Well Clinton Kelly and Stacy London from TLC's "What Not to Wear" have put together the definitive guide, Dress Your Best, to help you achieve this end.

The book's dedication reads "This book is dedicated to anyone who has ever looked into a full-length mirror and thought, "It's hopeless." It's not! We promise. "

And to that promise they definitely live up to. There are chapters for both men and women. What really appealed to me was the books organization: it is divided into chapters based on body type. Each body grouping has three categories, petite, average height and tall. Some examples of the body types listed in this book include "Bigger on top", "A little extra in the middle" and "Not curvy".

For each type there is a picture of a woman in a black body suit who represents that specific body type. This allows you to determine if you really do fit into the body type you think you might be. Then Stacy and Clinton work their magic and give tips on what works best for that body type, how to play up certain good features (yes, we all have a few of them) and how to disguise other "problem" areas.
For men, the body types are more simple with such categories as "Short", "Average", "Barrel-chested" etc.
This is a great book for those who might need to re-evaluate their dress code for work or a serious round of job-hunting. For the rest of us, it just might help us buy less and shop more efficiently.


The second book I found very useful is "InStyle. instant style. Your Season-By-Season Guide for Work and Weekend"

This book has lots of tips on how to build a wardrobe with basics and looks a fall/winter and spring/summer fashions. For example, the Fall/Winter Wardrobe chapter explains how to use one suit , four ways. There are plenty of pictures of actual pieces and what to pair them with. Even though this book was published in 2006, it's advice is still up-to-date.