Review: Off the Cuff, by Carson Kressley

I finished reading Off the Cuff, by Carson Kressley last night. It was pretty good.

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable when it comes to style. After watching every episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and reading magazines such as Esquire and GQ. Even still, Carson's book had some pretty good information in it.

Carson writes similar to the way he speaks on Queer Eye. He has that kind of gay kind of funny double endentandre references. His comments on the show are much wittier and snappier than in the book. There are points where this style starts getting in the way. After a few chapters, it begins to get a little old and you wish he would just give you the info and be done with it.

With such a book, I expected a lot more lists of "What to do" and "what not to do". The exclusion of which can either be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing. As a book of style, Carson attempts to educate the reader so that they can put together their own style and look the best that he can. It's not about a regiment or a molding process to make you look like him. In this vain, the lack of lists works very well.

If you're clueless to anything that relates to style, this is a very good start. It breaks things down in terms of clothing type, pants, shirts, suits, and explains each one in detail. It goes over why cashmere is great and why 50/50 sucks ass.

It's not a gripping book, but it's breezy enough that anyone should be able to pretty much skim through it and get the general gist of what's going on.

A solid 3.5/5. Not great, but a nice start.