class notes
I ❤ Your Style Amanda Brooks ’92 | itbooks, 2009
More Than a Reference | Fashion legend Diane von Furstenberg praises Amanda Brooks ’92 in her foreword to I Love Your Style: “Fashion is a mysterious thing to express, but if anyone is qualified to write a book on style, Amanda is. She has the unique talent of sensing trends, feeling the moment, and knowing what to mix with what. This book is fun, informative, and very clever. I am sure it will inspire many and reassure others.” One of the first pieces of advice that Ms. Brooks gives her readers is: “finding your personal style is really about discovering yourself.” In her book, Ms. Brooks shares the story of her own style evolution, and guides her readers on a journey of self-exploration and expression through fashion. Beginning with an inventory of fashion trends, Ms. Brooks discusses six different styles: three that she classifies as “definable”—classic, bohemian, and minimal—and another three that are “indefinable”—high fashion, street, and eclectic. For each style, she provides a selection of essential pieces of clothing, followed by pages of photographs of celebrities and fashion icons who personify each particular genre. Ms. Brooks also includes descriptions of accessories and evening wear and advice on how her readers can embrace or add their own twist to a style. The most engaging sections of I Love Your Style are Ms. Brooks’ descriptions of her own experiences with different styles; she devotes several pages in each chapter to photographs and stories of her experimentation with each style. When discussing classic dressing, Ms. Brooks describes how she was brought up as an adherent to this kind of fashion. “Now, ten years later—having spent my twenties experimenting with trends, high fashion, and vintage inspiration, trying (rather desperately) not to look preppy—I have come full circle to embrace the traditional, conservative influences of my formative years. I can no longer deny that classic guidelines inform the way I dress: I like symmetry. I like matching. I like a classical sense of proportion. But, I’ve finally come to realize that classic doesn’t have to mean predictable or boring impeccable American prep.” With her personal and conversational tone, Ms. Brooks draws her readers in, emphasizing her book’s overall message, that personal style is not about rules, but rather, “your most intimate idea of self and your truly unique personal history.”
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Winter 2011
Today, my greatest coup is showing up at a very formal event in a fantastic cheap chic outfit. One year, the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the fashion world’s most important and dressiest social event of the year, was showing a retrospective of Chanel . . . Before giving in to despair, I remembered a 70s Yves Saint Laurent jacket that I’d gotten in a trade with a vintage collector friend. It was a black sequined bolero with feathered sleeves, and I’d been saving it for some time to wear to something special. When I thought about it, it was very Chanel. As a nod to Coco Chanel herself, who was one of the first women of the century to wear pants, I wore the jacket with my favorite black viscose evening pants and a $30 white silk ribbed tank top. Topped off with a fresh gardenia corsage (the official flower of Chanel), it was my favorite outfit I’ve ever worn.