You Are What You Wear: What Your Clothes Reveal About You

First off, I'm not the book author! To be honest,if I hadn't been a follower of Dr. B's Psychology Today blog, I would have thought this book was just like every other fluffy, superficial style guide. I don't buy style guides because as a busy mom with a limited budget, I feel like I'm n a different planet from those skinny toothpick gals in Prada you see on tv. But Dr. B is actually a psychologist, and this book is about so much more than clothes! Dr. B's whole point is that clothes and shopping behavior are just like any other behavior --they tell a lot about what is happening inside. This book is more about transformation than it is about clothes. I really could relate to the bit where she talks about her grandmother's button collection, because my grandmothers was that same generation, and had literally shelves and shelves of button boxes. If you are looking to understand your own shopping and dressing behavior and make positive changes, you'll find this book both fun and supportive. It leaves you feeling good and uplifted.

If anything should be inherent in one's education besides reading, it's about what not to wear and the unintended messages our clothes do send. Oftentimes people don't understand why they are treated the way they are and why some situations just happen to occur over and over again. The answer, my friends, most certainly lies in our clothes and the stereotypes they are sending while we innocently walk about our business. It's like bad perfume! We don't know it, but our clothes reek verbs and adjectives while we all quietly sit and mind our businesses. A must read for everyone.

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I loved this book. It was entertaining to read, and the content was insightful and interesting and went beyond the kind of fluff you might expect from a book analyzing people's fashion choices. The author cites a wide variety of psychological research throughout the book and delves into the specifics of her own client's stories, so you're not just skimming along with generalizations the whole time. You get up-close and personal and gain real insights along the way into what causes people to wear what they wear and how they can use fashion to resolve personal issues and create the life they really want for themselves.

I always enjoyed watching the show "What Not to Wear." This book includes the same kind of specific fashion advice and a similar "wow effect" of seeing a transformed wardrobe, but it includes a whole other layer of juicy psychological insights that make it that much more fascinating. I was impressed by the way the author was able to help her clients better understand themselves and embrace positive changes. The only downside of this book was that it was missing a real sense of conclusion. But I really did enjoy every page.

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I had fun reading this book, and I did purge my closet afterwards, although I thought I already had done a good job of that not so long ago, which just goes to show! The nagging voice of reason or shall I say J. Baumgartner was stronger. So, it works. There's even a 20-steps-to-purge-your-closet that's pretty perfect.

How the book is structured : the main eight or nine reasons why we find ourselves with too many/too small/ too "young" or "old" clothes... each have their own chapter.

Of course, the most popular/common reasons come first in the book, and they're also by far the biggest chapters (and let's face it, if you buy this book you're likely prey to the first reason namely, buy too much stuff). Each is interesting and illustrated by the story of a certain client.

There were no real clichés, it was relevant and went to the bottom of the matter.

The only thing is out of the different reasons listed, only a couple will apply to you. So while the rest of the book is still very interesting and gives you the complete picture, some things won't be directly relevant for you. However, I certainly didn't mind, and I don't see any other way the book could have been written.

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I'm about 60% through this book and I must say I'm having to push myself not to stop reading it. I find it amazingly simplistic and unsophisticated. As a psychiatric social worker, I feel the author's analysis of her clients' underlying issues to be shallow and alleged alterations in behavior and self-perception amazingly easily achieved.

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