View source for Style Guide: Fashion From Head to Toe by Natasha Slee and Becca Stadtlander

{{infobox2
|title=Style Guide: Fashion From Head to Toe
|author=Natasha Slee and Becca Stadtlander
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crafts
|summary=A colouring book suitable for adults and children (once they're past the 'scribble on it' stage) which looks at fashion through the ages and is gently educational.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=No
|pages=72
|publisher=Wide Eyed Editions
|date=October 2015
|isbn=978-1847807342
|website=http://www.natashaslee.com/
|aznuk=1847807348
|aznus=1847807348
|cover=1847807348
}}

In ''Style Guide: Fashion from Head to Toe'' we have a guided tour through fashion from the eighteen nineties to about 2010, taking a decade or so at a time and exploring several aspects of each decade.  For instance the period 1890 to 1914 is divided into ''The Belle Epoque'', ''Out and About'' and ''The Orient''.  Each division has a picture to be coloured but rather than being a picture of ''one'' garment, there's a montage of garments and accessories from the period: ''The Orient '' has eight different pictures - of the triangle bag, a fur-trimmed shawl, kimono, pleated gown, a folding fan, a Ballet Russes costume and slippers and finally a turban.  On the reverse of each picture is a key.  The article is numbered on the main picture and in the corresponding key you'll find some historical information and some colour details.

The paper is of good quality and I didn't experience any bleed-through to the reverse of the page, which can happen with cheaper papers.  It's also easy to remove the pages for framing or mounting - they pull out quite neatly and I didn't even have to resort to a craft knife.  The colour details in the keys are not mandatory and you can let your imagination run wild - or accept that you're limited by your own range of colour availability.  It's about having fun and creating something which pleases you rather than having to conform.  You need enthusiasm rather than a lot of skill.

The gold foil cover is attractive but really neither here nor there other than to make it stand out from the increasing crowd of colouring books on the market at the moment, but a useful addition is the mill-board back which means that you don't necessarily need to have a firm or flat surface to work on.  There's hours of fun to be had from the book and it's not restricted to either children or adults.  I think everyone would appreciate the fact that it's gently educational without in any way feeling like a textbook.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

If this book appeals then we can recommend an earlier book in the same series: [[Field Guide: Creatures Great and Small (Field Guides) by Lucy Engelman]].  You might appreciate [[Snapped by Pamela Klaffke]] but we had our reservations.

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[[Category:Children's Non-Fiction]]
[[Category:Natasha Slee]]
[[Category:Becca Stadtlander]]