WARNING: Lengthy post, scroll to bottom for summary.
Something a little different today - I'm bringing you a book review. I got Alexa Chung's book for Christmas and with so many mixed reviews, I thought I'd give you my own review, covering the good points and the points. Plus it is a gorgeous book to photograph.
First off, the cover is very pretty. It is a lovely pastel pink woven material, and the text is very limited and simple, making it the ideal coffee table book. However, I have found that with It, the look and feel of the book is of much better quality than the actual content.
The whole book is about Chung's style icons with a few tips and tutorials to life thrown in there as well. This makes it a little wishy-washy. She can be talking about how she looks to Wednesday Addams for style inspiration, and on the next page there could be some really deep talk about heartbreak. The content of the book is never really clear and could've been set out a little differently.
Saying that, I did like the random style icons, such as Wednesday Addams, Jeremy Irons and Mick Jagger. She wrote a lovely couple of pages about how she was inspired by the style of 60s and 70s musicians such as Jagger. It goes without saying that the photography in this book is beautiful, there are some really nice photos. The book also had some nice little extras that did fit in nicely with the book: a small playlist of 3 songs, a list of things you will and won't need at a festival, and there was also a page that looks like a photo-booth print that has been torn in half - I thought this was a nice touch that made it unique.
The writing was a bit here, there and everywhere throughout the book, but when she moved away from the fashion and festivals stuff and starting writing about her heartbreaks, the writing gained it's own personality and it had a little more depth, cleverness and humour compared to the rest of the book. This really only lasted for a few pages, but my favourite paragraph was definitely the one where she writes about googling 'how long does heartbreak last?', and finding the more popular result was 'how long does heartburn last?'. She ends this section by saying "heartbreak hurts way f***ing more than acid reflux ever could." I liked this, it was clever and made me chuckle to myself.
My main complaint with this book has to be that there were lots of nice ideas, but most were very poorly executed. She tried to do a kind of selfie tutorial, and it seemed almost pretentious to me. She also included lots of little sketches and drawings. These were very juvenile and dragged the standard of the book down - it would have been much better as a book simpled filled with style and life advice and stories with lots of beautiful photos. I feel she was half way there with this concept.
Summary:
PROS - Clever writing at times; beautiful photography and design; unusual style icons
CONS - Ideas badly executed at times; unnecessary, poorly done sketches
Before writing this review, I wasn't sure if I would recommend this book, but now I think I would. She has some peculiar ideas and thoughts and some funny stories. I think the editorial stage of this book was just a little overlooked. The way I see it: if I wrote this book, I would be proud - it's full of gorgeous photos, and some great stories and inspiration.
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment - I reply to all of them :)