In June of 2013, I relocated from Southern California to Manhattan and promptly had to get serious about my fall and winter wardrobe. For the past twelve years I’ve been living the SoCal life. Translation: I didn’t have any cold weather clothing. Enter Phillip Bloch’s The Shopping Diet to get me on track and assist in an entire closet overhaul.
When I picked up The Shopping Diet, I pretty much knew what to expect. From Nina García to Tim Gunn, I’ve read almost every fashion book and fashion how-to out there. But this one is different. It’s an overhaul of your mind, body, spirit, AND closet. The spring collections of Burberry, Gucci, and Marc Jacobs may have you drooling, but by the time you are done reading The Shopping Diet, you will have some kind of handle on your shopping addiction. Or at the very least, you will know why you are so obsessed with all things fashion.
Bloch starts out with a scan of your current state of mind. Through a series of questions and journaling exercises, you will narrow down the reasons you overshop. Throughout his fashion stylist career, Bloch has discovered the four basic motivations for overshopping: childhood habits, the opposite sex, low self-esteem, and competition.
After your fashion come-to-Jesus, you’ll move on to discovering what your style is and what style works best for your figure. Next up—the closet cleanse. This section has excellent questions and advice on what to keep and what to discard. Bloch also dishes critical tips on what is and isn’t a good candidate for alterations.
This is a fast, fun, and funny read. You won’t be able to get through the book without dashing off to your closet to commence the closet cleanse. Yes, it includes a lot of information you have heard before, but the difference is that it gets to the point, it’s easy to follow, and you will reread various parts of it often since it’s broken up in easy-to-reference sections. The Shopping Diet is a commonsense approach to fashion with a twist of insider information from an in-the-know celebrity stylist.
