Home (Chic Simple)
The series title suggests that these books will show the reader how to shed the excesses of the 1980s and move into a simpler 1990s lifestyle. However, editors Gross, former fashion editor at Town & Country, and Stone, former vice-president of Vintage Books, have created a hodgepodge: too wordy for designers seeking inspiration and too short on practical advice to be considered how-to. Each book contains a chapter on the styles of the previous six decades, one on classic items of apparel or design, another on decorative accessories, and one entitled "Mixing" (the most useful), in which the classics and accessories are combined in different styles. If the editors had expanded these features and added more photographs, this series would be useful. Unfortunately, they have needlessly included such frivolous elements as the 30 pages in Clothes devoted to active sportswear (sweats and tennis shoes would be sufficient apparel for many of these sports), "Voice of Wisdom" sections that profile designers who epitomize the "chic simple" style (from Armani to Frank Lloyd Wright), and aphorisms whose authors range from Henry David Thoreau to Candice Bergen. The motto of this series is "The more you know, the less you need." Among the things you don't need are these books.- Gayle A. Williamson, Fashion Inst. of Design & Merchandising, Los AngelesCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.