This is a book that combines fashion journalism (the author was a writer for Vogue) with personal memoir, with much focus on the author's mother and now-dead sister.
While entertaining, and at times touching, this is a book that doesn't seem quite sure what it wants to be. The fashion writing is snappy, and would interest any fashionista. The family memoir is touching, with Picardie's love for her sister and complicated feelings for her mother shining through. However, the attempt to meld both ideas doesn't quite work, and the author's attempt at delving deeper into the psychology and sociology of fashion and clothing don't work: it is as though she went and read a few text-books one weekend to try and make her book seem 'more smart'.
Probably a book of interest for the fashion-readers amongst us and not many others. ( )

Individual bits about items of clothing in the course of the author's life. Some work better than others. Worth reading, pick and choose as you go. ( )