Trinny and Susannah the Survival Guide: A Woman's Secret Weapon for Getting Through the Year

As a fan of the T&S shows, although the ones where they stand around having desperate (and badly dressed) housewives grovel at their feet is a little OTT, I was pleasantly surprised to find them stepping away from the sharp tongued wardrobe appraisal, for which they are infamous, to advise on other aspects of the hectic woman's life. As working women with husbands, kids, social lives (and a bank balance to juggle a little better than most) they are an authority in how to pack your suitcase, sun yourself with style and grab the bargains when they are still good buys not barrel bottom crap. I think, however, they skirt dangerously close to a lawsuit waiting to happen with this book. I would certainly never dream of putting Prep H cream on my eyes (something designed for the anus is going nowhere near my puffy circles) or giving frozen fruit to my toddler (something every health professional and baby book I have ever consulted seems to warn against) I would have much prefered T&S to stick to what they do best, giving the nation a dressing down for not dressing well.

Life saver (0/0 people found this helpful)

Great ideas for the crazy mother like me.
Time management for your all year round.
Tips on cloths, travelling children.
Really good book.
Could not put it down.

Bland and Ultimately Unhelpful (4/4 people found this helpful)

I'd like to first say that I'm a fan of T&S, mainly because they have had good tips in the past and are usually spot-on with their advice. I've bought several of their books as gifts and this was the first book I purchased for myself. Having recently come out of a pregnancy, I put off shopping for clothes, waiting to read through what T&S had to say in terms of clothing tips in their new book.

The Survival Guide gives tips that most average women would have already known from the internet, magazines, or common sense (household tips such as checking to see if your fairy lights are working, lighting candles to relax, etc --come on, who doesn't know this already?). Also, although women in Europe, USA and Canada have access to their show and printed material, their content remains all-British --nothing particularly wrong with that, but perhaps a turn-off to women who don't live in Britain and therefore lose out on about 60-70% of the content of this book. A case in point is their "fabulous internet directory", of which I found two shops in the UK that deliver internationally. So even if I wanted to follow their advice of what to best get in each shop, it's all a big tease if such shops are inaccessible out of the UK. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be The British Woman's Survival Guide?

I was most disappointed in the weakness of their fashion advice which barely goes beyond simple recommendations for women who are big-busted, OR short, OR wide-shouldered... this is way too general to actually help a woman "survive"; there is hardly a woman who can dress according to only one category. Most of us are a mixture of "trouble spots" and T&S's shows have demonstrated that time and again. For example, if I have no waist I'm meant to wear something more tapered to give the allusion of one, but having a big bust and wide hips means that something tapered may place greater emphasis on areas I'm trying to conceal. If I follow the advice (usually no more than a sentence underneath a photo of clothing we can barely see the details of), it's only to be thrown off track by the next piece of advice that also pertains to my body shape. Let's take the advice on trousers... if you have a big bum you may do well to wear a wide waistband (thereby cutting your bottom in half); so far so good. If you also happen to have short legs, you find that cutting your bottom in half may actually make your legs appear shorter, and perhaps you'd rather opt for trousers without a waistband at all. Hmm. But then, if I'm not too confident about the tummy area, I'd be better off with deep waistband trousers (of which a dark coloured example is given so that you can't even see what that supposed waistband looks like). Where does this leave the reader?

OK, so I'm supposed to have a personality of my own and try to work out these tips in a combination that will work best for my body and style. But my point is that in the time that it takes me to do so, wouldn't I be just as good in going to the shops, having a general idea that skinny jeans in white are not going to do it for me? Is a survival guide not meant to help you survive rather than be more confused than ever?

For general entertainment purposes, this book will do well in my guest bath. For the practical advice that I was counting on, this was a big disappointment for me.

Súper bonito & recomendable!!! (4/13 people found this helpful)

El libro está súper bonito y muy bien organizado. A pesar de que no es exactamente un libro enfocado 100% a moda, sí está bien documentado en aspectos como cirugía estética, primeros auxilios, así como el capítulo que dedican a "goals". Una desventaja que encontré es que es un tanto local, porque hay cosas que no aplican a México (high street shops, por ejemplo). Uno de los tips que más me gustaron es acerca de organizar la muda de ropa una noche antes, para evitar andar perdiendo el tiempo en la mañana en decidir qué ponerse. Súper recomendable!!!

Everything you need (2/3 people found this helpful)

Great book. My best bits were the no-nonsense guide to the high street shops, shopping while abroad, and what to wear for your particular body shape. Makes a change from "what not to wear". Ladies pressed for time will appreciate a million valuable tips for keeping not just your wardrobe organised, but also your time, parties, home, children and lots more.

Trinny and Susannah the Survival Guide: A Woman's Secret Weapon for Getting Through the Year

Susannah Constantine, Trinny Woodall

Reader Reviews:

T&S overstep the mark (1/1 people found this helpful)

Life saver (0/0 people found this helpful)

Bland and Ultimately Unhelpful (4/4 people found this helpful)

Súper bonito & recomendable!!! (4/13 people found this helpful)

Everything you need (2/3 people found this helpful)

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