Carson Kressley - Does This Book Make My Butt Look Big?: A Cheeky Guide to Feeling Sexier in Your Own Skin & Unleashing Your Personal Style

CARSON KRESSLEY

with Riann Smith

A CHEEKY Guide to feeling Sexier in Your OWN skin and UNLEASHING your Personal Style

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To mom, and every style-seeking woman in the universe, who lives large, loves herself hard, and tszuj wants to be fabulous

Me with shoppers at a personal style event I hosted at the New York & Company boutique in Los Cerritos, California. Looking good, girls!

HI LADIES! ITS BEEN A LONG TIME too long! How the heck are you? Well, I finally dusted off my laptop (I was using it as a chic little breakfast-in-bed tray) and birthed this insanely witty style tome, just for you. Like other timeless classics, from War and Peace to Fifty Shades of Grey, it promises to be an absolute page-turner. Consume it la carte (hold the dressing!) or gobble it up in toto. Because, Toto, were not in Kansas anymore! Or maybe we are? I happen to adore Kansas!

Heres the real reason why I wrote this book: I genuinely want to know if you think it makes my gluteus look maximus. Okay, Im just jerking your chain belt; maybe thats not the only reason. See, theres this little thing that happens to me just about every day of my life, everywhere I gofrom L.A. to N.Y. and every small town in between. Women stop me on the street, asking for fashion advice or begging me to make them over. Sometimes they just want a hug. (God, can you imagine how lucky Id be if I wasnt gay? Bow chicka wow wow ) This phenomenon actually started much earlier than youd think, when I styled my big sister for prom night. I felt a deep sense of pride for my aesthetic sensibilities: Sis might not have been named prom queen or gotten lucky without my help! To this day, I love spending every waking minute making people look and feel better. I cant help myself. And I want to do it with you, right here, right now. Can you pencil me in? You better.

With decades under my Herms belt working with high-profile clients all over the world, styling for top companies like Ralph Lauren to Neiman Marcus to Macys, starring in and hosting countless TV and award shows, winning an Emmy, writing a best-selling mens style book and a pretty darn fabulous childrens book, spending time with God (Oprah), and designing my own fashion lineI knew it was high time I shined some positivity on the complex cocktail of women and that ever-elusive idea, personal style. But heres what: Lately, Ive noticed things have been starting to get a little, well, stressy. Never before have we been bombarded with so much pressure to look better, dress better, shop better, Instagram our toenail art better. From flash sales to department-store doorbusters, from celebrity blogs to boob jobs on reality TV, the modern world is a virtual self-betterment bonanza. And the more choices we have, the more daunting the process becomes. I started asking myself, in this sea of style confusion, are women even having fun anymore?

Ive been lucky to do zillions of makeovers on Oprahs show and network. O is the real deal, and she loves to laugh. She also smells like Santa Barbara lavender.

Like the question of whether extraterrestrials are among us or if Invisalign has truly lined up Tom Cruises incisors to perfection, I think the answer is not sure. Ive worked with thousands of women from coast to coast, though, and I know a few things for certain. Whether you live in Pacoima, Tacoma, or Tallahassee, you want to feel beautiful, confident, and sexy but dont know where to start. Sometimes you feel frustrated by fashion and cant figure out which trends to follow and which to flee so you dont bother at all. Between your family, your job, and your other commitments, you dont have the time, money, or inspiration to totally transform your look. And when it comes to how most of you feel about your bodies, you have more baggage than Air Japans international check-in counter. Someone pass me a Xany!

I know its safer to sit back and say youre too tired, youre too busy, youre too broke, youre too fat, youre too skinny, youre too married, youre too single, youre too this or too that to even care about evolving your style. Plus, its easy to let all the people and priorities in your life stand between you and your best self. Your kids, your boss, your beau, your Labradoodleall of them tend to get put first, which gives you a perfect excuse to do nothing. And even when you want to do something nice for yourself, from a blowout to a mani-pedi to browsing shoe porn online, a nagging voice sets in: Should I really be using this time for me? Isnt there something more important I need to do, like finish my kids science fair project or reprogram our universal remote?

Lets couch-surf ourselves back in time together, back to that fabulous old LOral tagline: Because youre worth it. Remember how confident that voice sounded? Do you treat yourself like youre worth it? It sounds so simple, yet so few women really follow that mantra when it comes to themselves. But heres the honest-to-mod truth: If you dont prioritize yourself in terms of grooming and style, youre not going to harness that powerful version of you, the woman capable of running the show at work, in your family, and in your community. And then everything will go south, sweetie, and were not just talking about your derriere. The motto I live by is, All the worlds a stage; make sure you have the right costume, and thats much of what this book is aboutfinding it, claiming it, feeling your best self in it.

For me, that meant wearing a plaid polyester leisure suit to my first day of kindergarten. Whats your personal statement going to be? How do you want to reinvent yourself? Im not expecting you to know the answers yet. Sometimes all you need is a best friend (or zany blond fairy godstylist) to come in and say, Hey, lets figure this out together and have as much fun doing it as possible. Or, to shoplift one of my favorite Pinterest quotes, Lifes too short. Buy the shoes. Just think of how boring Imelda Marcos or Carrie Bradshaw would be if they were sensible!