One of my all time favourite books is Elegance by Kathleen Tessaro, a kind of self-help, fashion-sense manual written with a touch of vulnerability and full of hilarious anecdotes of a wannabe fashionista who yearns to be elegant, confident in her style and duly noted by others including her husband. I have read this book about four times already over a period of 10 or so years and it never disappoints, it has the right measure of laughter, tears and wit in addition to a grappling account of events. A definite read for all girls, sixteen to sixty five!
The idea behind the book, as admitted by the author was an extraordinary old book that Kathleen stumbled upon in a second hand book store - a book called A Guide to Elegance by Madame Antoine Dariaux where she dispels page upon page of dressing and shopping advice for the discerning girl who wants to transform herself from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Surprisingly, most of her advice is very sane, still very relevant in todays day and age and I honestly think her book should be passed on from mother to daughters as a holy grail of the basics of elegant dressing. I certainly have a copy from Amazon that I intend to pass on!
When I first read the book, I was quite intrigued by Madame Dariaux and googled her, but apart from a couple of black and white images and the fact that she lived most of her life in France, had a panache for dress-designing and making costume jewellery, couldn't dig up any more . She worked for many years in the house of Nina Ricci as a directress, but I couldn't find her date of birth or the fact that she is still alive or not.
Her other book that I intend to get hold of and read is The Men in Your Life where she shares pearls of her wisdom on skillfully handling the male species in your life - might be a bit late for me though, but I can't wait to read what she has to say.
The idea behind the book, as admitted by the author was an extraordinary old book that Kathleen stumbled upon in a second hand book store - a book called A Guide to Elegance by Madame Antoine Dariaux where she dispels page upon page of dressing and shopping advice for the discerning girl who wants to transform herself from a caterpillar to a butterfly. Surprisingly, most of her advice is very sane, still very relevant in todays day and age and I honestly think her book should be passed on from mother to daughters as a holy grail of the basics of elegant dressing. I certainly have a copy from Amazon that I intend to pass on!When I first read the book, I was quite intrigued by Madame Dariaux and googled her, but apart from a couple of black and white images and the fact that she lived most of her life in France, had a panache for dress-designing and making costume jewellery, couldn't dig up any more . She worked for many years in the house of Nina Ricci as a directress, but I couldn't find her date of birth or the fact that she is still alive or not.
Her other book that I intend to get hold of and read is The Men in Your Life where she shares pearls of her wisdom on skillfully handling the male species in your life - might be a bit late for me though, but I can't wait to read what she has to say.
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| Madame Dariaux |
