Book Review: Love Style Life

Hi Everyone!

Long time no post! It has been a busy month with school starting up again and I have been lacking some creative ideas for posts, so here is a simple book review.
I received the book Love Style Life by Garance Dore from my mom for Christmas and was super stoked because I love Garance! She is a fashion illustrator and blogger, but I knew of her more from her illustrations. The book just came out last year, and it is pretty much just about her experiences and some style and life rules she lives by.
Before I started reading it, I had it in my head that it was going to be just like any other blogger book, with obvious information and lots of filler pictures, Mais Non! (get it, cause she's French) It is a lot more personal than I thought. Garance tells the story of how she found herself in fashion and started her blog, moving between Paris and New York. She points out the differences between New Yorkers and Parisians and reveals how she found it hard to fit in sometimes in the U.S. She also interviews a couple of women she admires including my fave, Jenna Lyons, which is a nice touch to see who she looks up to when she is practically a celebrity herself. There is also a section at the end of "100 Love Lessons" where you get to read about her love life which is a lot more personal than I was expecting.
The pictures and layout of the book are great, I especially like how she uses pictures of people other than herself to showcase topics, for example, Vivianna Volpicella wearing one of Garances key wardrobe pieces, a men's shirt. There are some pages that are obvious filler pages with a pull out quote of random illustration, but not an excessive amount to me. Also, she is an illustrator so it makes sense to showcase her drawings on full pages!
I think the very best thing about this book is how refreshingly honest and down to earth Garance is. She talks a lot about the strive for perfection and how everyone is beautiful, which we all hear but often ignore and are too hard on ourselves. Coming from her, a successful, independent and inspirational woman, it means a lot. She has learned to laugh at herself which is incredibly important because life is about having fun and enjoying the things you do! I could definitely relate to some parts of the book and the experiences she's had, which is nice to know everyone goes through some similar issues in their lives. This book was less fashion-y than I thought it would be and I'm actually glad it was.
Overall, it was a fantastic book and I think people who don't even really follow Garance Dore will enjoy it. Solid gift choice Mom!
I am going to end this post with some memorable quotes from the book:

"'Me and my boo at Starbucks this morning. He has a latte and I do blonde roast. Both Venti. Isn't that love?' Please, don't be that couple."
"How to not fuck up your hello" (whole section on this)
"Saying 'Oh my God, we haaaaave to get coffee sometime!'and then never getting in touch" (sad but so true)
"Eating isn't a very interesting subject during Fashion Week"

Till next post, bye for now!