A Life of Style: Fashion, Home, Entertaining

From: Introduction

After three decades in the fashion business, I needed to stop and understand why and how this thing called style has ruled my life with such tenacity. I live to design and create. But for me, designing goes beyond the actual design. I think of the world around the design—the environment, mood, ambience, emotion, and spirit—as attached to the creative process. I have always asked myself, How do we live with design? How does design affect our lives? How do the clothes we wear, the homes we choose, the objects of our life communicate to the world who we are? I think of the way we live not as lifestyle but as a life of style. And to think in these terms you can’t just look at the outside of style—you need to look at the inside of style. You need to understand the origins of how our style is derived, to appreciate why we love what we love.

And so I decided to put pen (and brush) to paper and start my own style journey. I needed to reflect on the source of all this love and passion. What made me develop into the person I am? How did my style evolve? Is style genetic, cultural, or life experience? I wanted to understand what my style DNA consisted of.

Was it Grandma Fanny’s plastic-slipcovered King Louis sofa? My mother’s forever un-matching chairs—and the incredible generosity in her home? Maybe a lifetime of old Hollywood films? My father, “the Cowboy”? Perhaps my first trip to Paris to meet Pierre Cardin? My first fashion show in Milan? My lavender bedroom in Secaucus? My first pair of hot pants? (Mom bought them at Bloomie’s.) Capri? The Catskills?

The answer to this very loaded question is all of the above and much, much more. Style is a reflection of who we are, where we come from, and what we have experienced—the good, the bad, and the indifferent. It is what makes us into the unique beings that we are.

Having the courage to ask ourselves what we love and why is to really begin the process of understanding our style and enhancing the way we live and communicate who we are to the world around us.

Living a stylish life is not about buying designer clothes or retaining the “it” decorator of the moment. Nor is it about money. To live a life of style is to live with love, to nourish the passion to dream, to keep the faith, and last, but certainly not least, to understand who we are and how to say it.

I hope the book you are about to read will inspire you to live a life of style, to find the splendor and love of the world around you, and to understand yourself and the beautiful uniqueness that you have been born with. Life is a gift that we need to celebrate every day. Celebrate your life by living with love, passion, and style.

The first book by a widely known and admired designer will cross categories in the bookstore to reach a style/fashion/art audience.

Style is a reflection of who we are, where we come from, and what we have experienced - the good, the bad, and the indifferent. It is what makes us into the unique beings that we are. Star fashion designer Rebecca Moses has devoted herself to crafting chic garments for stylish women world-wide. Underpinning her years of innovative design has been a series of questions: What is style? How does it evolve? And what can we do to develop our own style?

A Life of Style provides the answers. Consisting entirely of Moses’s inventive watercolors, which incorporate witty words of wisdom distilled from personal experience, A Life of Style encourages readers to draw upon and develop their innate style - traditional or modern, conservative or radical - and especially to cultivate the confidence to express themselves.

Rebecca Moses offers a style journey that is at once informative and imaginative. She persuades readers to listen to themselves and their instincts, to open their minds to new ways of thinking, and above all to search for inspiration. Once the style mind is engaged, she turns to fashion and beauty (“Don’t forget: We wear our clothes―they don’t wear us”), the home (“Creating a home is creating a world of your own”), and entertaining (“The best gift of all is the gift of relaxation and great pleasure”).

Above all, says Moses, style is personal communication at its most profound, most ingenious, most original. Style is not skin deep. It is soul deep. It is our most significant form of expression. It is how we communicate who we are to the world around us. It is our voice.

"Colorful bangles, Pucci head scarves, and eccentrically upholstered Louis XIV chairs all pop off the pages of A Life of Style . . . lush chronicle." - Vogue

"Both playful and thoughtful, Rebecca Moses brings a wonderfully light touch to her serious sense of style." - Anna Wintour

"Rebecca Moses’s A Life of Style is a charming personal analysis of that most elusive of gifts . . . style . . . and of how mysterious and captivating true style really is. Rebecca’s passion for all things design and her talent for illustration make this book a unique voyage into the life of a passionate devotee of the art of living!" - Vera Wang

"Thank goodness for Rebecca Moses new book, A Life of Style. When you're blue, this is the kind of book you need to read. Fashion designer Moses is a natural to write a book about style, or rather, a life of style." - The Peak of Chic

"A Life of Style has engagingly quirky watercolors surrounded by words of wisdom, phrases and sayings that will capture you instantly." - The Daily Basics

"Fashion, interior decorating, entertaining – they're all closely related, and no one knows this better than designer and style guru, Rebecca Moses. Her new book, A Life of Style, celebrates all three in a charming collection of inspiring quotes, helpful tips and whimsical illustrations." - Laura Flanagan, About.com: Interior Decorating

"Live and breathe a life of style? Let fashion designer and (who knew) beautiful watercolorist Rebecca Moses walk you through her colorful primer that prompts the rhetorical question, “What is style?” then proceeds to answer it with clever and really very wise musings on how we can develop that innate sense of style that lies in each and every one of us." - Paper City Mag.com

Artist and designer Rebecca Moses is perhaps best known for her eponymous fashion label. She also designs the Rebecca Moses Heart Soul Style fashion and home collections. This is her first book.