Rachel Zoe - Style A to Zoe: The Art of Fashion, Beauty, & Everything Glamour

Copyright 2007 by Rachel Zoe

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Grand Central Publishing

Hachette Book Group

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New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com .

Originally published in hardcover by Grand Central Publishing.

First eBook Edition: September 2008

Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-446-54280-7

Designed by Joel Avirom and Jason Snyder

Contents

People are talking about... STYLE A TO ZOE

Rachel understands that everyone wants to look chic and alluring, to look real even if its in an utterly glamorous way. She really knows how to play with juxtapositionof eras, of accessories, of proportionsin a way that brings out personal style and looks like its so effortless.

Michael Kors, designer

Arguably the most high-profile stylist in the game gives aspiring fashionistas advice culled from years of dressing some of Hollywoods biggest stars.

Gotham

Offers insider tips on achieving red carpet style. Fashion heavyweights including Donatella Versace, Zac Posen, and Diane von Furstenberg also chip in advice.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

I think its important to allow yourself to play and have fun with fashion, and Rachel is so good at that. She helps bring out your inner style by guiding you through looks that draw from the classics, but are also so modern in every way. She has taught me so much about the power of accessories, too. I always have so much fun working with her.

Liv Tyler, actress

For women who want the encouragement to look and live more glamorously.

Denver Post

Shes become a red carpet fixture in her own right. The sprightly tome has loads of pictures of her famous friends but plenty of practical advice, too.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Find your inner fashionista... Zoes book is packed with celebrity images and backstage talk about star style tricks. But she tells readers to took at themselves first.

Kansas City Star

The celebrity stylist delivers every conceivable tip shes bestowed on clients such as Mischa Barton, Cameron Diaz, and Salma Hayek.

Las Vegas Review-Journal

why glamour?

Why not? Sure, as with fashion and beauty or any other aesthetics, the pursuit of glamour is not going to save the world. But lifes too short not to pay attention, get up an hour earlier and stay up an hour later, or even to be wide open to all of its amazing possibilities. Lifes too short not to take risks. To glam it up!

A life of glamour and style makes everything that much more electrifying, that much more engaging. Think about how we just cant get enough of the brightest icons of Hollywood, past and present. How much we consume stories and snapshots of the charismatic characters living it up in the fashion glossies or in long-ago-published biographies. Or how much, as children, we adored the petite lady living next door who appeared larger than life, a kind of Diana Vreeland figure, draped in incredible caftans and laughing that gregarious laugh.

Glamour can come in the form of a suggestion, a hintlike a pair of oversized sunglassesor it can appear in all its unapologetic glory, blinding bright from the pile of gold bangles on a bronzed wrist or at an informally chic dinner you throw for your friends at a favorite restaurant. It isnt about fashion. Its style. In my book, glamour is pure lifestyle.

My kind of glamour combines California ease with New York high life. It favors modern, even if its vintage. Its browned to a deep Bain de Soleil tan and best served up with a crisp glass of champagne. It calls for a measure of je ne sais quoi.

Yet style doesnt require gobs of resources, fiscal or otherwise. As a stylist who dresses some of Hollywoods most recognizable and engaging actresses, collaborates with fashion designers for their runway shows and advertising campaigns, and works with brilliant photographers on magazine editorials, its my job to know. As a lifelong lover of everything glamorous, its my thrill to share it with you.

dreaming is real

Even all grown up and a part of the global fashion machine, I still love opening a pristine magazine or book and getting lost in the stories and photographs of all the amazing parties and people featured. I study the images. I dream. I tear out pages out for later reference. I admit its a bit aspirational and inspirational. But its a personal indulgence that has obviously had its professional merits, too, in my decade and a half as a stylist.

The first four years of my career were a crash course into the world of clothes and celebrity. I was just out of college, where I majored in sociology and psychology. Naturally, I went right into fashion. I was twenty-one and living in the marvelously manic world of Manhattan, as the fashion editor for YM magazine, clocking in long hours, schlepping clothes from one part of the city to another, and coordinating shoots and readying starlets for magazine covers and models for editorial spreads.

I decided to break out on my own. Id already been styling all the teen heartthrobs of the momentactors, pop stars. I was the queen of teens. As it became increasingly evident that I could make in one week what I did in a year at the magazine, I decided to become a stylist on my own. It was absolutely frightening to leave the safety net of a corporate magazine, with its regular paycheck, benefits, and security. But I immediately started styling the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and Jessica Simpson (I met her the day she signed with Tommy Mottola; she was all of sixteen). The schedule was insanely demanding, but I was learning so much that it kept me going forward.

Four years into it, and feeling ready for the next challenge, I headed west. Actually, we headed to Los Angeles. My husband (and love of my life since we met, while waiting tables in college), Rodger, has always stood right there with me. We havent looked back.