Lauren Conrad - Style

A few weeks ago I was buying something on Amazon and in the recommended list was Lauren Conrad's Style book. Amazon clearly knows me very well. At that time it was only available on pre-order but pre-ordered I did. I finally got round to having a look at it on Friday and I would say in about 45 minutes I was done. It's full of pretty pictures but the content is light and a little pedestrian. You are certainly not going to learn anything reading this, either about Lauren or about style. There are some personal insights that pepper the book, like the fact that she hates eyeshadow and that she loves maxi dresses, but notable absence of others. For instance, I couldn't believe that there was no mention of the taped hair extensions that her stylist Kristin Ess uses, to find out more about that would actually have been interesting and useful but we are just told that Lauren likes "long hair". No kidding! What also annoyed me about the book is the attempts made to Anglicise it for our market, but it clearly hasn't been done diligently.

There is a paragraph referring to how easy it can be to rack up the expense at cheaper stores like H&M and Forever 21. In one sentence they talk about walking out "hundreds of dollars poorer" and then right after it we talk about admiring $20 tops. Oookay. This is like the text equivalent of that badly dubbed Vanessa Hudgens Neutrogena advert. I mean come on, we know it's American, we can get our heads round that! And if you are going to Anglicise it, do it properly! The proofreader needs a little slap! Overall? This was never going to be a grand literary tome. It's fun to flick through and I love some of the photographs. Can I have her hair please? Oh and can I have that Philip Lim blouse? I do think it could have gone further and been more of a personalised experience. A look inside her own closet? Some of her favourite pieces? Some of her must have items? I think I would have bought it to find out more about Lauren, rather than reading generic advice, but Lauren fans the world over need this, simple as that!