Product Description

Brenda Kinsel knows how clothes can help women make transitions and change in their lives. Much more than a fashion consultant, Brenda digs deep to free women of their fears of inadequacy and lifts them to new awareness of their beauty and potential. From hell to heaven, Brenda, the poet of fashion, shows the way to help when bad clothes happen to good women. Beginning with Postcards from Hell, the Confessionals, and The 7 Deadliest Fashion Sins, Brenda shines the guiding light with up-to-date wardrobe advice so you can experience the ultimate Miracle Makeover and gain all the vital knowledge you need to take you straight to Fashion Heaven. Brenda?s Bible appears as Kinsel?s star is rising nationwide. Her presentations at women?s events, exclusive boutiques, and large retail stores such as Nordstrom, Macy?s and Marshall Field?s draw large, enthusiastic crowds. Both in person and in print, she is smart, funny, inspirational, upbeat, up-to-the minute and in demand. Whimsically illustrated in vivid color Brenda?s Bible is the answer to all your fashion prayers. And, as always, Brenda?s mission is to champion a woman?s right to express herself beautifully at any size, age, or income level, and to feel heavenly getting dressed every day.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1002534 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 79 pages

From the Publisher
Amid all the interest in makeovers, Brenda is a rising star. What separates Brenda?s Bible from other books by makeover experts is her humorous insight and wise counsel?a Brenda makeover goes deeper than a one day event or a new outfit that may fade and wear out?it helps you create a new out-look, which you cannot hide. Instead, you want to share this precious information with ALL your girlfriends.

About the Author
Brenda Kinsel is owner of Inside Out?A Style and Wardrobe Consulting Company based in the San Francisco Bay area where she has been matching people?s clothes to their personalities, passions and lifestyles since 1985. Tips from Brenda, who is fashion columnist for the Pacific Sun newspaper, have been featured in such magazines as In Style and Real Simple. She has appeared nationally on the Oprah Winfrey Show, HGTV and NPR.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
In the beginning there were fig leaves. . . in small, medium, and large. Fig leaves for casual wear. Fig leaves for formal wear. It was simple. Fast forward to the 21st century and the choices are countless. We face constructed, un-constructed, and de-constructed clothing on department store racks. Stuffed inside our closets are items made from things like viscose, rayon, silk, wool, virgin wool, hemp, stretch linen, pleather, tulle, fancy polyester, and spandex. We mix floral prints with vintage plaids, pink leather with lace. And sometimes it works. Back there, in the beginning, it was easy. Adam and Eve just lollygagged around Paradise all day with no one to impress, no parties to go to, no job interviews, no needing to get dressed to attract the opposite sex, no closet to organize. But as soon as they were booted out of the Garden of Eden to face what we face every day ? difficult, confusing decisions about what to wear to what ? the problems got big . . . fast. Can you go from work to meeting your in-laws without changing clothes? What do you wear to see the tax man? Is a flowing goddess dress too over-the-top for a birthday bash? Details, details, details! Receive a party invitation these days with a suggested dress code like ?elegantly casual? or ?creative black tie? and you want to say ?Screw it!,? stay home, overdo it on the leftover apple crisp, then get as naked as your ancestors, turn the lights out, and hide between your sheets (which I hope are 300 thread count or higher) hoping for daybreak. I don?t blame you. It?s a jungle in there ? and I?m still just talking about your closet, not even what goes on inside dressing rooms. Pantyhose are tangled and spilling onto the floor. Party clothes, dormant for months, have collected an inch of dust on their shoulders. Plastic dry-cleaning bags are threatening to take over and keep you from seeing the good stuff. And no matter how full that closet is, you still don?t have anything to wear. You know where you are? You?re in fashion hell. Oh, you thought maybe you just got lost at the mall, but no, the red flames of despair are beginning to lick at your precious feet. The problems started out small. They always do. You left for work knowing full well that the hem on your skirt was falling out, but you thought, ?Oh, if I can just make it to the office, I?ll get double-sided tape from the supply closet and try to make it stay up!? But guess what ?when you got there, there was none! Your best client, perfectly coiffed, was due in 10 minutes. And you felt crummy all day. Or maybe you?ve just said it?s ?shyness? that makes you turn down every social invitation, but secretly you know how to dress only for work and for washing the car on the weekend. You have no idea how to dress for ?fun? events, and you don?t want to show up in something inappropriate and blow your cover as a successful professional. Or, perhaps your body has changed. It?s not the same shape it was before you started taking your heart medication. You don?t want to accept this fact, so you walk around all the time in things that hardly fit and tell yourself that you just don?t care about clothes ? but the truth is, you care deeply! You just feel too paralyzed to figure out what to do with this dilemma. You hate your body for being different. And it?s just too much to take. Beads of sweat roll into your eyes and you can?t see straight. You?d like to escape, but what are you going to do? Go running through the streets screaming, (And if you do that, what will you wear?) Well, hold onto your panties. There is a way out of this fiery pit. Fashion Heaven is close at hand, and if you take my hand, I?ll lead you through the valley of good clothes gone bad, where you will find the green (in the shade that looks best on you) pastures where peace and joy prevail, where problems with clothes disappear, and where. When you get dressed you feel radiant every day. I know the way, and I promise to get you there. You won?t be tempted by sale prices that turn out to be no bargain at all. You won?t postpone talking care of your wardrobe needs until you drop a few pounds. You?ll look forward to social engagements because you?ll have the right outfit for each occasion. You think I?m fibbing? I?m not! I?ve helped good women just like you who found themselves in fashion hell. They wrote me postcards. See if any of their problems ring a bell for you.

Customer Reviews

Cute & entertaining, not very useful
I expected more from this book, but it's really little more than a "greeting card" sort of book- full of cute drawings and cute little sayings encouraging women to feel good about themselves and wear what they really like. No revelations about fashion, body type, or style, and actually very little of any substance. Nothing that a woman with an ounce of common sense hasn't already figured out. You get more actual fashion advice from the average Oprah magazine.
(And oh by the way, when Eleanor Roosevelt said "You must do the thing you think you cannot do", I doubt she was talking about trying on tops.)
In a nutshell- don't buy this book! Borrow it from the library or from a friend, read it (takes about a half hour), and then return it, congratulating yourself that you didn't spend money on it.

Don't change your religion
This book attempts to be cute with its'"I saw the fashion light"theme but in reality it is only annoying(like having prosletyzers at your door). That said,it offers very little information that would not fit on the back of a postcard.A great deal of trite stuff about loving yourself and cleaning out your closet.A waste of money