Review: City of Style - Exploring Los Angeles Fashion from Bohemian to Rock by Melissa Magsaysay

Los Angeles style is something a lot of people are familiar with, since a lot of celebrities embrace the different styles in LA whole heartedly. But what separates the style in Los Angeles from other cities in the States, or the fashion in Europe? That's what former WWD editor Melissa Magsaysay tries to explain in her book City of Style - Exploring Los Angeles Fashion from Bohemian to Rock. And I must say this book was a very interesting read, even though I have never seen myself as someone who strives for a typically LA sense of style (not being from LA, I mostly associated it with Nicole Richie, whom I like, but whose style might not work that well in my day to day life, and surfers, to be honest).

Because there are so many typical LA styles to choose from, first of all!
The styles presented in the book are called Romantic Bohemian, Glamour, Skater and Surfer, Rocker, Chola-Style, Indie-Eclectic, and Casual Chic, and they are all explained pretty thoroughly and Melissa Magsaysay also shows real people who fit the descriptions, and interviews them about their style, which makes the book a nice combination of interviews and Melissa Magsaysay's own thoughts.

If you are going to LA, you will also find a lot of useful shopping tips on where to get some covetable items in the book, but I didn't read those parts as carefully, since I am not going to LA any time soon, as far as I know.
Several celebrities and designers have their say in the book too, including Monique Lhuillier, Trina Turk, Georgina Chapman and Cynthia Rowley, just to name a few.

I quite liked the book, but I must admit I found some of the chapters a bit too lengthy and detailed, which is not that common when it comes to fashion books. So if you think most other fashion books are too shallow, you might find this book really interesting, but some of the chapters seemed a bit boring for me for this reason, I am afraid.

I do like that Magsaysay's passion and love for LA fashion really shows throughout the book though. And she's not even a LA native herself!

So I would recommend this book to anyone interested in LA fashion in particular, but if Melissa is thinking of writing another book, I would highly suggest shorter chapters or breaking the chapters up somehow.