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  • Published: 26 May 2015
  • ISBN: 9780698160767
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

Always Pack a Party Dress

And Other Lessons Learned From a (Half) Life in Fashion





Author of the bestselling I Love Your Style Amanda Brooks shares her personal stories, and sartorial highs and lows, from a life in fashion, with beautiful, eclectic, and inspired photographs throughout.

An authentic voice in the world of style and how-to books, Amanda Brooks, with her unique and enviable yet accessible style, has inspired thousands of women of all ages to find their own personal look and explore their identity through the clothes they love to wear.

In the past twenty years, Brooks has worked as a photo assistant for Patrick Demarchelier, a “gallerina” at the Gagosian Gallery, and at various fashion posts, before finding her dream job as fashion director for Barneys New York. Along the way—and wearing more than a few of the kinds of outfits we’ve all regretted at one point or another—Brooks has discovered the key to creating her personal style, combining influences as wide-ranging as childhood prep school, Grateful Dead concerts, contemporary artists, pop culture, and her current home outside of the fashion bubble, a farm where she lives with her family (and a host of animals) in England.

Brooks recalls her early career aspirations and explores the evolution of her own personal style in stories of successes and failures alike, and offers fashion and beauty tips and inspiring photographs throughout. Always Pack a Party Dress is a must-read for high fashion or street style aficionados. In this gorgeously produced gift book, Brooks shares her expertise and insider view with warm, candid, and witty prose.

  • Published: 26 May 2015
  • ISBN: 9780698160767
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 304

Praise for Always Pack a Party Dress

Praise for Amanda Brooks:

"In this wonderfully wise book, Amanda Brooks reveals the style secrets of unexpectedly elegant, singular women from all walks of life. It's candid, canny and cool, much like Brooks herself."--Anna Wintour

"I love Amanda Brooks' apartment and her eclectic mix of prints and textures. I love her clashing objects, her tons of books, the giant colorful paintings by her husband, Christopher Brooks, her family photos, family photos tagged by her friends, the wonderfully bright kitchen and her sublime dog. It feels like how life should be."--Garance Dore

"Amanda Brooks, her artist husband, two children and their dog live in a very chic estate in Oxfordshire. Amanda's home is just like her books, filled with memories, collections and tonnes of photographs."--TheSelby.com

"A patrician blond beauty, she looks as if she's ready to pull out an ostrich-feather fan and pose for the ghost of John Singer Sargent."--The New York Times

"Blessed with socialite status, a wardrobe to die for and a whippet-thin physique, Amanda Brooks is, as one W writer once put it, "a girl girls love to hate.""--W Magazine