Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, frivolous fashion handbook, 15 May 2007
Victoria Beckham's first foray into fashion writing is an enjoyable, readable guidebook about clothes, style and beauty, with an autobiographical element - written in a conversational style, it's peppered with anecdotes about Victoria's life, but doesn't become overwhelmed by them. There's enough personal detail to keep celebrity gossip enthusiasts happy, but the book is dominated by style advice, making it perfect for budding fashionistas. The fact that it's co-written with the excellent Hadley Freeman, of Vogue and the Guardian, lends the book an air of authority that's absent from similar celebrity tomes.
Anyone expecting to be told exactly what to wear will be disappointed - this is a collection of style tips and guidelines, providing ideas to draw inspiration from, rather than a set of stringent rules. It's cleverly written to appeal to a wide audience - yes, designer names are frequently namechecked, but high street alternatives are suggested for every item. The tone is friendly and witty, which makes the book easy to read and hard to put down - I had to ration the chapters in order to stop myself from devouring it all in one go!
The design is abosolutely gorgeous and very innovative - the layout and illustrations are beautiful. It would have been easy to fill a book like this with standard pictures of clothes, but it's packed with drawings and graphics, designers' preliminary sketches of outfits, and behind-the-scenes pictures of Victoria. There's also Ellen von Unwerth's stunning photographs of Victoria, which tie in with the themes of the chapters but work just as well in isolation, making this a perfect coffee-table book.
Admittedly, 'That Extra Half an Inch' isn't about to win any literary awards, but then, it isn't a book that should be taken too seriously; as Victoria herself states in the introduction, 'I have no qualifications to write this book other than a lifelong passion... [and] this book isn't my attempt to tell you what or what not to do'. I expect that many of the overly critical reviews written about this book have come from readers who dislike the woman herself - if you despise Mrs Beckham, it stands to reason that you're unlikely to enjoy the book, so just don't buy it. For the rest of us, it's a thoroughly likeable read, and great to dip in and out of when you need a bit of style inspiration.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
From a teenager's point of view =], 18 Jul 2007
So I'm 14, I like Victoria Beckham and think she has great style and was bought this book for my birthday. This book, as it does say on the cover, isn't 'my attempt to tell you what or what not to do. It's just to share some of what I've learned.' And that's exactly what it's about. It's not a book telling you what to do, it's a book telling you what Victoria does. It's split up into lots of different sections: jeans, tops, accessories to name just a few, which I think was a clever idea so instead of having to plough through the whole book to read about her advice on evening dresses you can skip straight to the 'parties' section and pick up some inspiration. It's seemingly light reading even though at a first glance the 311 pages can look quite intimidating. I do think it's a good book, and it serves it's purpose giving us an insight into Victoria's wardrobe, and in some parts her daily life, however if you are a teenage reader, like myself, looking for a snappy read to pick up some fashion tips from your fave celeb I do think it's a little heavy going and won't keep you entertained. It's more about style and how Victoria Beckham dresses and has settled into her style rather than the latest fashions and how to pull them off. Definitely a fab read though, three smiley faces =] =] =]
Hope this helped.
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32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lacking technical knowledge, 11 Nov 2006
I am not particuraly enamoured to Mrs B. but I like the serialisation of the book in a certain Newspaper, so decided to purchase it.
I am afraid the best three sections were serialised, that the rest of the book is somewhat limp. VB is stylish in the sense that she has a lot of money to spend on beautiful clothes and stylists, and wears ready made constructed pieces - ie. how much thinking goes into a ready made, readily designed Roberto Cavalli dress? All you have to do is put it on!
She doesnt really identify many problems for normal women who may not be so slender, she makes sweeping generalisations in this about and recommends particular brands, but doesnt really offer tons of alternatives, and certianly not cost effective ones.
I can see that she loves fashion, and promotes it as something fun, but this book is not a practical guide; the clothes are too expensive (even the £150 jeans - yes she does offer Topshop as a highstreet alternative, but thats all), she is impractical at best of times (she lives in heels - how many women can honestly stand non stop heel wearing) and her pictures are average, not as creative as they could be.
I read through once in about 35 mins and havent picked it up again.
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